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“Yes, butmyhappiness comes first, of course. You’d think with our twin-telepathy, you’d understand that.” Rachel let out a satisfied sound. “Besides, she was my friend first.”
They bickered about it, but it made my chest feel so light. This was another transition period, learning how to navigate the Manning twins without too many hiccups. Of course, hiccups would happen eventually. Rachel had to learn how to let her brother and her best friend have couple time, and Reed had to learn how to share his girlfriend with his sister. Until then, we’d keep having bickering contests, with me happily letting them hash it out.
Reed rested his head against the headrest and looked over at me, and despite the sibling squabble, his expression was amused. “We should walk home and let her drive the car.”
And maybe more importantly, Reed and I both needed to learn how to give up the desire of control and let thingsbe. In any aspect of our relationship. I had to say, though—we were doing pretty great at that so far.
I lifted my eyebrows at him. “Should we?”
“No, no!” Rachel slapped her hand on the console between us. When I turned around to look at her, she was pressing her palms over her eyes, angling into the backseat door. “You have five seconds. Five seconds and Iswear to God, I better not hear a sound, or I’ll hurl in the backseat. And you, Reed, will have to clean it.”
I thought Reed would brush it off, but he wasted no time in leaning across the console and pressing his lips to mine, and I had to swallow the gasp to keep Rachel satiated. My toes curled as Reed touched his fingertips to my jaw, and I hung my hand off his wrist, holding him there.
“Okay, that’s five seconds. I’m looking now. Hello? You better not still be—” Rachel let out a sharp sound. “You two! I swear! Stop kissing!”
Reed’s lips curled up into a smile against mine, and I knew I needed to pull away—to be considerate of my best friend who was probably trying to keep down her lunch—but I just wanted to memorize the feeling of him smiling against me. I wanted to remember how the tingling sensation felt forever.
Rachel wiggled her hands between us to shove us apart, and Reed’s laugh was a musical sound as he fell back into his seat. I bit down on my lip to keep from grinning, pressing a hand to my cheeks to cool it off.
“I’m deducting that from your day,” Rachel muttered, and the car rocked as she wiggled to the far side of the backseat door. “You get five less seconds of Ava time than me. And you know what else? I’m going to deduct the time it’s going to take to burn the image from my mind, too. That’s going to be, like, fifty years. Hope you look forward to dating when you’re sixty-seven.”
“It was worth it,” Reed said, and in front of the console, out of Rachel’s view, he offered his splayed hand to me. “Don’t you think?”
I pressed my palm against his, insides warming as his fingers curled around my hand. My cheeks were hot from the kiss, my lips still buzzing with it, but I’d never been happier in that moment. With my best friend behind me and my boyfriend beside me—myboyfriend—I was utterly and perfectly content. I looked at Reed, at the freckle beneath his waterline, at the sliver of skin where his collarbone was exposed, and smiled. “Totally worth it.”
* * *
