“It was perfect,” she says. “Nothing will ever come close.”
“Nothing?” Aidan says with mock horror. “You’re telling me that none of the thousands of other kisses we’ve had over the last couple of years have compared? I mean, if I’d known that, I wouldn’t have been trying so hard.”
She gives his chest a little shove. “You weren’t trying that hard.”
“Hey, that was some of my best stuff,” he says. “Remember that time we made out in the coat closet at Andy’s party? Or that night in the park?” He pauses for a second, and then his face brightens. “Or that kiss we had in your basement?”
“Which—”
He cuts her off with a grin. “You know which one.”
“Oh,” Clare says, blushing a little. “Right.”
“So you’re saying none of those were better?”
“They were all great. They just weren’t the first. Firsts are always the ones that last. You know?”
Without warning, he brings his face to hers, but when their lips meet, there’s too much momentum behind it, their depth perception lost in the gathering dark. He cups the side of her face with his hand—the way they do in the movies—which is something he’s never done before, not once in all the time they’ve been dating, making the whole thing feel off somehow, theatrical and staged and too full of effort.
When she pulls back a bit too abruptly, he looks wounded.
“What?”
“Nothing,” she says. “It’s just—I think you’re trying too hard to make it special.”
“I thought that was the point of all this,” he says, his voice resigned. “I thought we were supposed to be reliving all the big moments.”
“We are,” she says. “But we’ve got to talk about the future, too.”
He doesn’t respond to this, only shifts away from her a little, so that he’s fully facing the water. Ahead of them, the sky is still painted orange at the very edge, while heavier clouds are gathering at their backs, bringing with them the smell of rain.
“Look,” Clare says finally, after a few minutes have passed in silence. “You know how I feel about you.…” When he doesn’t respond, she clears her throat, more insistent this time. “Aidan. You know that, right?”
He nods, his jaw set.
“But I just… I think we might have an expiration date.” The waver in her voice surprises her; it’s not the first time she’s said this, but still, it hovers between them, clattering and definitive. “And we need to talk about it.”
“Can’t we wait just a little longer?”
“We can’t keep putting it off.”
“I bet we could,” he says with a hint of a smile. “I’m really, really good at putting things off.”
She smiles, too. “That’s true.”
“How about this?” he says, turning to her, his eyes hopeful. “Let’s pretend—”
“Aidan.”
“No, hear me out. Let’s pretend—just for a few minutes—that we’re both going to the same place tomorrow.”
“Yeah?” she says, and he tucks her under his arm, resting his chin against the top of her head, so that when he talks, she can feel the vibration of it, low and gravelly.
“Yeah,” he says. “The way I see it, we’ll meet up every morning and go to the dining hall together, and we’ll eat awful bacon and cold eggs and catch up on our work. Then we’ll walk to class—you to some Advanced Theory of Something-or-Other and me to Intro to Beginner’s Goofing-Off-for-Jocks—and then afterward, we’ll hang out on the quad, and I’ll be playing guitar—”
“You’re tone-deaf,” she points out, and he shrugs.
“Yeah, but we’re just pretending, and that’s what everyone does on a quad.”
“Okay, what else?”
“We’ll go to the library together every night, and you’ll study while I throw little balled-up pieces of paper at you and mix up all your color-coded sticky notes.”
“I don’t have—”
He leans to give her a stern look. “Yes, you do. You totally have color-coded sticky notes. And highlighters, too.”
Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between
Smith,Jennifer E.'s books
- Moon Island(Vampire Destiny Book 7)
- A Clandestine Corporate Affair
- And Then She Fell
- Beauty and the Blacksmith
- Beauty and the Sheikh
- Blood and Kisses
- Cinderella and the Sheikh
- Down and Dirty (Dare Me)
- Emancipating Andie
- Forever and a Day
- Highland Defiance
- Highland Heiress
- Highland Master
- Highlander Most Wanted
- Lanterns and Lace
- Leather and Lace
- Lightning and Lace
- Lost and Found
- Once and Again
- Rock and a Hard Place
- Sand Angel
- Scandal at the Cahill Saloon
- Sins and Scarlet Lace
- Stranded with a Billionaire
- The Raider_A Highland Guard Novel
- The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress
- India Black and the Gentleman Thief
- It Takes a Scandal
- Passion and the Prince
- Submit and Surrender
- Written in My Own Heart's Blood (Outlander)
- The Greek Billionaire and I
- The Husband's Secret
- Her Two Billionaires and a Baby(BBW Menage #4)
- Down and Out
- BROKEN AND SCREWED(Broken_Part One)
- Curves and the Russian Wrangler
- Tall, Tatted and Tempting
- Dreamland
- Love and Lists (Chocoholics)
- Futures and Frosting
- Seduction and Snacks
- Troubles and Treats
- Echoes of Scotland Street
- Rosemary and Rue
- Everything, Everything
- Carnal Innocence
- Holding the Dream
- Sacred Sins
- Illusion(The Vampire Destiny Book 2)
- Fated(The Vampire Destiny Book 1)
- Midnight rainbow(Rescues (Kell Sabin) series #1)
- Loving Evangeline(Patterson-Cannon Family series #1)
- A Changing Land
- A Daring Liaison
- At Last (The Idle Point, Maine Stories)
- An Inheritance of Shame
- A Wedding In Springtime
- Anything but Vanilla
- Anything for Her
- Anything You Can Do
- Awakening Book One of the Trust Series
- An Unsinkable Love
- Barefoot in the Sun (Barefoot Bay)
- Beauty in Breeches
- Behind the Courtesan
- Behind the Rake's Wicked Wager
- Bewitching You
- Bidding Wars (Love Strikes)
- Breaking the Rules
- Breaking Her Rules
- Bluffing the Devil
- Captain Durant's Countess
- Chasing Shadows
- Chasing the Sunset
- Cheapskate in Love
- Checking It Twice
- Cinderella in Overalls
- Cinderella in Skates
- Covered In Lace
- Confessing to the Cowboy
- Daddy in the Making
- Destined to Change
- Destiny's Embrace
- Dicing with the Dangerous Lord
- Driving Her Crazy
- Ein Mann fur alle Lagen
- Falling for Heaven (Four Winds)
- Falling for Jack (Falling In Love)
- Falling into Forever (Falling into You)
- Finally Found
- Find Wonder in All Things
- Galveston Between Wind and Water
- Getting Real
- Guarding the Princess
- Heartstrings (A Rock Star Romance Novel)
- Hummingbird Lake