Page 145 of The Incredible Ordinary

I feel too much. Elated. Scared. Just right. All the way terrified. But determined. Dazed. Dizzy.

“Wow,” I say softly.

He wraps himself even more tightly around me.

“Yeah,” he says.

After that neither of us says anything for a long time.

MILÁN

“Favorite childhood memory?”Jordan says.

I absently cup my hand, scoop up water, and pour it over his arm while I think.

It’s the middle of the night, and we’re sitting in the bathtub. Jordan’s back is against my chest, his head resting on my shoulder.

I pour more water over his arm and watch rivulets run down his golden-brown skin.

“I was eight. My mother came and got me out of school early for no reason at all, and she asked me where I wanted to go for lunch. I picked Dairy Queen, and I figured she wouldn’t go for it because we never went to fast food places. My mother always had a deeply held distain for food that comes from a kitchen that doesn’t have at least two Michelin stars. Or back then, I think we were watching the Zagat score because Michelin stars weren’t a thing.”

He turns his head and kisses the side of my neck. “Snobs,” he says with a grin.

“You have no idea. But that one day, I asked for Dairy Queen. And we went. I had an Oreo Blizzard, and she had a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard, and we talked and switched ourdrinks, and she wasn’t in a hurry. She listened to everything I had to say. Really listened.” I slide my fingertips up his forearm. “What’s yours?”

We’ve been going back and forth like this for a while. All our walls are down, and I can’t get enough.

A part of me is starting to suspect I might never get enough.

I don’t know what to do with that.

He hums thoughtfully. “Camping trips to the beach. We took one every summer. We’d pack a few days’ worth of supplies in the back of the car and just randomly drive until we found a nice enough spot and settle in.”

“That sounds nice,” I say.

“Have you ever been camping or was it just expensive trips abroad for you?” He grins at me.

I shake my head. “Never been camping.”

“I’ll take you. If you want. Us and the boys?”

I smile back and kiss the side of his head. “Yeah?”

He nods against my neck. “It won’t be the Ritz, exactly.”

“But pretty close, right?”

“Oh, yeah. Minus some marble. But otherwise, the Ritz-Carlton and the great outdoors? Practically one and the same.”

“Good to know.” I blow out an exaggerated breath of fortification. “Then I might be able to make it out alive.”

“I believe in you.”

I laugh.

I can’t wait.

I don’t know what to do about that either.