Page 26 of Sunday's Best

I can’t help but notice the way he keeps looking over at the truck. “Antsy to get back on the road? I know you hate your schedule getting thrown off.”

“No… Well, yeah. No.” He huffs. “I’d stay here all day—not sure what the hell we’d do, but if you wanted to sit in the grass, drink coffee, and pray to your giant caffeine lord, I’d be down. Except he’s gonna wake up soon, and if I stand here with you for another minute, I'm going to end up kissing you.

“I lied to you, Sunday. Kissing you for the first time was life-altering, but it wasn’t a mistake. I want to do it again and again, every damn time I look at you. Holding back right now is killing me... So yeah, we should get back on the road before my brother catches me making out with his girl.”

My pulse skips. For fear of seeming desperate and pathetic, I haven’t pushed Holden to talk about whatever’s going on between us. But this is the confirmation I needed that he feels it, too—the magnetic force that has me catching his eye in the rearview mirror, the comfort in silently enjoying our morning coffee, the chemistry behind every subtle dig at each other.

Somehow Holden Kearney, burr-like as he is, has caught and stuck to me.

“I’m not his girl, for the record.”

“Yeah, tell him that.”

“I was going to, remember? You asked me not to. But I’m not his—or… I guess I’m as much his as all the other girls are. He’s been cheating on me the entire time we’ve been together, which I’m sure doesn’t surprise you. He hasn’t exactly been sneaky.”

He stuffs his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “I might’ve told some of the girls to let you know.”

My jaw hits the floor. “W-what? Why didn’t you tell me yourself? Wh⁠—”

“If I’d gotten in the middle, he would’ve convinced you I was lying out of jealousy or some bullshit like that. Back when we first met, I told him I liked you but I was too nervous to ask you out, and he… he got to you first.” There’s the truth of the whole thing; Logan doesn’t like to lose, and I’m nothing more than another prize to add to the trophy shelf. One of dozens. Hundreds, probably.

But his brother is standing here looking at me like I’m a treasured piece he’s been searching his whole life for—not to hide away with all the rest, but to hold close to his chest. For the first time in my life, I feel valuable.

“I wish I’d known that,” I admit.

“Probably wouldn’t have mattered. You know Logan—he lives for the chase. He would’ve tried his damndest to win you over just to spite me.”

“It would’ve mattered.” It still does.

Rolling my lips together, I turn to squint at the truck. If Logan’s awake, he hasn’t bothered rolling a window down to shout at us yet.

“Holden?”

He hums a question mark.

“Will you come to the other side of the coffee pot with me? I really want to kiss you again.” My heart is beating unreasonably fast, like the plane door just opened and I’m about to jump. And if that’s what I’m doing, whatever he chooses to say next determines whether my parachute opens or not.

I watch something rouse in his eyes, turning them from stormy to dreamy, the blue almost iridescent amongst the jade green.

“I think it would be wrong to leave here without seeing it from the other side.” The look he gives me scintillates over my skin.

Finding our hidden spot amid the shrubbery, we smile at each other. A lock of wavy hair falls across his forehead, and I catch his hand as he reaches to sweep it away. Stepping into him, I guide our linked fingers to the small of my back, where his palm fits snugly in the slope of my spine, and his fingers dip into the fleshy bit of my waist.

Our bodies press together first, and I can’t help but remember the weight of him pressing into me against the truck. Holden’s mouth hovers over mine, our eyes locked, and that first brush of his lips is a teasing graze. I nip at him, catching the edge of my teeth on his full bottom lip, and smile at the shiver that chases through him.

When the temptation becomes too much, he devours me, parting my lips and licking into my mouth. It’s anything but sweet. It’s deep and languorous. He’s breathing me in like I’m his sole source of oxygen, as if he’ll die without me.

Every nerve ending inside me awakens out of a desperation to memorize this moment, and I slide my hands up inside his shirt. I need to ravage as much as I can during these few seconds—they may be the last I get.

His skin is hot to the touch, and the trail of hair south of his navel tickles my fingertips. With a groan of pleasure, Holden wraps his free hand around the back of my neck to pull me closer yet.

After one last fervent kiss, his lips slip away.

My heart starts and stops like an unbroken horse, and my ragged breath is just as untamed. “What do we do now?”

There’s a glossiness to his eyes when he opens them, and he gently rubs his thumb across my parted lips. “Well, we have a long drive ahead of us… so for now, we should probably focus on getting back home in one piece.”

Right. Holden doesn’t talk things out. Though I suppose there’s not much to say. It’s not as though we can get back in the truck and announce to Logan that we want to be together.