It almost feels like nothing has changed since the beginning of summer. We’re on the roof again, sitting side by side with our backs pressed to the chimney. The only difference from that first day to now is that it’s warmer outside. Everywhere our skin touches sticks together, but I have no intention of moving even an inch.
Something shifted between us over the past five weeks. She lets me hold her hand more often. Like when we jumped into the loch last week, then afterward when we lay on the grass to dry off. With her in her bathing suit, it was hard not to stare, but she was looking at me too. There’s an awareness of each other that wasn’t there before.
Her fingers slide over my thigh to intertwine with mine. My breath hitches and my body flushes hot all over. I bite my cheek and squeeze my eyes shut because I can’t always control the way I react to her. She’s bonny—hot even—and my body knows it. I study her, committing everything to memory. Her blonde hair is braided over one shoulder, and when she turns to look at me, it swishes against her chest. Her lips are a delicate pink, the same color as her cheeks right now, and her freckles stand out more after weeks in the sun.
She pins me with her warm brown gaze when I reach her eyes, and I can’t look away. “Can I ask you something?” she says, her voice soft and breathy, and the color in her cheeks darkens.
“Anything.”
“And you’ll tell me the truth?” she adds before biting her bottom lip between her teeth.
I nod and say, “Always. I’ll never lie to you, Avi.”
“Have you…” She exhales shakily. “Have you ever kissed anyone before?”
My eyes widen, the question taking me by surprise, and a tingly feeling zips through my bloodstream.
“Uh…” I lick my lips and try to keep my own skin from flushing hotter. “No, I haven’t.”
I haven’t been avoiding it or anything, but I don’t hang out with a lot of lasses during the school year, and there hasn’t been anyone I wanted to kiss. Or an opportunity.
Until now.
Because right now, I very much want to kiss a lass. I want to kissAvi.
“Have you?” I ask while tamping down the nerves I feel coursing through my veins.
She shakes her head, breaking our eye contact. And I’m not sure if it’s that I’m leaving or that I feel invincible up on this roof, but I lift my hand and gently grip her chin. Heat races through my fingertips and they flex against her skin. “Truth?” I ask, and she nods… “Do you want me to kiss you, Avi?”
I hold my breath, waiting for her answer and pleading internally that she’ll say yes.
She nods again and I don’t think twice.
I dip my head and press my lips against hers in a tentative brush. I pull back and our eyes catch, bright with excitement and the unknown. This is new for both of us.
This time it’s her who moves forward to bring her lips against mine. They’re soft and taste slightly of sugar from the biscuits we had earlier. I slide my hand back, cradling her face, and let my fingertips slide into the base of her braid. Her lips part on a breath and I get a little bolder, swiping my tongue along them. A zing of pleasure, of excitement, rushes through me. Her tongue meets mine for only a second before she pulls back, a shy smile on her face.
I’ve never seen this smile before, but it’s definitely my favorite.
“Promise you’ll come back next summer?” she says, glancing down to our hands.
“I promise,” I say, and her gaze sweeps back up to my face. I begin tracing small circles against her smooth skin, and it feels like a lifeline to this place I don’t want to let go of. “And the one after that, and the one after that…”
She presses her forehead against mine and says, “I promise I’ll come backeverysummer.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Avonlea – Now
Truth?
The word hit me like a ton of bricks the second it left Jamie’s lips and nearly knocked me off my feet—and to my death. I was attempting to work up the courage to tell him. The words hovered on the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t know what to lead with.Lennox is yours.You have a son. Wehave a son. Each version felt like a gut punch, none of them right.
Too much, too soon.
Not enough, too late.
You’d think him asking me for the truth would’ve been the perfect opening. He was literally asking for what I’m most terrified to give him, yet it only served to remind me that right now there’s nothingtruebetween us.
