Page 76 of Hunter

“She would miss him, too,” I tell him. “But maybe it’d be worth it? If nothing else, it would get us a little closer to figuring this out?”

Before opening my door for me, he pulls me into his arms and holds me tight.

“I can’t afford to come every weekend,” he says close to my ear. “But I could definitely afford to fly down once a month. I can. I will.”

“And maybe I could come for Thanksgiving,” I tell him. “Or the day after Christmas I could come and stay until New Year’s. Those are long breaks from school.”

“Your parents would miss you,” he murmurs.

“They’ll see me plenty during the school year,” I tell him.

“It’s still a long-distance relationship,” he says. “You hate that. You don’t do it.”

“Maybe I do,” I tell him. “Maybe I was waiting for the right reason to give it a try.”

He leans back, grinning down at me, his face so beautiful in the early-evening light, my breath catches as I look up at him.

“You saying I might be the right reason, Miss Gonzalez?” he drawls.

“I’m sayingyou are.”

***

“You said yes?” McKenna demands. “You’re coming back next summer? Oh my god! I’m so stoked, Iz! This is amazing!”

We’re having a girl’s night at McKenna and Tanner’s cabin with Harper and Reeve, all four of us sitting on McKenna’s giant bed together whileCluelessplays, thoroughly ignored, in the background.

“Hunter’s got to be over the moon,” says Harper, who holds one of Reeve’s feet in her hands. She paints the pinkie toe bright pink, then lifts it up to blow the shellac dry. “He’ll be counting down the days until you come back!”

“Wait ’til Parker hears,” says Reeve, who shares a cabin with Parker now that Harper lives in downtown Skagway with Joe. “She and I had a bet about whether or not you’d be back next summer. When she gets back from Whitehorse, she owes me ten bucks.”

“Hold on!” I say, my face screwing up as I peer over McKenna’s shoulder at Reeve. “Parker bet against me?”

“Yup. She said you’d go home to Seattle at the end of August, and that’d be that.”

“Harsh,” I say, frowning at the Stewart sisters. “She doesn’t think my feelings for Hunter are for real?”

“She never said that.” Reeve cringes, looking sheepish.

“Give me your other foot,” says Harper, giving Reeve a stern look before sliding her glance to me. “Hunter was a wreck lastfall. Parker’s just being protective. That’s all. She doesn’t want to see him hurt again.”

“Believe me. I don’t want to hurt a hair on Hunter’s head,” I say. “But it’s a tough situation. Real life isn’t a fairy tale, you know? We each have commitments. I have a job in Seattle. Volunteer work. Family. A life. He has the same here.”

“We know,” McKenna says gently, putting her hand on my arm. “I, for one, think it’s amazing you two are considering a time-share relationship.”

“A what-now?” I ask her.

“A time-share relationship,” she says matter-of-factly. “I read about it inMarie Claire. It’s a new thing, mostly because so many people work remotely now. Couples spend so much time in one place and then so much time in another. They can, you know, live in one place for six months and then live somewhere else for another six months. They share the time but spend it in different places. It’s really flexible.”

“That’s not really what we’re doing,” I point out. “I mean, neither of us works remotely. We have to physically be in our respective towns for work and family. I’ll be in Seattle from September to May, and Hunter will stay here. And then we’ll be here together from May to September.”

“Hmm,” hums Harper, blowing on Reeve’s other foot.

“What does ‘hmm’ mean?” asks Reeve.

“Shut up, Reeve,” says Harper.

“No,” says McKenna, nudging Harper with her elbow. “I’d like to know what ‘hmm’ means, too.”

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