“They’re beautiful.” I look down at the flowers, touching the petals and bringing them close to my nose. “Hibiscuses are my favorites. Thank you.”
“Nate helped me pick them out. You mentioned on the show that you liked them and …” He tucks his hands in his pockets. “I wanted you to have some for your house.”
“You’re the first person to ever bring me flowers.”
“I am?”
“A guy gave me a cactus once. Does that count? He’s also the same guy that FaceTimed his mother while we were on a second date and asked if the pimple on his shoulder was infected. We didn’t have a third date.”
“Come on. That would’ve been a fun story to tell the kids.” Sebastian follows me down the hall. “Did you have a good day?”
“It was long and stressful and my eyes hurt from staring at my computer, but, yeah. It was a good day.” A glance over my shoulder finds him watching the sway of my hips. “Even better now.”
“The bar is high. I’m going to have to pull out all the stops on our date, but it’s a good thing I come prepared.”
I might have challenged him on that a few months ago, but tonight?
Tonight he doesn’t have to pull out any stops. We could sit on the porch and watch the stars come out, and I’d be happy.
How in the world did we wind up here?
With the flowers in a vase, I grab my jean jacket and purse. Sebastian offers me his hand, and I take it. My heart flutters when he gives my palm a squeeze. When he pulls me close, pressing a kiss to my forehead.
“Should we get going?” I ask. “Are we on a tight schedule?”
“Sort of.” We walk to the front door, but he stops me at a row of photographs lining the hallway wall. “Look at these pictures. Is that aflip phone? My god are we ancient.”
“Senior year prom.” I tap the old photograph of me, Mia, and Harlow in our dresses. “I stayed for an hour then left.”
“You danced with Bradley Wentworth. I wanted to punch him in the face.”
“Because he danced with me?”
“Because he got some of your attention, and I was fucking desperate for it.” He moves his hand to the small of my back, helping me down the porch steps after I lock the door. “It worked out in the end.”
“Yeah.” I swallow down the lump in my throat. I don’t remember what Bradley Wentworth looks like, but I can describe every inch of Sebastian’s face in great detail. “I guess it did.”
We drive west. Busy lanes with traffic give way to a one-lane country road. Sebastian rolls down the windows, the breezewhipping through the cab of the car. I tie my hair back with a rubber band I find in the cupholder and smile when he takes my hand in his, kissing each knuckle.
I don’t know where we are when we finally stop. There are no signs, no other people. For as far as the eye can see, there’s nothing but rich blue sky and never-ending wildflowers.
“This is exactly how a horror movie starts,” I say. He cuts off the engine and unbuckles his seat belt. “Why are we nowhere near civilization?”
“Wait here.”
Sebastian jumps out of the car and pops the trunk. I don’t know what he’s doing back there, but I hear a thud. The creak of something opening then closing, the pop of a wine bottle before he opens the door for me.
“It’s beautiful.” All around us is untouched land. A landscape so vast, I feel insignificant. “It doesn’t look real.”
“It’s better back here.” He leads me to the back of the SUV. “When I thought about where I wanted to take you for our first date, an idea came to me. You’re so many things: Brilliant beyond belief. Funny. One of a kind. But beneath all of that, you’re a summer girl who loves to be outside. If someone asked me to describe you, I’d call you an endless sunset.” He gestures at the field and up to the sky. “Beauty in its most perfect form.”
Oh, no.
There’s that falling feeling again. It peeks out from the space behind my ribs, a word accompanying it this time.
Love.
Beautiful, magnificent love, and this is a fight I’m going to lose.
