“Thanks,” I said finally.
I looked back at the mural and realized that the figures of Sam, his mother, and his brother weren’t watching the baseball game after all. They were looking up at the rainbow, which seemed to rise out of the horizon, behind Fenway Park’s Green Monster. I smiled at Sam. He was already staring at me, and for a moment, we just held each other’s gaze.
I knew it was going to happen a second before it did. Our breath grew short. The space between us grew smaller. And then, Sam’s hand was on my cheek, brushing it gently. When he finally leaned in and touched his lips to mine, my eyes were already closed, and I was already leaning toward him.
Sam tasted a little like Coke, but sweeter. As our lips touched, it was like someone had cranked up all my senses. I could smell something burning in the distance and the leaves turning to fall and the almost imperceptibly salty smell wafting in from the river. I could hear the chirping of the crickets and the splashes of the water and a train whistle in the distance. And Sam’s hand touching my cheek ignited every cell in my skin.
We kissed for a long time without saying anything.
Finally, Sam pulled back a little.
“Wow,” he said, his nose still just a couple of inches from mine.
I smiled. “Yeah,” I agreed.
Sam kissed my forehead. “Mind if we just sit here for a while?”
“Nope,” I said.
Together, we turned and looked out into the darkness.
chapter 16
Forty minutes later, we were pulling into my driveway. I didn’t want the evening to end.
“I had a great time with you,” I said.
“Me too,” Sam said. He paused. “Listen, Lacey, I need to tell you something.”
I turned to him. He looked worried. And all of a sudden, I realized that whatever it was, I didn’t want to hear it tonight. I didn’t want anything to ruin our perfect night.
“Tell me tomorrow,” I said.
“But—”
“Is it that you have some girlfriend back in Taunton or something?” I asked, trying to sound like I was making a joke. But I meant it, actually. It would be just my luck to have truly connected with the perfect guy and to find out he was keeping something huge hidden from me.
Sam laughed. “No.”
“Then can you tell me tomorrow?”
He nodded. I looked out the window at my front lawn, which was covered in a blanket of autumn leaves in varying shades of orange, red, and yellow, illuminated under the shallow glow cast by the streetlights. They reminded me of the first three colors of Sam’s rainbow.
“My dad used to rake the leaves and make a big pile for all of us to jump in every fall,” I said. “Even when we were too old for it. Even Logan and I would jump in.”
“That sounds really nice,” Sam said.
“Is it weird that I miss things like the leaf pile, instead of just missing my dad?” I asked.
“It’s not weird at all,” Sam said. He leaned across the center console and touched his lips lightly to mine. We lingered there for a minute, our lips just barely touching. Finally, he pulled back and looked me right in the eye again.
“Lacey Mann,” he said, “you’re pretty amazing.”
I smiled. “You’re not so bad yourself, Sam Stone.”
He grinned. “See you tomorrow, then?”
“See you tomorrow.”
Sam walked me to my front door and after one last, quick kiss, I said goodbye and turned the key quietly in the lock. I smiled once more at Sam before shutting the door behind me. As I tiptoed up the stairs, avoiding the steps that creaked, I thought about how one day could make such a difference in your life. A year ago, it had been losing Dad—and my family—in a morning, in the blink of an eye. But today, it had been finding something new with Sam that I had the feeling would last for a long time.
? ? ?
At school now, everything was different. Even though we’d never said the words, never officially made some sort of declaration of togetherness, Sam and I were a couple.
It was strange. I’d never had a boyfriend before. And I certainly wasn’t used to people staring at me in the halls with jealousy in their eyes instead of pity. It was kind of nice to be the center of a different kind of attention.
I figured at first that Logan and Sydney must have gossiped about me and Sam, but as the day went on I realized that we were creating our own waves. And although we had agreed on the disgustingness of Jennica-style PDA, Sam didn’t seem embarrassed in the slightest to greet me in trig class with a peck on the cheek, like we’d been dating forever, or to walk me to my locker after class with my bookbag slung over his shoulder. He ate lunch with me, Jennica, and Brian and seemed completely oblivious to the stares from other tables.
“So is Sam, like, your boyfriend now?” Jennica whispered as we went to throw out our trash. Brian and Sam were several paces behind us, talking about the Patriots game this weekend.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I guess so. It’s weird.”
“That happened fast.”