Page 61 of The Summer Plans

Cupping her cheeks, I press my lips to hers. Her hands slide up my chest and wrap around my neck, and even though she’s kissing me back, her lips are tight, so I pull back. “Fine, go brush your teeth, but then you’re getting right back into this bed.”

She nods, hugging me tightly before leaping out of the bed. I follow her into the bathroom, slipping into the toilet closet to take care of business before washing my hands and joining her to brush my teeth. The domesticity of the moment feels monumental, and I can’t stop staring at her in the mirror.

Then I follow her into the bedroom and track the sway of her hips and ass as she climbs back into bed.

I chuckle as I climb in after her, lying on my back. “Feel better?”

She nods as she slips her leg over my thigh and nuzzles my chest. “Yes. I was so exhausted last night I slept on the wrong side.”

“Before this goes any further, I want to talk to you about something you said the other night.”

She blinks up at me, and I can’t read the expression on her face. “What did I say?” Her voice is soft and sweet, but there’s a hint of nervousness there.

“It was on your birthday.”

She gives me a quizzical look. “What did I say on my birthday?”

“You might not remember, and I know you weren’t in control of your facilities, but it felt like it came from a place of truth.”

“Oh.” She gets quiet as the lapping waves fill the silence.

“It’s about what happened back in high school.”

She buries her face against my chest. “Do we have to?”

“If we want to move forward with whatever this is, then I think we need to.”

“I know you’re right, but I don’t want to ruin the mood.”

My fingers trace circles on her back as the warmth of her breath tickles my skin. “So these are mood-ruining feelings, huh?”

“Probably.”

She shifts against me trying to slide her leg off mine, but I lean over and grab it, shifting under her so we’re laying face-to-face as I hike her leg up to rest on my hip. “Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”

“I don’t think it’s a secret that I had a crush on you back then.”

“Are we talking ‘doodling your first name with my last name on your notebooks’ kind of crush?”

“Maybe.”

I hook a finger under her chin and tilt her head, forcing her to look at me. “For what it’s worth, that week we spent after that disaster of a first kiss was the happiest I’ve ever been with anyone.”

Her nose scrunches. I’ve noticed it does that when she’s confused. “Then why did you dump me?”

“I didn’t dump you.”

“Umm, I was there. I remember it like it was yesterday. You told me that we shouldn’t do this anymore because it would upset Raven.”

“Right, but I didn’t dump you. I never asked you out, so I couldn’t end something that never technically started.”

The look she gives me cuts me to my core. Years worth of anger, hurt, and sadness. “Is that the hill you want to die on?”

When I open my mouth to speak, she cuts me off.

“I don’t think I’ve ever gotten over what you did. That was my first kiss, and I felt like I’ve been chasing the high from that kiss my entire life. You probably think I’m pathetic⁠—”

“I would never think that.”