I swayed in place, the butterflies migrating from my tummy to my chest. “You should’ve told me.”
“You’re my best friend,” Jamie murmured as his fingertips brushed mine. “And you were with Dalton, and I didn’t want to ruin things. I’d rather orbit you forever than get too close and destroy everything.”
That was Jamie—pessimistic at times, a worrier at others, and the most selfless person I’d ever met. I couldn’t imagine how painful it must’ve been for him over the years, watching me love someone else, then mourn the love of someone else. But it’d never shown. There was never any anger, or resentment, or bitterness—only steadfast, unwavering support.
My Jamie.
“You’re better than me,” I breathed, reaching my handup his chest and touching the warm side of his neck. I curled my fingers back further, glancing along the silky locks of his dark hair. His lashes fluttered. “If I’d wanted to kiss you the entire time I’d known you, I’d have gone crazy.”
I caught the barest glimpse of his dimple. “Patience isn’t really your strong suit.”
“No.” My fingers became a firmer pressure in his hair. “It’s not.”
And I pulled Jamie’s head down, bringing his lips finally to mine.
If I’d thought my skin sparked before as our foreheads brushed, it had nothing on the electric pulse that’d exploded through me as our lips met. Jamie didn’t hesitate, either, his own hands sweeping up to lay on my hips, the same way he’d done the night of Lydia’s party. All ten of his fingers held firm pressure, as if he was afraid I’d disappear if his hold was too loose.
And, holy crap.
Jamie was afantastickisser.
He’d kissed me a few times over the past few weeks—on my neck, on my palm, on my forehead and temple. None of them compared to the way he kissed my mouth.
There was an eagerness to his lips as they brushed along my own, and I could feel him try to tamp that eagerness down. I could feel it in the way his hands trembled, and the way I had to chase after him when he tried to hold himself back. It only had my heart expanding further in my chest, truly about to explode.
I curled my fingers tighter into his hair, deepening thekiss, showing him an enthusiasm of my own. I’d imagined kissing Jamie several times over these past few weeks, but none of those imaginations did this moment justice. None of them even came close.
Jamie began backing me up, causing me to stumble in my heels. I kicked them off, which severed our connection for a moment at the drastic height difference. I giggled as Jamie followed my lips again, and his own were curled up in a grin. The backs of my legs hit one of the tables in the library, the same one I’d perched on the other day, and with his hold still steady on my waist, Jamie lifted me up onto it. It didn’t help the height difference much, but Jamie spread his legs further, repositioning himself to be able to kiss me with ease.
Jamie hadn’t been my first kiss, but in that moment, I knew he was the last person I’d be kissing. There’d be no one else but him.
And I’d never, ever, ever let him kiss anyone the way he kissed me now.
My Jamie.
A shriek cut through the air of the library. “You’vegotto be kidding!”
Jamie and I separated with a gasp, turning to find the library door wide open and Nellie and Beck standing in the middle of the threshold. Nellie had her hands pressed over her eyes, but Beck looked at us, arm around Nellie’s waist, with the biggest grin on his face. They weren’t the only ones there, either. I could see Lydia poking her head into the doorway, with Dalton looming behind them. If Raelynn was out in the hallway with them, I didn’t see her.
I didn’t look at Dalton again. In fact, the only two people I cared about in that hallway were Nellie and Beck.
“Listen, I’m glad,” Nellie cried, still with her palms covering her face. “But—my eyes!”
Jamie straightened a little from the crouch he’d kissed me from, but didn’t move far. “We didn’t react this way when we caught her kissing Beck,” he mumbled to me, turning his back on the doorway.
“If I remember correctly, we cheered her on.” The tips of Jamie’s ears were red, as was the skin of his neck as it disappeared under the collar of his shirt. This time, I did reach out and press my fingers to the skin, basking in the heat there. “Quite rude of her.”
Jamie shivered a little at the touch.
There was still one more thing that I realized I hadn’t told him. “Is now a good time to tell you that I got into NYU?”
“What?” Jamie’s eyes widened again. “You got accepted off the waitlist?”
I grinned as I nodded, watching as sparkles literally filled Jamie’s eyes. He wrapped his arms around me and drew me into his chest, clearly forgetting about the audience we had in the hallway.
“Okay!” Nellie lunged forward and grabbed the door’s handle. “We—we’re going to talk about PDAlater?—”
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Beck called, just as Nellie snapped the door shut.
