Cassie’s breath caught in her throat. “You’re my best friend.”
After a moment, Parker said, “Don’t tell Acacia.”
“Never,” Cassie said with a grin.
Acacia herself joined them a few minutes later, pushing Cassie into the middle of the bed and climbing in.
“How we doing, kids?” she asked.
“We’re good,” Parker said.
Cassie interlaced their fingers. “We’re good.”
They just lay there, snuggled together, for a while. Cassie was almost asleep when there was a quiet knock on the doorframe, Erin standing in the hallway.
“Night, girls.”
All three said good night back, and Erin clicked the hallway light off as she left.
Parker elbowed Cassie in the ribs. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“Tomorrow, maybe,” Cassie said. She was sandwiched between Parker and Acacia. “Right now, I’m exactly where I want to be.”
The next day Cassie actually started to believe things might be okay. It was the Fourth, and they started their day with homemade blueberry pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream.
“This is the most patriotic breakfast I’ve ever had,” Cassie said.
“This is the most patriotic I’ve ever been and it’s not even 10 A.M.,” Acacia said.
They spent the day in true American style: drinking by the pool. Erin made homemade sweet tea, and Cassie drank two glasses before bothering to add alcohol, because it tasted so good. The whole crew from yesterday showed up early. Lila had UV Blue and Cassie only mocked her a little for drinking like a high schooler. Erin joined them in the early afternoon, happily taking the drink offered to her by underage Haylee.
“If any of you get drunk enough to crack your head open, you’re cleaning it up,” she said, then took the lounger next to Cassie, without being told this time.
Acacia was on the other side of Cassie. She bumped her arm and whispered, “Your girlfriend’s kind of awesome.” Cassie’s whole body flushed.
She and Erin might have said I love you, but they hadn’t come close to using the word girlfriend yet. Cassie sure as shit liked when other people used it though.
It was no surprise, then, that pretty soon Cassie and Erin ended up tipsy and making out inside.
“Um, what are you doing?”
Cassie pulled back from Erin—just a little, Erin kept her hands on Cassie’s hips and didn’t let her go too far—to see Rachel gesturing wildly at them.
“What are you doing?” Rachel said again. “I could’ve been Parker!”
Erin burst out laughing. Cassie smirked.
“Erin!” Rachel snapped.
“Parker knows, Rachel. It’s all right.”
Rachel’s mouth hung open. “She knows you two are—”
“Dating,” Erin said quickly.
“Dating,” Rachel repeated, and Cassie wondered what she would’ve said had Erin not clarified. Rachel looked at her suddenly. “Cassie, don’t you want to go swimming and give me some time to interrogate my best friend?”
Cassie chuckled and looked at Erin, who rolled her eyes but nodded. Cassie kissed her quickly.
“Go easy on her,” she told Rachel as she headed outside.
Apparently Caleb had put down some blankets at a park yesterday, so they had a great place to watch the fireworks from that night. The park was nearby, and when dusk settled, they all headed down the road.
Cassie wished she were drunker—no one was much past tipsy by this point. If she were, she wouldn’t be so worried about what was appropriate with Erin. Everyone they were with knew they were together, thanks to gossip and their lack of subtlety when drunk. But they were meeting up with Caleb’s dad, and some other people, and Adam. And they were dating, yeah, they’d established that, but this was very public. There were other people walking in the same direction, and when they got to the park, it was already packed.
Cassie wouldn’t have admitted to being the hand-holding type, but she wondered if she could get away with a hand on Erin’s lower back or something. Erin looked beautiful, and Cassie wanted to touch her.
Their group was big, spread over four blankets. They said a surprisingly cordial hello to Adam and then settled as far away from him as possible, Cassie made sure of it. She was beside Erin, Parker and Acacia in front of them.
The crowd sent up a cheer when the streetlights went out and three fireworks went up. They exploded in red, white, and blue, and Cassie caught Erin’s hand in the dark.
She watched Erin’s face almost as much as she watched the fireworks. Erin was beautiful, and she loved her, and Cassie was so fucking happy.
“Oh for God’s sake, if you’re going to stare at her like that, you might as well just kiss her,” Parker said.
Cassie looked at Parker, stunned. Erin squeezed her hand.
“I’m not kidding,” Parker said as purple sparks exploded above them. “I’d rather you kiss her than go ridiculously heart eyed. It’s gross.”
She turned back to watch the fireworks and Acacia bumped their shoulders together, laughing. Cassie looked at Erin.
“Well, I mean,” Cassie said. “If Parker insists.”
Erin laughed and kissed her and Cassie felt the fireworks everywhere.
Epilogue
CASSIE
Cassie’s head buzzed pleasantly as she matched the final three jewels to beat the level.
Parker was graduating in two days. There’d be plenty of events with way too many people, but for tonight, after a stiffly polite dinner with Parker’s parents, she, Acacia, and Cassie were having a best friend night in Acacia’s hotel. They’d played like preteens in the pool, soaked in the hot tub, and then gotten drunk in Acacia’s room.
Acacia was next to Cassie on the bed, giving a spirited lecture about which exercises were best for your lats, despite neither of her best friends listening. Parker was on the other bed, which she got to herself since she was the graduate.
“Cassie,” Parker said, a snap in her voice like this was important.
Cassie locked her phone, put it in her pocket, and gave Parker her undivided attention. “What’s up?”
“Why aren’t you married to my mom?”
Acacia whipped her head toward Parker. Cassie’s mouth went dry.
“What?”
“Why aren’t you married to my mom?” Parker asked again. “Like, you’re not even engaged? It’s been like four years.”
Cassie swallowed. Her adrenaline was through the fucking roof. She was either too drunk for this conversation, or decidedly not drunk enough.
“Uh—” Good start, Klein, good start. “Because—”
“Do you not want to marry my mom?”
“No, I do,” Cassie said immediately. “I mean, like, I want to be with her forever—I don’t really care if that means we get married or—”
“You don’t care if you get married?”
Cassie felt like she was fucking this up. Acacia was watching like it was a tennis match, back and forth and back again.