Page 78 of Rescue

She seems to deflate a little bit, but then her eyes land on our still-joined hands, and she grins. “Of course! You guys just started dating. Obviously you want time together.” She winks at me. “Especially when you’re going to be spending the night with us girls tonight.”

“Wait, what girls?” Daltrey asks.

“I know Daisy told you about our sleepover,” Paige says. “We’ve been planning it all week.”

“You’re taking my girlfriend away all night?” he asks, turning to the car. “Where is she? Dais?”

“It’s one night, Daltrey.” Karen rolls her eyes. “We’ll take good care of her, I promise.”

He doesn’t seem appeased, but when Paige motions for everyone to get in the cars, he follows. “We’ll drop you off on the way,” she tells me, but I shake my head. “It’s the opposite direction. We’ll get a cab.”

She shoots Lennon a worried look, like there might be rabid Ransom fans waiting in random cabs for him.

“Are you sure?”

“Definitely. We’ll see you at the concert tonight, okay?”

She brightens at my mention of our plans tonight. “Okay, see you then. Bye!”

Once they’re all gone, I direct my attention back to Lennon. He’s staring at the ground, frowning. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“You weren’t arguing while I was doing it.”

He sighs. “I didn’t really hear what you were saying until Paige was agreeing. Sorry.” He gives me a small smile. “I’m pretty out of it.”

“I think you’re tired,” I say, tugging on his hand so we can go to the corner to hail a cab. “Which is why we’re going back to the hotel to rest.”

“You sure you’re okay with that? I know you wanted to go up to Montmartre. You shouldn’t miss it because I’m zoning out today.”

I shrug. “We’ll go another time.”

“We leave Paris in two days, and we have the show tomorrow.”

“Well, we’ll just have to come back some day then, won’t we?”

He stops in the middle of the sidewalk, and I walk into him. Before I can steady myself by grabbing his arms, he’s pulling me into a kiss, his lips hard and insistent on mine. Without thinking, my hands go up to his hair. Something happens to me when he kisses me, even when we’re on a public street and I’m more than a little worried about his mental health. All that—everything—fades away when his lips find mine. There’s nothing but the kiss, but the feel of his mouth, the way he pulls me so close, as if he can’t get me closeenough.

“Sorry,” he whispers, pulling away, his breathing heavy.

“You don’t have to apologize for that.” I laugh, breathless. “Never apologize for that.”

He grins, his mouth only inches from mine, and I look into his eyes. They’re alight, intense, glued to my face. “I just really like that idea,” he whispers.

“What idea?”

“Us coming back here someday. I like that you’re thinking about somedays.”

It hadn’t really occurred to me that I was making some major statement about our relationship when I said we’d come back for Montmartre. It was just automatic, the idea that we’d still be together. In fact, it seems almost impossible for me to imagine a world without Lennon.

That should terrify me. I never get this way about boys, make it a point not to get this way about boys, not to let feelings like these influence my decisions. But looking into Lennon’s eyes, I can’t feel anything even close to fear. Not when he’s smiling like that, as if I made him unbelievably happy.

So I simply smile back. “I like thinking about somedays too.”

He kisses me once more, softly this time, and then we catch a cab back to the hotel and go to sleep in each other’s arms.

***

We meet the others at a café near the concert hall for dinner before the show. They all seem pretty tired from their day of sightseeing, and I’m grateful Lennon got some rest instead. “How was the little train?” he asks Cash, his grin snarky. He’s a lot more himself after our nap.