Page 71 of Highlands Summer Wedding

I looked at the phone buzzing in the rain, then at Max—water running down his face, those blue eyes.

I took his face in my hands and crushed my lips to his.

He made a low sound against my mouth, something between relief and disbelief, and his hands found my waist like he’d been waiting five years to put them there. I held him tight, the rain seeping through our clothes, and for one long moment I let myself stop thinking. Stop planning. Stop bracing for the part where it falls apart.

My eyes started to burn. Must be something in my eye again.

Dammit.

I broke away from the kiss.

Max reached for me. “Abby, wait… listen…”

“No, it’s just—” I said, turning my face away.

“You’re my best friend and always have been, but I also—” Max stopped. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s something in my eye. A midge or a…”

He cradled my chin in his hand and leaned closer. “It’s really red.”

“I know.”

“Look up.”

I looked up. He was so close I could feel his warmth as he examined my eye.

“I think you’re just crying.”

“I am not crying.” I gave him a weak shove.

Max grinned. “Are, too.”

“Am not!”

He rifled through his wallet and fished out a tiny plastic vial of eyedrops. “Let’s get thatmidgeout, and then we can continue this conversation.”

But as he handed me the drops, something else fell from his wallet.

A ticket stub.Second Chances.

I picked it up and turned it over.

June 18 stared back at me.

Our first date.

Later, our first premiere.

The date we’d planned to get married.

Then it was just another date on the calendar.

“You kept it,” I whispered.

“I never had a reason to throw it away.”

Neither of us moved. Rain blurred the faded ink.