Teddy’s gaze searched my face. I allowed myself to be swept up in the sparkling blue of his eyes, the way his hair seemed permanently windswept, and the lilt of his lips as he smiled at me as if nothing else in the world existed. The spark hummed in my chest, buzzing like a firefly and ramming into my heart until that lit up, too.
I smiled back at him, tentative at first, wavering on the boundary between hope and despair.
“I’ve never stopped thinking about you, Margot Wade,” he began, every syllable immortalized in my memory. “Not when Iwas sure you hated me, and not when I made the biggest mistake of my life.”
Teddy reached forward and brushed a hair behind my ear, pulling me toward him in the process. I drew closer as a moth to flame.
“And then I saw you again, and all the years spent wondering fell into place,” he murmured, warm breath fanning across my cheek.
My pulse slammed against the base of my throat, his hand having taken residence at the back of my neck as the other settled at my waist. I needed to hear it, loud and clear. I teetered dangerously close to the cliff, finally ready to accept my fate after so long spent fruitlessly running from the inevitable.
The confession was destined to be my catalyst—the gust that would push me tumbling over the edge. I didn’t know yet if I’d fly or smash against the rocks.
“We’re like magnets,” he said. “We pull apart, but it’s never permanent.” He huffed out a laugh, more self-loathing than amused. “And what matters is, I’ve spent years kicking myself for letting you go.”
I swallowed hard, every muscle in my body screaming for him to keep going. “Then why did you?”
His hand dropped from my neck. He looked out over the empty field as if the answer might be written there. “Because if I didn’t, you never would’ve left.”
My throat tightened. “What are you talking about?”
“You got into NYU, Margot—your dream school. You were ready to defer, for me. And I couldn’t—” His voice cracked. “You had the whole world waiting, and I was terrified I’d be the reason you stayed.”
For a second, everything in me went still. The success, the paychecks, the name I’d built—it all shimmered like a miragecompared to the truth I’d been running from since I was eighteen.Hewas always my dream.
I was falling. Whatever happened next, I knew that Teddy held my entire heart.
Breathless, I whispered, “I thought you said everything comes out wrong around me.”
A wide smile appeared on his face as he dipped his chin. Just as our lips were about to touch, our foreheads collided, and I recoiled a few inches with a grimace. If he hadn’t been holding me, I would’ve doubled over with a burst of nervous laughter.
“Did I hurt you?” I asked, rubbing my head. There would probably be a bump tomorrow.
He tugged me closer. “I’m used to the Margot-hazards. Verbal or not.”
I rolled my eyes, but let him draw my lips toward his again.
Then, because the wordMargotwas now synonymous withhot mess, the heavens opened overhead and began dumping an amount of rain tantamount to an apocalyptic disaster. It pelted the bleachers like a chorus of windchimes, soaking our clothes in record time. Teddy’s gaze flew wide, lurching away to scoop the blanket and our drinks. I watched him, fingers curled over my mouth to hide my smile, as he frantically gathered our things and froze when he looked back at me.
“Your clothes!” He half-shouted over the rain, strands of hair dripping across his face.
I glanced down at the half-sodden fabric. “What about them?”
“Don’t you want to get back to the car?”
A ridiculous laugh burst from my chest, and I threw my head back, wet tendrils sticking to my cheeks. Teddy stepped closer, eyebrow raised as if he was concerned for my sanity.
I finished with a sigh and said, “Just kiss me, Teddy.”
He didn’t waste any time.
Dropping the bundle and our drinks, his hands shot out, pulling me to him as if he was the sun and I was the moon. I melted into his kiss, warm and familiar but different all the same. Beneath the crackling scoreboards, our shoes sticky with orange soda, I realized home wasn’t a place at all. It was this—imperfect, soaked through, and exactly enough.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Ihadn’t stopped smiling in twelve hours.
Or at least, that’s how it felt, because my cheeks hurt and every time I glanced in a mirror I looked like a grinning idiot.
