He gestured toward his phone. “Waiting for my rideshare. You?”
I pulled another yellow flower from my hair. “Same.”
“Allow me.” Ty gently removed what was left of the pesky flowers. He held the last one in the palm of his hand. “Make a wish.”
“That’s dandelions, silly.”
He was all serious as he motioned to the flower. “Not in Arizona. Here it also includes these. Now make a wish.”
I chuckled. “So bossy. Let me think.”
This was crazy, yet I was caught up in it. A world where I could wish on more than dying stars. I’d take anything to make life easier.
I closed my eyes.
I wish Paolo would forget about me. I wish the mafia didn’t have such a hold on my family. I wish for one moment life didn’t have to be all doom and gloom.
I blew the flower away and slowly opened my eyes. Tyler tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. “Maybe we should step away from this tree.”
A laugh escaped me. “Yeah. I don’t want to give Lizzy a sneeze attack.”
“No. We do not.” His voice was smooth, like silk.
With a quick look around, I saw we were alone. I didn’t feel like myself. I felt bold and wild.
“What if for a moment you weren’t Tyler and I wasn’t Aurora?”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Then who would we be?”
“Anyone else.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him again.
He held on tight, hugging me to his chest.
I didn’t want the moment to end. It needed to go on forever.
Finally, there was someone who made me feel like I was more than just a toy, a cleaner, a sister, a daughter, a simple Phoenix girl with wanderlust.
For that second, I became beautiful, desired, and valuable.
“Don’t let me disappear,” I whispered against his lips.
He kissed his way along my cheekbone and murmured into my ear, “Never. I’ll never let you go.”
We kissed again until our heat could light the bushes on fire, making this whole place go up in flames.
A car honk made us jump apart.
“Sorry to interrupt, but are you Tyler?” the guy in the blue Corvette asked.
“Yeah.” Ty rubbed the back of his neck as he opened the back door. “You wanna ride with me? We are going to the same place, after all.”
My lips burned for more. Each nerve tingled, aching of his touch.
I looked around. There wasn’t another soul in sight. “Why not?”
I slid in next to him and canceled my ride.
Maybe we couldn’t live in that moment forever, but for a few heartbeats, I wasn’t myself. As for right now, I was just a dreamer in a car with a cute boy.