Page 81 of Catch the Sun

And then he’s bending over, ushering me behind him. “Climb on,” he tells me, voice pitching loud over the guitar riff.

I can’t help but laugh. “What?”

“Climb on my shoulders. I’ll lift you up so you can see better.”

He’s dead serious.

I falter for a beat, but then my legs are moving, guiding me behind his back. Max hooks both arms underneath my knees and hauls me up like there’s no weight at all. I’m soaring skyward until I’m propped up on his shoulders, my legs crisscrossing at his chest, and my hands flying to his hair for balance. A squeal shreds my throat. I teeter sideways and Max locks his forearms at my thighs to keep me steady.

If my life were a book, this would be that moment where everything shifts. A scene readers would tab, highlight, and revisit. Where the protagonist isn’t just observing the story but is truly alive in it. Up here, the world feels different. I’m both a part of the crowd and above it, with Max as my anchor, grounding me through the lyrics, melodies, and makeshift rain. If this is what living in the moment feels like, I want every chapter to be just like this one.

I fist his hair with one hand and throw my other toward the ceiling with a whoop of joy. Water droplets sparkle under the stage lights as the singer bendsover and sings like the lyrics are so much more than words. In turn, I hold on to Max like he is so much more than a pair of sturdy shoulders. He feels like a tether, a lifeline. An escape. We are two sticks tossed over a bridge, swimming side by side, floating away from it all.

When the song ends, Max slides me down his back and my boots hit the floor. My hands don’t leave him right away. I want to press my cheek into the arc of his spine, but instead, I slowly trail my hands down his hips until my arms are dangling at my sides. A slower song begins to play next and I settle beside Max again while Brynn! plops down in McKay’s lap in one of the tall chairs, and Kai stands off to the side sipping a soda. I steal a glance at Brynn!, and the smile we share says a thousand words.

These are my people. I finally feel like I belong.

“Come here.”

Max’s voice startles me from the moment, and I glance at his arm extended out to me. “What?” I ask.

“Come here, Sunny.”

My gaze travels down his lean body, then back up to his face. A small smile gleams back at me as his wet hair curls along his temples and forehead. My heartbeats tangle at the notion of being fully wrapped in his embrace, my back pressed to his chest as a slow, dreamy song serenades us from the stage and those strong arms hold me tight.

Butterflies swarm low in my belly with dizzied wings when I inch over to him, allowing both of his arms to curl around my middle. “Okay,” I murmur, avoiding eye contact. I lean back, hesitant and careful. Nervous and scared shitless. I’m not sure what I’m scared about, but my heart is accelerating at a lethal speed and oxygen feels like a tangible knot in the back of my throat.

Max leans forward a little. I feel his own heartbeat pulsing through the back of the hoodie, and it’s gunning it at a similar pace. He squeezes me, taking a step forward so his legs are caging me in and his pelvis is flush with my lower back. Warm breath beats against the crown of my head in quick, steady puffs. His scent wafts around me, pine-steeped soap and woodsy cologne, fusing with the aroma in the air of fog machines and fried food.

The song plays, echoing through the crowd. It’s called “Shadows.” It’s slowerand kind of sad, and a few girls in front of us are crying, but miraculously, I can’t relate. I’m not sad right now.

I lean back further against Max’s chest, prompting his head to drop forward until his lips are whispering along my ear. I can tell by his breathing that he isn’t sad, either. Melancholy dangles in the air, but we’re in our own bubble and all I feel is his body heat warming me, his shaky breaths kissing my ear, and his hand as it slides from my hip to my thigh and begins to graze up and down the damp denim. Tendrils of silken heat slither through me as my eyelids flutter closed.

“Is this okay?” he asks softly.

My hair flutters from his breath and my heart flutters from his words. I have no idea if this is okay, but the reply spills out anyway. “Yes.” Something inside me thinks it’s okay.

Sighing, Max presses into me, and then his other arm wraps around my middle and pulls me even closer.

I make a sound.

I don’t mean to; it just falls out like air.

His hand is on my thigh, and his arm is wrapped around me, and I’ve never felt anything like this before. I’ve never made that sound.

He hears it and makes a similar sound in return, right next to my ear. A breathy groan that feels like a fireball to my heart, a blaze of detonation traveling south and causing a throbbing heat to unfurl between my legs.

Oh God.

What is this?

What is happening?

My limbs are paralyzed but my insides are in motion. Spinning and free-falling. I’m frozen yet melting. Nothing makes sense.

Everything makes sense.

Max’s hand trails up and down my thigh while the other splays across my abdomen, drifting and searching. His fingertips inch underneath the hem of the hoodie, just barely. A weightless touch. One finger skims the waistband of my jeans, and his thumb brushes the skin of my stomach. It feels like dozens of flickering fireflies have breached me. Starlight infiltrates. Sunshine leaks into my soul and thaws every patch of frost.

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