My heart pounds, and my lips warm as they press against his mouth, pausing for just a second before he deepens the kiss. My whole body warms and aches to touch him. I want to wrap my arms around his neck, tangle my hands in his hair, press my skin against his.
But Jonah’s kiss is all he gives me. His hands stay rooted to the beach towel as if he’s trying to control himself. When the kiss ends, his face stays close, his forehead pressing against mine. He exhales softly, his eyes closed. My lips tingle, desperately wanting to kiss him again.
“You said something about starting over?” I whisper.
Jonah smiles and it reaches all the way to his eyes. “Yeah,” he says, reaching up and brushing my hair behind my ear. “We should start over.”
I sit up and hold out my hand. “Hi, I’m Natalie. I think we go to school together.”
He shakes my hand. “I’m Jonah. I think I’m your tutor.”
I laugh and he doesn’t let go of my hand, he just slides his fingers into mine and then pulls our intertwined hands against his chest. “Now that the introductions are over,” he says, bringing my hand up to his lips. “Can we kiss again?”
I grin. “That sounds like a great way to get to know each other.”
Chapter 22
I barely sleep at all. After our make out session on the beach, Jonah drove me home and kissed me goodnight. Now, I lay awake in bed replaying those few minutes over and over in my head. He’d grinned at me, his face glowing from the dome light in his Lexus. I had my passenger door open, my foot on the ground, but I wasn’t ready to leave the car yet.
“So,” he’d said after kissing me softly on the lips. “Tomorrow we go back to school.”
“Well, it is Thursday,” I said. “So that sounds about right.”
He grinned. “Will everything be different now?”
Now that we’ve kissed, he meant, even though he didn’t say it. I nodded. “Yes.”
“Is that a good thing?”
I could see the hesitation behind his eyes, the momentary panic that maybe our kissing excursion was a bad, bad idea. But after the few weeks I’ve had getting to know him, and realizing how stupid I’d been in liking some asshole like Caleb, I knew it wasn’t a bad idea.
It was a perfect idea.
“It’s a really good thing,” I said.
And then, because Jonah is not at all like Caleb and the other guys who treat girls like shit, Jonah had texted me goodnight.
I grab my phone from my nightstand and read it again.
Jonah:Goodnight :)
My heart floods with warm mushy feelings every time I read it. But now it’s almost one in the morning, and I desperately need to sleep so I have enough energy to stay awake tomorrow morning. Somehow, I manage to fall asleep, and before I know it, my alarm is buzzing and it’s Thursday morning, and it’s time to face another day at school.
As I’m getting dressed—and spending a little too much time on my appearance for Jonah’s sake—my phone beeps. I set down my flat iron.
April:Migraine… kill me… not going to school…
Me:Ugh, I’m sorry! Feel better!
I study myself in the mirror, feeling a little guilty at how relieved I am over April’s text. Not about her migraine—I feel horrible about that. She has this condition where she gets one about once a month, and it’s so bad she can’t function. She just takes these prescription migraine pills that make her feel sick and only reduce about half of the pain and she lays in her room all day with the windows covered to block out the sun.
That part makes me feel really bad for her, because it’s a terrible condition to have. But I’m also relieved because I didn’t know how to act around her today. I mean…I kissed Jonah.
How do you tell your best friend she was right and I totally like him after all the times I said I didn’t?
I’m totally not looking forward to hearing her jump around and sing theI Told You Sosong when she finds out. My phone beeps again.
Jonah:Good morning! Would you and April like a ride to school?
