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“A lot, huh?”

He pressed his lips against mine. “You’re all I think about,” he whispered.

I wasn’t sure if there was a normal time to wait for this sort of thing. But I loved everything I did with Jacob. I loved everything about him. Each day I fell more and more in love with him. We’d settled into this routine. We’d take turns going to each other’s houses during weekdays to do our homework together. And I’d always go to his house whatever weekend night there wasn’t a party, for family movie night. And we’d sneak away on Sundays to make out when everyone else was busy watching the Giants. “You’re all I think about too.”

He smiled. “I want to make your first time special.”

“Maybe we can make a whole thing of it. Let’s do it on Halloween. There’s like a million rooms at the Caldwell mansion.”

Jacob laughed. “I’m happy to wait another week, but I don’t want to have sex with Ginny Weasley. I want to make love to you. And I don’t want to do it in some random room at my grandparents’ house. I want it to be perfect.”

I felt my cheeks turning red. We were dressing up as Ginny and Harry for the annual Caldwell Halloween party. Even though Jacob looked much more like how I pictured Viktor Krum. “Then how about tonight? After the victory party?”

“How about we skip the party? I thought maybe we could drive out of the city.”

“Shouldn’t we get a hotel or something?”

“Um...I was thinking more of a picnic in the back of my pickup truck. Somewhere out under the stars.”

“It’s freezing.”

“It’ll be memorable,” he said. “And I promise to keep you warm.”

I laughed. “You’ve been planning this for a while, haven’t you?”

“More dreaming of it, really.”

I slowly nodded. “That actually sounds really perfect.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. But...I need to go to the party for just a bit. I promised Sophie I’d be her wingwoman.”

“For what exactly?”

“Honestly, I have no idea. I thought she was going to ask Eli out, but she didn’t think that would make Mr. Halifax jealous enough. I don’t know what her next move is. But she’s kind of...” I didn’t really know what to say. I could tell that Sophie was frustrated. But it was more than that. She was hurting. It was like her heart was slowly breaking every time Mr. Halifax ignored her. “I just don’t want to leave her hanging.”

“That’s fine.” Jacob slowly set me down. He pulled his varsity jacket tighter around me to help keep the cold away. “It’ll give you some time to warm up anyway. I’ll meet up with you at the party.”

“And then we’ll go for a drive.” I smiled.

He kissed the tip of my nose.

One of his teammates looped his arm across Jacob’s shoulders. “Great run, man.”

I walked off the field as the guys headed to the locker room.

Sophie caught up to me at the entrance of the stadium.

“So what exactly am I doing again tonight?” I asked. “I can’t stay long, because Jacob has this whole thing planned. So give me the rundown.”

“Oh, what kind of thing?”

I never kept stuff from Sophie. But recently, I was worried that my over the top happiness was wearing on her. Not that she wasn’t happy for me. I knew she was. But it was hard to put on a smile for your best friend’s love life when your own was in shambles. I’d know. I’d been doing it my whole life. “Nothing,” I said.

“Obviously it’s something.” She bumped her shoulder against mine. “Tell me. I’m living vicariously through you this year because apparently Mr. Halifax refuses to date his students.”

“You really want to know?”