Page 53 of Our Hearts Knew Better

I chuckled, the sound of my nerves. “Yours is the answer I want.”

He hesitated, for a few thudding heartbeats, then he moved to me, my gasp ayesand apleaseand anoh my godas he dropped the rope in his hands and filled them with me instead, holding me around the waist like he thought I’d fly away.

I held him back with fists at his shoulders like I wouldn’t dare.

His forehead touched mine, his eyes tracing like he was memorizing my face, his breath my breath.

The taste of the anticipation was almost as good as the taste of him, when he finally kissed me. A firm press of his mouth to mine.

I followed his lead. When his lips parted, mine parted. Soft, slow, lingering movements. Each one eased my thudding heart as it followed, too, a steady pulsing at each place we were connected.

“If I’m bad at this—” I breathed out when he pulled back the slightest bit, his hands moving up to my jaw.

“You’re not,” he breathed back, before his mouth recaptured mine in amuchdifferent way that had my knees weak.

Thiskiss was deep and eager and so wanting.

I was still squeezing wrinkles all in his shirt until he showed me where he wanted my hands, moving them up into his hair. He released a soft moan that shook through my entire body when I tugged on the strands.

I didn’t move his hands, because they felt good pressed into my hips, and because I could’ve collapsed right there if his hold wasn’t keeping me on my feet.

If his then moved and continued kisses to my face—my nose, my chin, both cheeks, everywhere—weren’t giving me a moment to breathe in gulps of air and out a giggle rush.

That was better than any first kiss I’d read about and I had a lot of them stored in my head. This wasreal, and I both never wanted to go back and I wanted to read a whole bunch more with this new perspective—my own, and see how no other hero would compare to mine.

Levi rested his forehead to mine as he rested his lungs, with the flickering remains of his own smile, catching the breaths I stole from him. “That night, when you said you needed things to happen to you…I’d just met you and…” His eyes sparked the same way they had then, his fingers curling in where he still held me at my hips. “I wanted to be one of those things.”

I sighed into him, ready to soar on finally knowing for sure he’d also felt something between us that night. “I wanted you to be too. And you did, you…are.” My voice dropped, shook. “And now we can happen to each other.”

My fingers touched the bob in his throat, shaky, too, against his skin as I licked my lips, now kissed and ready for everything that came next, saying what that was as an attempted flirt asI traced the column of his neck. “I’ve never had a boyfriend, either, so if I’m bad at this too…”

Levi’s lips parted, a breath, a pause, then I heard words, but they weren’t his.

He turned around to greet the voice—voices as his dad stepped into our view, with Adam coming up behind him.

“Look who I found,” Elliot announced.

Adam.

Adam was back.Today.He wasn’t coming backsoon, he was coming back today.

“Whoa,” he said, his playful grin on me as he climbed down after Elliot to meet us. “Look at you.” He tugged lightly on one of my curls, the gesture and the suddenness of his presence tugging at my smile. Then he was beckoned away again by Elliot to continue their conversation up the boat.

I heard Levi tell him, “I thought you wouldn’t be in until tonight,” but I didn’t hear Adam’s response, as the three were now a group and I was one for a moment, my head spinning. Remembering. Wondering.

Remembering how Adam, though he just wanted to show me what I was missing, had asked to kiss me—twice, and I’d just kissed his best friend.

Wondering when Levi and I were going to tell him. Thinkinghowwe were going to tell him we were dating now.

Levi hadn’t confirmed with his words, but his mouth had already said against mine that he was about to right before Elliot and Adam showed.

The moment blinked—or I did, and I was standing with them as they tried to pull me into the conversation. But I was still spinning, wondering, my insides tottery and heartened and giddy, secured by a kiss but needful for that next moment.

I swayed and smiled with my dewy-eyed hope through this present one, waiting for everything to really begin.

Ready to Run?

It only took a day for it all to end.

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