Page 104 of Catch the Sun

“Yep. I want to give it to you in private.”

My eyes flare and my cheeks heat. “Is it another finger trick?”

He snorts a laugh. “I’m saving that for later.”

Grinning, I gather my hair and drape it over one shoulder. We haven’t had sex yet. I’m still acclimating to the idea of being someone’s girlfriend after years of building anti-romance walls made of stone, steel, and bitter bricks. Every time we approach that heart-stopping line, I pump the brakes, overthinking everything. It’s ridiculous because we’re both eighteen and I know he’s ready. I think I’m ready, too, but my bone-deep fears always sneak inside me the moment I’m about to give in. I guess that’s what happens when you spend years conditioning yourself to run away from emotional connection and intimacy. You find it’s not a switch you can just flip back on when the longing hits.

Luckily, Max is patient.

I pull myself up from the floor and make a clean break from the living room while everyone else is absorbed in conversation and buzzed on punch. Max follows, his hand gently pressed to the small of my back, and we swerve into my bedroom. I watch as he bends down and draws something out from underneath the bed.

“What’s that?” I wonder, eyeing the neatly packaged gift. Silvery paper twinkles under the ceiling light, topped with a big red bow.

“Your present.”

“I only got you a gift card to Spoon,” I say miserably, which is a local coffee shop in town. It was for fifty dollars, at least. Coffee and scones to last an entiremonth if used wisely.

He smiles, handing me the gift. “I love the gift card. It’s an excuse to take you out for coffee.”

“You caught on to my ulterior motives, huh?” Sighing, I reach for the gift and lightly tinker with the bow. “This is too much, Max.”

“You don’t even know what it is yet.”

“I can tell it’s too much. And you wrap better than me.”

“Yes.”

Chuckling, I take a seat on the edge of my bed and begin to peel back the wrapping paper. Max sits beside me and my eyes water. It’s true that I don’t know what it is yet, but something tells me it’s going to cause my heart to dribble out of me and leave a gooey puddle at my feet.

It’s probably going to make me fall head over heels in love with him.

Max wrings his hands together as he watches my fingers work. I unwrap slowly because his wrapping job is too precious to ruin. When the tape is undone, I take a deep breath, pause, and then pull open all four sides.

A leather-bound book stares back at me.

I blink a few times.

Stare at it.

Hold my breath.

My fingertips glide along the smooth, coffee-brown texture as my heart does exactly what I expected it to do—it melts.

“Open it,” he says softly, our shoulders pressed together.

I spare him a quick glance through dampening lashes, then open the book. The title page shines back at me and my tears fall like rain.

Eeyore’s Happy Ending.

I cup a hand over my mouth to hold in the sob.

Max’s arm encircles me as he inches closer. “I’m not an expert bookbinder like you, Sunny. But I tried.”

“Oh, my God.” My hands are violently shaking as I peel back pages and pages of cream and ink. “Max…”

“Kai helped me with the drawings,” he says, showcasing the intricate sketches designed with colored pencils. “It’s our story.”

As I thumb through pages etched with deep woods and vibrant colors, the story comes to life, taking me through a journey of an often-overlooked donkey finding happiness with a fellow reclusive donkey in the Hundred Acre Wood. Their favorite spot is a little clearing where they watch orange sunsets and enchanted meteor showers together. Images detail them skipping stones across the lake while they dance to sun-charged playlists and toss sticks over their favorite bridge, triggering a quick-blooming friendship. As days turn into months, their bond deepens and they find solace in each other’s company, their tails securely fastened and swishing happily. Our defining moments are sprinkled throughout the ivory pages, sending my heartbeats into a tailspin.

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