Page 98 of Promise Me Sunshine

“Hello. Sean? I’m guessing?” I smile at them and it’s genuine. There’s love here and I’m glad they’ve found it with each other. “Good to talk with you, Kira. I’ll get going.” I give them a wave and slide back through the door and the bathroom and back to where Miles is waiting for me in the hallway.

The event rolls on and I laugh at the right places during the toasts, snag Miles a slice of cake so he doesn’t have to run into anyone else on the way, and, in perhaps my most brilliant moment, drag him outside the barn when Kira, laughing and bashful, lines up to try to catch the bouquet. “Hey,” I tell him as he turns to look back over his shoulder. “I have a great idea.”

He’s still looking back, so I take a leaf from his book and put one finger on his chin. He obediently turns to look down at me.

“Let’s leave,” I tell him.

He squints and runs a hand over the back of his neck. “I haven’t talked to Cody yet.” Then he looks back into the party and we are treated to a high-definition clip of Kirajumping into the air and clamping her hands around the hot-pink bouquet. The crowd cheers.

“Yeah,” I say. “I think Cody will understand.”

Miles turns back to me and laughs, dragging a hand down his face and over his stubble. “Let’s get out of here.”

We start at a normal pace, catch one another’s eye, and start speedwalking. By the time we’re halfway to the car, we’re laughing and all-out running.

I plant my palms against the hood of his car and fight to stay alive.

“I can’t believe,” he pants, “that all it took to get you to run was to make you come to this god-awful wedding.”

We slam into the car. “The ceremony itself was lovely,” I say with an assertive finger pointed in his direction. “Tasha and Cody seem awesome.”

He nods, then basically does a donut on the dirt road to get us the hell out of Dodge. “Everything else, though…”

“Was kind of a mixed bag.”

“Thanks for coming with me. Jesus. What would I have possibly done without you?”

I ruminate on that. “Yeah, whatwouldyou have done without me?”

“Probably knocked over the barbecue pit by accident and set the barn on fire.”

The lighting goes screwy and there’s a crack of lightning to our left. It’s the kind that shows you how tall the sky actually is, ten skyscrapers high, and followed quickly by aBOOMthat cracks the world in two.

I scream with panicked laughter, flinging myself across the center console and squeezing the blood out of Miles’s bicep. “WHERE THE HELL DID THAT COME FROM?”

Miles is shockingly stoic. He leans over the steering wheelto peer out at the sky. “I didn’t know there was supposed to be weather tonight.”

“That wasn’tweather.That was God asserting her masculinity!”

“We’ll be fine. Let’s just get home before—”

Raindrops the size of grapes start splatting on our windshield.

“Lenny, I need this arm to drive.” He peels my fingers off his bicep and attaches them to the console. Luckily, it isn’t until we’re in his driveway that the heavens truly open up.

He parks. “Ready?” The rain is so loud I have to lip-read that.

“Let’s do this.”

Turns out I wasn’t ready. It’s like walking through a waterfall.

Just running from the driveway into the house has us completely drenched. He’s cursing at the door while he jiggles the lock. We fall across the threshold and slam the door behind us. Miles’s suit is toast. We stand in the front entryway making puddles and shivering. We’re two inches from one another in the cold dark. Miles’s hand brushes my shoulder on the way to the light switch. I shiver.

Click. Click. Clickety clickety clickety clickety.Nothing.

He groans and plants his forehead into the wood-paneled wall. “Perfect ending to the perfect night. I’ll go flip the breakers.”

“Don’t leave me here! Are you joking?”

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