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Before I can swoon over how amazing he is, Jason pulls me from the room, and I trail behind him all the way down the stairs and out the front door. Before we can step off the covered porch, I yank him to a stop.
“Wait, Jason. Natalia just cleaned today. Isn’t she going to be upset when we come back soaking wet and get the house all muddy?”
Jason waves the very valid concern off. “Please.
Natalia raised three boys, sometimes four if you count Aiden, plus she always had the house full of Mason’s and our rowdy friends. She’s seen way worse and loves it.”
Before I can protest any further, Jason’s fingers entwine with mine, and he tugs me from under the covered porch.
I squeal as the cold water hits me, but Jason is unaffected, laughing as he leads me to a spot in the middle of the lawn. My toes squelch in the grass, my hair hangs limp and heavy around my face, and my shirt plasters to my skin, but all those sensations disappear once Jason yanks me into his chest and wraps his arms around me. Now all I feel is his chest against mine—our shirts so soaked through we might as well be naked—and his palms rough and reassuring on my back. My stomach drops when his eyes, so beautiful and sincere, peer deep into my soul.
“You’re ridiculous,” I say when he starts swaying us side to side to a song only he can hear.
“And you’re beautiful when you look like a drowned rat,” he jokes, and I feign indignation.
He’s probably right, especially when I’m beside someone who looks like he should be wielding a hose and posing for an erotic firefighters calendar. The rain only enhances his sharp edges and sculpted shoulders, and even though it’s dark out, his eyes seem to shine extra bright.
But though I’m sure I do look like a drowned rat, I don’t feel ugly. In fact, with Jason here spinning me around and looking at me like there’s not a single other thing in the universe more important than this moment with me, I feel like the most beautiful person in the world.
We dance together, hold hands, jump through puddles, twirl each other around, spin in sync with the raindrops falling from the sky, and create random dance moves that should never see the light of day on a real dance floor.
“Are you cheered up yet?” Jason asks as he spins me and then, smoother than a man his size has any right to be, transitions the spin into a dip.
I laugh when he sweetens the deal by planting a kiss on the tip of my nose.
Still suspended hovering over the ground, I say, “Yes.”
Jason’s eyes narrow at me. “We can do better than that.”
He rights me and releases me, and I want to ask in what world is him letting go of me the answer, but he takes a few steps backward and holds his arms out toward me.
Bending his knees slightly, he gestures with his hands.
“Run at me.”
Did I hear him correctly over the rain? “What?”
“Run at me. I’m going to lift you, maybe spin you around a bit. It’ll be romantic as fuck.”
I burst out laughing at more than just the wordsromantic as fuck. Jason wants to lift me in the air suspended over his head with straight arms?
“Like the scene inDirty Dancing?” I ask, and his grin is so charming and confident I want to squish his face.
“Yes, but better, because we’re in the rain.” He curls his fingers again, summoning me. “Come on. The worst that happens is we fall, and I catch you and I still get to hear your laugh, so we have nothing to lose.”
I don’t doubt his ability to physically lift me—but I do doubt my own ability to hold my body straight,pluswe’re soaking wet and slippery.
“Don’t overthink it,” he orders, “don’t think aboutanything. Clear your mind and just be in this moment with me.”
He’s right. I’m still holding on to the tension from Brandon and Gia and Zia Stella and Dario. I’m way too stressed for a seventeen-year-old, and I’m sick of that constant crushing feeling that stops me from taking a full breath.
I blow out a breath and shake the tension from my shoulders. Jason must realize I’ve relented because he gets into position again, an excited yet determined look on his face.
“Ready?” I ask.
“Do it, baby,” he urges, and with that, I clear my mind and run at him.
I don’t even know what happens, but one moment I’m running at him and the next I’m suspended in the air, my arms out straight beside me, and the flood of adrenaline makes me feel invincible, as if I can conquer anything.
