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It just looked like a misshapen circle of stars to my eyes, but he said if you looked closely, you could see my smile.
“I remember,” I whispered, too choked up to say anything else.
“Do you see it?” Blake extended his free arm and pointed up at a cluster of stars. All I could see were random patterns, but I pretended to see what he saw. “Lucky Penny. One of the brightest constellations there is.”
“Blake…” His name lodged in my throat.
What was I supposed to say?
I didn’t do this—I didn’t bare myself to people. Let alone to the one person who had once known me better than anyone.
Then there was the complication waiting for him back home.
“Don’t, Penny,” he pleaded. “Not tonight. Can’t we just enjoy this.” His thumb rubbed circles along the curve of my hand. “You, me, and the stars.”
Finding comfort in his words—no matter how cryptic—I allowed myself to let go.
Right now, I wasn’t broken Penny trying to find the right words to say to the guy who had once been my world. I was just a girl lying next to a boy watching the stars.
Blake let out a quiet sigh as if he was about to say something more, but when his body relaxed again, I knew the moment had passed.
Maybe some things were simply too hard to say or maybe they were just better left unsaid.
Life had taught me never to take for granted the good moments because they always ended. And no sooner than we had laid down in the grass, Blake let go of my hand and rose to his feet.
“We should probably get back,” he said.
“Okay.” I avoided his heavy gaze.
The buzz I had felt earlier following him into the night ebbed away, replaced with a deep sense of unease I didn’t quite understand.
Was this his way of saying goodbye?
We still had a little over a week left before we both returned to Columbus. There was still time,
It was goodbye but not forever.
At least, I hoped.
The short walk back to the cabin row was awkward and stilted, and I fell into old habits, hugging myself tight as dread swam in my stomach. Blake seemed just as tense, his hands jammed in his cargo pockets and his hood still pulled up over his head.
The path started to widen much like the pit gnawing in my stomach. The old me wanted to flee back to the cabin, close the door, and hide away from the emotional turmoil warring in me, but the new stronger me—the woman I had become thanks to Camp Chance—didn’t want to leave things like this.
“Blake,” I paused and turned to face him. “I don’t want to—”
He closed the distance between us, taking every ounce of air with him, until we stood face to face. His eyes locked on mine, and he stared down at me, his gaze full of unspoken promise.
“I shouldn’t have waited so long to do this.” He reached for me, brushing along my jaw, sliding his fingers into my hair to draw me closer.
Leaning down, he covered my mouth with his own.
And I let him.
I let Blake kiss me and it was everything I remembered and more.
I didn’t just fall against him; I melted. His touch. The feel of his soft lips moving against mine. How did I ever let myself forget this?
Force myself to forget?
