Page 73 of Come As You Are

“Do you not remember how firmly you said that you had no interest in being with any guys when we established that ridiculous pact? Because you were pretty damn clear. And then Jenna came by and flirted with me, and I guess I just… also wanted to be with someone who wanted me back. She clearly wasn’t taking it seriously, and I figured it’d help me get over you, but.”

“My charm was too much to resist?”

“Something like that.” He wraps his arms around me and pulls me onto his lap, and he feels so warm and so good, moresolid than you’d think considering his skin-and-bones build. “I wasn’t a hundred percent honest about what Jenna said when she ended it.”

“She didn’t say she thought you were into me?”

“Oh, she did,” he says with a wry smile, “but she didn’t care about that; she’s always figured. It was everyoneelseknowing it that was where she drew the line. Somehow she figured out a song about having patience and being in it for the long haul was… not about me and her, and she did not appreciate my singing it publicly.”

Now it’s my turn to say “Oh.”

That song. That gorgeous song.Oursong. Hot damn.

“Yeah. It didn’t exactly make me feel optimistic when you ran out after hearing it,” he says with a low laugh. “And I knew I was an asshole for singing it. I hadn’t planned to. But then you did that ridiculous card-trick show and you were just so… I had to.”

“Of all things to trigger it.” I bury my face in his shoulder, smothering my laugh in the flannel. “That stupid talent show. God. I heard you singing that song, and I thought it was for Jenna, and it also reminded me of Craig and Sierra, and Lucas, and I couldn’t stand it. That’s why I ran out. But for what it’s worth”—I look up, meeting his affectionate gaze with mine—“it was extremely hot.”

“Was it now?”

“It really, really was. Like, irritatingly hot. Taking the rock-star cliché just a little too far. Ten out of ten would throw my bra onstage.”

That low laugh again, warm against my ear, tingling downto my toes. “Would also accept that lace thing you bought at the mall. I am a big fan of that lace thing. That lace thing is at least sixty-nine percent responsible for my poor decision-making at the talent show.”

“Noted,” I say with a wicked little grin that has him biting the corner of his mouth. “So now you know everything.” I rest my chin on his shoulder. “You still wanna be with me? This is your last call to bail. After this, you’re required by law to be on my side for everything.”

“That’s the dating law, huh?”

“I mean, I only have an incredibly awful dating history, but I’m pretty sure that’s how it works.”

“Okay then.”

“Okay?” I look up at him, imagining hope shining in my eyes making me look like a Disney character.

His lips curve into a smile. “Okay. I’m on your side for everything, Peach.”

“You’re really sticking with ‘Peach’?”

“Feels like one should probably not call the girl he’s kissing ‘Skeevy,’ but I can go back to that if—”

“Don’t you fucking dare.” Truthfully, “Peach” has kinda grown on me.

And then another thought hits, and I drop my gaze down to my hands. “I really, really hate that you’re not my first kiss here.”

He lifts one of those hands and gently bites my thumb. “You weren’t mine either—who cares? I’m pretty sure the point of being in a relationship is for someone to be your last, not your first.”

Just like that, I feel the last of the bricks weighing my shoulders down fall away, and I settle into the warm flannel feel of him, curling into his arms exactly as I’ve been dying to do for days. “You know, for someone who floated into Camden on a cloud of pot smoke, you are oddly profound, Sammy.”

He snakes an arm around my waist and turns me, quick as lightning, so that our lips are mere inches apart. “For fuck’s sake, please just call me Salem,” he mutters before kissing me into oblivion.

Chapter Eighteen

IWAKE UP THE NEXT MORNINGwith my lips feeling bruised and my brain feeling dangerously full of happiness and excitement in a way I haven’t felt in… ever, maybe? Which of course means I immediately assume it was all either a dream or a mistake, and any minute now Salem’s going to wake up and tell me the latter.

But when my phone does light up with a text from him, all it says isBeast in 5?

Despite the fact that Salem and I do eat many of our meals together, we’ve never, ever planned it, which does seem to confirm the possibility that last night was real and there will be more kissing in our future. I text back a quick confirmation, and then look at the other text that’d been waiting for me this morning.

Sabrina

---