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When we reached the massive yacht at the end of the pier, he guides me across the gangway.
“What are we doing here? Are we allowed?”
Hudson explains that the captain gave him free access to the boat for tonight to see if he would like it.
“If I say yes, we leave in a week, and I’ll be in the Keys for the rest of the summer,” he says.
My heart plummets.
“I’m gonna miss you,” I say, my voice suddenly scratchy. He’s going places. He’s going to get out of here and see the world, and I’m going to be stuck here in an RV park looking after my mother.
But not tonight. Don’t get down on yourself tonight, little girl. Just enjoy whatever it is that Hudson has planned.
“The captain gave me the keys and said to see how I like it, see if I could see myself spending that much time on the boat. I’d have to live on it unless I pay for my own lodging at the Keys. But depending on tips, I can always earn enough money for some side trips. Maybe go snorkeling.”
“I’ve always wanted to go snorkeling,” I say.
He brushes my hair from my face.
“Come on. I’ve got pizza, salad, popcorn, soda, and your favorite dessert.”
I gasp. “M&M salad?”
He beams at me. “Yep!”
Below deck, he has an entire spread laid out on a nailed down coffee table inside the boat.
I look at the bowl, and he’s indeed done it. He gives me so much shit about it, but I know he loves me. Regular M&Ms, pretzel M&Ms, peanut M&Ms, and dark chocolate M&Ms are all mixed together. It’s my one sugary guilty pleasure.
“I think I love you,” I say.
“Of course you do, dummy,” he says, ruffling my hair.
My skin tingles across my chest when he touches my hair like that. He’s done it a hundred times before, but this is the first time that I want him to do it again.
I’m so nervous I can’t even begin to think about eating that pizza. Then again, my stomach is howling with hunger.
I wince as I bite into the first piece, worried that it’s going to be extra garlic like always. To my curiosity and relief, no extra garlic hits me.
“What the heck is going on, Hudson? Usually, you show up to movie night in a hoodie and flip-flops. You’ve combed your hair, your shirt has a collar, you don’t smell like the marina, and there is no garlic on this pizza.”
He looks me deep in the eye and says, “I keep thinking that if I leave for the summer, how much I’m going to miss you. And it left a huge hole in my heart. Because you’re my best friend, and it would be a shame when I think it’s time to…”
I suck in a breath. “Time to do what?”
A stiff breeze rocks the boat—a jostling that’s far wilder than I would have expected on a vessel this size that’s tethered to the dock— and I fall forward right into his chest.
“Adalee,” he rasps, clutching my face in his hands.
“Hudson.”
And then his lips are on mine. Suddenly, nothing else matters, and everything is wonderful.
All day long I’ve been going back and forth about telling him how I feel. I’ve often fantasized about what it would be like to kiss him. I’ve wondered if he was a good kisser. I’d always assumed yes. But I had no idea.
He’s just, whoa. Hudson’s lips are solid and soft at the same time. There has been so much buildup to this moment all day, and yet it’s so simple. Simple as in, it makes perfect sense. Kissing him feels like we should have been doing this forever.
He pulls back from the kiss and looks me in the eyes.
