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It took all my strength not to reach out and touch her hair. Her face. Her lips with my lips.
A soft boom sounded outside.
Her eyes lit up again. “Fireworks.”
Fireworks. Right. “From downtown. We can see them best at the dock.”
She picked up her mug, slid on her shoes, and made it outside in a mere moment. I followed at her heels.
We walked to the water and faced the sky above town. A burst of red sparks exploded over the tree line. Blue and white blasts of color lit the sky. Crackling sounds echoed as the firework cascaded out of sight. Jillian sat on the dock. I positioned myself beside her and we tucked into our coffee. More bursts filled the night sky. Jillian’s free hand searched for mine. I found her looking at me. Light played across her face from the sky’s distant light show.
“Adam.” Her low breathy tone would have made me forget my own name had she not just said it.
She was close, so close, and looked at me like how she used to see me, in the before times.
But this wasn’t the before times. This was now. And I wasn’t about to waste this moment.
I closed the gap between us. My lips met hers and I knew in an instant by her eager response she’d been waiting for me to do exactly that.
11
Jillian
Adam tasted sweeter than I remembered, and I remembered a lot of things. The shape of his lips, the steady weight of his hand over mine. There was no hesitation in his kiss, no doubt lingering.
He angled toward me, leaving enough room if I wanted to move. He’d been like this all day. Accommodating. Watching for my lead.
I pressed closer. I caught his tongue with mine and breathed in his scent. The world closed around us until all my senses combined to accept and give in to this moment.
He pulled back and moved a hand into my hair. “You’ve never been more beautiful than you are right now.”
I had an emerging sunburn despite applying double doses of SPF 45, I wore no make-up, and my hair went to frizz after letting it air dry from my shower. But I believed him. Everything on his face told me he believed I was beautiful.
I chewed at my lip—bad habit. Adam placed a sweet kiss beside my mouth, landing it at the corner. “I kind of go crazy when you do that.”
“I wasn’t trying to bait you.”
“I know. That’s what makes it so enticing.”
I couldn’t help laughing. “You’re you but different.”
“Mature?”
“Maybe. Am I?”
“You’ve always been years ahead of me in the maturity department. It’s why…” He stopped talking and allowed the fireworks sounds to fill the air.
“Why what?”
“I didn’t think you needed me.” He traced his finger along my bare arm, sending shivers all the way up to my eyebrows. “You’ve never really needed me. I would have weighed you down.”
“Weighed me down—are you talking about college?”
He was doing that thing again where he tried to neutralize his expression. But this time, it was as if another force fought against him. His face hardened, then softened as he looked me full in the eyes.
“I never wanted to go to college. I’d considered it, but it never felt right. Everyone expected me to fall in line. Even I expected to. It’s why I went along with the plan. But reality hit and I knew I couldn’t go through with it. That’s when I realized you deserved better. You deserved more. I refused to be your dead weight back home.”
“You were never dead weight.”
