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“Maisie, that dress looks so stunning on you,” Mom gushed, stepping into the room. She picked up my hand and drew me to my feet. Jozie had accurately predicted it; tears filled Mom’s eyes. “My little baby. I can’t believe it’s your senior year. Soon it’ll be prom, and then graduation… Oh, and your valedictorian speech!”
Even though the attention made me a bit uncomfortable, especially with my friends bearing witness to Mom’s antics, I found myself smiling under her watery gaze, feeling seen. This time, her tears were for me. “Get ready for me to practice it, like,allthe time.”
“And this time next year, you’ll be off to college, too,” Mom went on, and she seemed to realize how dramatic she was being. Frantically, she swiped at her eyes. “I’m fine, I’m fine. Look away.”
I reached out and patted Mom’s shoulder. “You’ve got me for a while.”
Once more double-checking that my laces were tied, I looked at my reflection in the mirror. My dark hair was loose and wavy. My lips were pink with gloss. With happiness in my eyes, I just waited for my football player to get here.
And not even a second later, his face appeared over Jozie’s shoulder in the hallway. “Is this where the party’s at?”
We all jumped when Connor’s voice interjected, and my heart immediately jumped into my throat, especially because he had a total view of my messy, pre-homecoming-cluttered bedroom. Rachel had left the can of hairspray uncapped on my dresser, and there was some form of eyeliner stick or foundation bottlesomewhere.
But holy, he lookedamazing.
And everyone was totally smitten.
I, though, had the good graces to be embarrassed by literally every girl in the room staring. “Jozie! You were supposed to be on boy duty!”
“I didn’t think he’d sneak in like a spy,” she said with a chuckle. “Connor, good to see you again.”
Ava surged forward and grabbed Jozie’s wrist, drawing her back out into the hallway. “Hey, will you come take some pictures in the living room? My mom will probably say she didn’t get enough earlier.”
“Of me too!” Rachel followed after them, shooting Connor a sweet smile. “Love the tie.”
“Get ready,” Mom said, glancing between us with her hands clasped in front of her. “I’m sure between me and Ava, you’ll be posing for pictures all night.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Connor grinned down at her, and once the peanut gallery had dispersed, I could finally get a better look at him.
Since I didn’t know what color my dress would be until this morning, I’d told Connor to go with a plain black tie, and he looked drop-dead gorgeous in it. He didn’t style his hair, and it fell in its normal loose waves. His hair was a bit like my sneakers—though we were dressed up, we had something that was us.
Connor’s eyes roamed over me in a way that made my toes curl, like I was the prize he’d been waiting for. “Passable?” I asked, flaring my skirt to the side.
“You’re perfect.” He came close enough to rest his hand on my waist, and I leaned into the touch. “Absolutely perfect.”
I pressed a soft, sweet kiss against his lips. “You know, I still have your sweatpants,” I said, tryingnotto beam like a doofus. “I’m going to keep them, though. I guess I’m just a total creeper, hiding them away in my dresser.”
“Now I just need something to rememberyouby.”
I wrapped my arms around his waist, peering up at him. “You have me.”
Connor hooked a dark curl behind my ear and allowed his fingers to trail over my cheek, the exact same way he’d done once upon a time in the kissing closet. It still made my heart flutter. “I do have you, and you’re all I need.”
This time, he was the one to kiss me, with that one hand gripping my waist and the other delicately touching my cheek. My head swam with the sweetness warring the intensity, but I matched him touch for touch, kiss for kiss, wishing I could do this all day.
Connor pulled back with a slight gasp, his cheeks pinking. “We should probably go before they come looking for us.”
“Probably.”
He wound his fingers around mine, bringing my knuckles to his lips. “You know, I should’ve asked you to homecoming in a math-related way. Something like, ‘You’re sweeter than pi.’”
I cringed as I led him down the hallway, laughing. “My answer would’ve been different.”
“What about ‘You are the square to my root’? Would that work?”
“I see our next tutoring session needs to be on math-related puns.”
He gave my hand a squeeze.
