“No, not yet.” She looked out the window. “But the rain is definitely picking up, so we should probably park somewhere before it gets crazy.”
James smiled back at her. “I know the perfect place, actually. It’s where I go when I need a break from everything.”
“Where is it?”
He winked at her. “It’s a surprise. Do you trust me?”
She felt her heart skip a beat. “Yes,” she replied, her cheeks blushing. “I trust you.”
Chapter 5
“Oh, wow!” Mallory’s eyes widened with awe.
Pulling into the small lot, James parked in the last spot next to the little patch of sand on the coast. The rain clouds were just starting to dissipate in time to show the many colors of the sunset that painted the sky. There were pinks, blues, purples and oranges. It was truly a work of art.
“Neat, huh?” he said.
“It’s stunning,” she agreed, beaming. “I never come to the beach when I visit in the colder months, but I should! And the snow on the sand is something else. How’d you find this place?”
“When I first moved back here,” James said, “and I was trying to find work and take care of my aunt, I’d take long walks along the water to clear my head. There was no better place to do that than the beach. Then one day I found this spot and just kept coming back whenever I needed to think or have a moment to myself.”
“Makes sense. It’s… it’s perfect.
“Yeah, I know. I’m not sure why, but this spot always has the best view of the sunset. Every time I come here in the evenings, I see something really beautiful.”
Mallory nodded, but when she looked at James, she realized he was staring at her and not the sky. He smiled softly when their eyes met, and Mallory was overcome with a sense of warmth and safety—something she hadn’t felt for a long time.But before she could overthink, she leaned toward him, and James cupped her cheek tenderly with his hand.
“Mallory, there’s something I have to tell you.”
“What’s that?” she asked, her eyes searching his expression.
He smirked. “I had the biggest crush on you in high school.”
She chuckled and shook her head. “You did?”
“Yes,” he said, his cheeks reddening a bit. “It was honestly crazy how much I liked you. I didn’t go one day without thinking about you. And when you answered the door the day I came to fix your dad’s computer, I thought I was dreaming. That was the only explanation I could come up with.”
“Oh, whatever.” She scoffed, but she realized from the look in his eyes that he was sincere.
“I mean it,” he said. “I thought I might faint when I saw you. Luckily, I managed to keep my cool, and I didn’t totally scare you off...”
“Quite the opposite actually,” Mallory admitted, putting her hand over his. “You didn’t scare me off at all. Although I didn’t pay much attention to you in high school, you caught my eye the second I opened the door for you. And... since then... I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. Not for a single day, minute, or second.”
James rubbed his thumb along Mallory’s jaw, and his lips drew close to hers. “Can I kiss you?”
She nodded and he closed the space between them. Mallory’s heart fluttered—this was the love she’d been waiting for her entire life. It was the reason she’d kept searching and waiting, refusing to settle. Because she knew somewhere out there, the love of her life was walking around and that she had to be patient because one day she’d find him.
Turns out, she’d already found him. They had passed each other countless times in the hallway for four years of their young lives.
James was her person. It was so obvious to her now that she cursed herself for having missed it all this time. When they parted, she almost kissed him again, wanting to stay in that moment forever, but James brushed her hair from her face and then sat back in his seat. “As much as I’ll be kicking myself later for saying this, I should probably take you home. Your parents will start to worry about you once it gets dark.”
Mallory sighed, knowing deep down he was right.
“How about this?” James said with a mischievous look in his eye. “I’ll drive really slow.”
She grinned, took his hand and pressed a kiss to it. She couldn’t believe she could go from feeling so distraught and angry, to feeling like she was floating. But it was all his doing, and she had an inkling that if she let him, he would make her feel that way for the rest of their lives. “Deal,” she said, knowing she was looking into the eyes of the man she truly, deeply loved. “Drive really, really slowly.”
*
