Page 45 of That Summer Feeling

“Exactly. And when he wasn’t appreciating everything, I’d just tell him again. ‘No, Mason. You don’t understand. She has several earrings in her left ear, and they all look great together.’ Earlier today he even said to me, ‘Damn. You really like this girl.’ And I said, ‘Yeah.Obviously.’ ”

I hated how little I could see of her through the darkness, because I wanted to drink in every detail of her face.

“You don’t secretly still love your ex?” I asked.

“No.” She moved in closer to me again. We were less than three feet apart. No standard-sized baseball bat could have fit between us. “You don’t secretly have even the smallest ounce of feelings for my brother?”

“Not a single solitary drop.”

“Thank fucking god.” Her breath blew against my cheek, sending a chill down my spine. Her hands found mine as she pressed herself against me. “Is this all right?”

“Yes,” I whispered. The warmth that had flooded me poured another layer of heat over all the spaces that were touching her. Our hands burned together, so much better than hands should feel. “I like everything you do.” She laughed against my skin. Just as her mouth neared mine, I dared to speak again. “But I hate that I can’t fully see you right now.”

She fell into me, not a deflated balloon but one that had expanded farther, charging up against my body. “Then let’s go find some light.”

Holding hands, we walked until we stood underneath a lamplight. In the distance, the campgrounds’ event hall burned bright, twinkle lights and loud music pulsing.

I brushed a curl off her cheek as I pressed her against the cold metal pole. “There you are.” I could see the autumn in her eyes, flecks of brown against the green. My heart squeezed again, that same feeling I’d had all week.

I’d been an incredible fool, and I could be a fool no longer.

So I kissed her.

Tumbled onto her lips, really.

She corrected me without faltering. I’d never been kissedthe way she kissed me back. With purpose and tenderness, and an ease I could sigh against. I could taste the lime on my lips. One of her shots for courage. She’d taken it forme.

The idea that I wound her up, that I was the one she needed to be brave for, made me press harder. My tongue slipped into her mouth, and she met me with the same confidence she always did. I put my hands in her hair, tangling my fingers in her curls.

Stevie Magnusson was not like any other person I’d ever known.

20

What’s your job?” I pulled back and asked, suddenly desperate to gather other pieces of information I hadn’t managed to collect.

I wanted to hold her in the completion she deserved. Stevie wasn’t a stranger I’d kiss at a bar, hoping to get the feeling out of my system. She was someone I kissed because I couldn’t bear the distance. Because talking didn’t suffice. Learning every piece of her became a burning necessity.

“I kiss you, and you want to know how I make my money?” she teased.

“Proof of income is usually on every rental application, right? For after we get the U-Haul. Just want to make sure we’ve covered all our bases here.”

It was a dangerous kind of joking. Intentional recklessness was truly one path I’d never traveled, and it felt like I imaginedit would have if I’d gone across the ropes course. Breathlessly scary. Knee-shaking and intense.

“Would you like us to reintroduce ourselves?” she asked me. “Then we can get back to making out?”

I kissed her once, quick. “That would be nice, yeah.”

She twisted around the pole until she was no longer touching me, then she stretched out her hand and said, “Hello. My name is Stevie. I was a park ranger for six years. But I quit a few months ago. Bought a van and started traveling around the country in it.”

I took her palm in mine and shook. “Hi, Stevie. I’m Garland.”

She didn’t let me release her. Instead she pulled me forward, and we walked together toward our cabin holding hands.

“So that’s what you meant by living nowhere,” I continued, remembering what she’d said at the first nightly mixer.

“My permanent address is at Mason’s, but that’s just a paperwork technicality. I had to have somewhere to register my van. When I found out Allison was cheating on me, I got rid of everything in my life. I’ve always been all-or-nothing like that. I wanted the earth scorched.”

I knew exactly what it was like to lose your identity when someone else removed themself from the equation. To need to leave it all behind and start over.