Page 74 of The Escape Plan

But Beckett, once again, has surprised me. In a good way.

Because while I love Calaway Creamery’s ice cream, my favorite dessert in the world is found in this little spot on the side of the highway.

Dippity Doo Dah is an old-style ice cream truck that serves creamy soft ice cream dipped in the best chocolate coating on the planet. It’s one of Serendipity Springs’s best kept secrets, in my opinion. The owners are snowbirds who spend their winters in Florida, so their ice cream is only available in the summer months. Which, of course, makes it even better, because every year, you have to enjoy it while it lasts.

Gramps used to bring Ezra and me here all the time when we were growing up.

Beckett smiles as he looks around. The truck’s cute striped awning is lit up with hanging lanterns, and small clusters of people sit at the few picnic tables surrounding the truck.

“When we started driving out here, I got nervous for a minute,” he admits. “Thought Ezra might’ve been having me on and we were actually on a wild goose chase.”

“He likes you too much to sabotage our date,” I reply with a laugh as we get in line. “But believe me, the drive out here is totally worth it. What are you going to order?”

“Two of whatever you want,” he says, and I have to say, I love that he wants to try my favorite thing on the menu. At every turn, it’s like he’s searching to know more about me—from the little things to the big ones.

When we get to the front of the line, I order two large caramel vanilla swirl cones dipped in chocolate. The elderly man smiles at me. “Excellent choice.”

We take our cones, and I’m about to walk towards a free table when Becks smoothly intertwines his hand in mine and pulls me in the other direction. I look at him questioningly, and he looks back at me with a heat in his eyes that makes my heart pound.

“I don’t want to sit with all those people,” he says in a low voice that I feel in my very core. “I’ve been waiting to get you alone all night.”

And that’s how we end up sitting on the tailgate of his truck in the parking area, overlooking a mostly deserted highway as we eat our ice creams… and somehow, it’s the most romantic date I’ve ever been on.

Because it’s exactly what I would have picked. And he somehow knew it.

“I give this a ten out of ten,” Beckett says after swallowing a bite of ice cream. He’s sitting close to me. So close that I can feel his body heat, which is somehow even more comforting than the cozy sweatshirt I’m wearing. “You have great taste, Roberts.”

“I know,” I say with a smile as I lick a droplet of ice cream from my finger. I’m hyper aware of the way his eyes follow my movement, how they linger on my mouth.

And I like it. A lot.

“Glad we didn’t stay strangers,” he says, and the sleeve of his jacket scrapes tantalizingly along my skin as he casually moves his arm.

He’s so casual, so composed. And I’m… well, I’m melting faster than the ice cream cone in my hand.

A veritable puddle of a person.

“Me too,” I say into the night, my eyes on some headlights moving down the highway because I hardly dare look at him.

Everything about Becks captivates me. Draws me in. Makes me want more. He fits in with my friends, my family, even my apartment building, with an ease that makes it feel like he’s a piece of the puzzle that’s been there forever, but is finally in its correct place. Finally where it was always meant to be.

And while all of that feels so right, it also feels… scary. Like I made the decision to do this because I was sure I could protect myself from getting hurt at the end of it, but somehow, I’m already falling for him too fast, too hard, and in a way I can’t prevent. In a way that I won’t be able to escape.

In a way that I don’twantto escape.

Sure, this is a budding summer romance, but even though I know this is all it can and will be, it already doesn’t feel likejusta summer romance. It feels like something bigger. Something that’s going to leave its mark on me when it inevitably ends, however that mark may look.

And instead of fleeing the idea of potentially being hurt again, I’m leaning right in.

I scoot impossibly closer to him. Lay my head on his shoulder like it’s something I’ve done a million times before. Soft suede-like material against my cheek. Woodsy, fresh scent in my nose. My stomach is full of a million butterflies, all vibrating in anticipation of…. something.

“I’m always going to remember this summer,” Becks says suddenly, like he’s reading my mind.

“Agreed,” I reply. “This will always be the summer I got locked in the elevator, trapped on the fire escape, stuck in the laundry room…”

I feel his smile in his voice. “The summer you experienced all of the above with your charming, handsome new neighbor.”

I chuckle. “The summer my incredibly modest new neighbor hit a whole new level of humble.”

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