Page 42 of Lose You to Find Me

Maybe it was the other way around.

I scope the area out as the rain comes down, splattering large droplets against the windshield of my truck. Was Raine up watching the storm too? Was she thinking about me, or trying not to the same way I’ve attempted to stop thinking about her? Turns out that’s a hell of a lot easier said than done.

I probably should have left, knowing she was coming here, but this is one of my favorite places. It’s calming despite all the memories I’ve shared with Raine here. It’s where I come to think and be by myself whenever I have a spare moment when my apartment seems too daunting.

Still, temptation sinks its claws in like it always does when she’s involved. And despite all the reasons why I should fight it, I let her back in.

A drug.

A weakness.

That’s when I see her running across the muddied field in the rain, and my heart does the same damn thing it always has. It beats a little bit faster than the moment before because it doesn’t know any better.

“Christ,” I murmur. She has no umbrella, rain jacket, or boots.

I get out of the truck and jog over to the passenger side with the hood of my jacket up, protecting me from the downpour, and open the door for her as she gets closer. “Are you crazy? Why didn’t you drive?”

Raine doesn’t get in right away. Hair wet and sticking to the sides of her face, she looks at me and lifts one of her shoulders. “I needed the fresh air. Plus, the car has been acting up, so it probably would have woken Mom up.”

Heaven forbid Janet knows her grown daughter is leaving to see me. “Yeah, what a shit show that would be,” I grumble.

I don’t miss the frown weighing down my ex-girlfriend’s face before she climbs into the truck. After closing the door behind her, I walk around the front again and get in the other side. Once my door is closed, we’re bathed in silence with only the muffled sound of the rain pelting the metal sheltering us.

“Do you remember the first time we ever came out here?” she asks, voice quiet as she stares out the windshield.

Does she know she’s shaking? I reach into the back to grab one of the spare shirts I always keep in here and pass it to her. “Dry off. It’s cold out tonight.”

I lean forward and turn the heat on, hoping it actually works. You never know what you’re going to get with this twenty-plus-year-old Ford.

When I lean back, I watch her use my shirt to wipe off her face and arms, then squeeze her hair dry. “We were invited to a party out here,” I finally recall, looking toward the spot where people still tend to congregate. “It was the first time you ever drank. You puked in your neighbor’s bushes when I was trying to sneak you back inside your house.”

She cringes. “Poor Mr. Applebee had to hose it off the next day. I watched him from the living room window, too embarrassed to tell him it was me. That wasn’t my proudest moment. I’m not sure why I kept drinking that night anyway. The beer was terrible.”

My lips twitch upward despite me trying to fight the amusement. “It was room temperature and the cheapest kind they could find. But you stop tasting it the more you drink.”

Raine fiddles with the borrowed shirt she’s holding. “We kissed that night. Before the whole puking-in-the-hedges thing.”

I lose my small smile. “I remember.”

“Dance with me?” I ask Raine, pulling her off to the side. There are other people coupling up and dancing, some leaving to find a private spot, and a few others pouring more drinks.

We slow dance for a few minutes with her arms around my neck and my hands on her hips. Neither one of us can look away from the other.

I move first, only a little hesitant when I brush my lips against hers. They taste like beer and the reminiscence of the watermelon Chapstick I saw her put on earlier. It’s a small kiss, minuscule really, but it doesn’t feel that way.

It feels so much bigger.

Bigger than two fifteen-year-olds.

I would have kissed her longer, but then some of the guys I play football with whistle and catcall at us, making Raine’s cheeks pinken.

I know in that moment I want a lifetime of kisses from this girl.

Raine lowers the shirt onto her lap. “I was so nervous that night.”

My brows pinch. “Why?”

“Because I was worried that you were going to kiss me and I’d be bad at it since I’d never…” There’s humor melded into those words that has her smiling at the memory. “I guess I drank so much for liquid courage in case you were going to make a move.”

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