Page 13 of Sweet Summer

I’m going to tell him how I feel.

I am going to tell him how I feel and I am going to do it right now!!

I sit up, the television flickering its lights across the darkened room, and I stare at him. He turns to look at me, pointing to the TV and laughing at the scene where JenniferGrey as Baby shows up to the party carrying a watermelon. Patrick Swayze asks why she's there, and her answer? “I carried a watermelon” and it’s always cracked us up.

Wyatt starts to turn away, only he doesn’t. His eyes meet mine and they lock.

This is my chance. Now or never. I can do this.

“Wyatt?”

“Yes?”

Can we try again? Would you try to kiss me one more time so I can react differently?“I have something I really want to say to you.”

He looks at me, his face clouding with concern. “Are you okay?”

“Yes I am. I—”I want to tell you I’ve been thinking about you non-stop since I saw you the other day, but guess what? I’ve already talked myself out of it because I’m a chicken. “I want to say thank you. For today.”

He cocks his head to one side and looks at me weird, but that’s par for the course with us. Crisis of the heart averted.

For now.

CHAPTER 7

Freya

Sprawled out on a red-checkered picnic blanket, Wyatt rolls over dramatically and grabs my arm. “My stomach is going to explode. I’m having a Red Bird baby. Can you please call for help?”

I grin as a few of our picnic-blanket neighbors sitting around us shush Wyatt for speaking up so loudly. He catches my eye, and we both throw our hands to our mouths, stopping ourselves from laughing out loud and making the other folks here irritated. The past few days have kept us both busy, but we managed to find time to make a date for Lake Lorelei’s Movie Night in the Park. After a few hours together, my sides already hurt from laughing.

The makeshift screen in front of us flashes with special effects from a scene in the movie we’re watching. Like Wyatt noted, it’s no Dirty Dancing, but it’ll do. Thank goodness Maisey had enough forethought to hook me up with a picnic basket full of goodies for dinner as well. If the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach, I was on the winning side of things with Wyatt tonight.

“Pass me another slice of pie, would ya?”

I lean on my arm and push myself up so I’m sitting with legs crossed beside Wyatt, who is now holding out his hand in wait. We’ve both been occupied with our responsibilities; he’s been at the fire station non-stop getting ready for the parade, giving tourists tours of the station, and helping the team with safety measures around the fireworks display. I think he even said he’d been wrangled into an extra shift, while I’d been held captive at Red Bird by Maisey, assisting her with the picnic baskets she made for movie night as well as pre-ordered July Fourth meals for tomorrow night’s fireworks extravaganza. The woman gets up before five in the morning every day and goes to bed by ten every night—and I still can’t understand how she gets it all done.

I want to say I’ve been so busy I’ve not even had a chance to think about Wyatt, but the reality is that he’s all that’s been on my mind. That, and where I’m going to live in a few months’ time.

During my shift today, when I was restocking the sugar caddies, Maisey asked me again if I had thought more about moving home. I didn’t want to get her hopes up, but I did tell her that I was still considering it because it’s a strong possibility. When she asked if I would be coming back for me or Wyatt, I stopped what I was doing to stare at her, a little miffed.

“Do you think I would only move back here because of a guy?” I shoved a sugar packet in its place, a little too vigorously because the packet ripped open and sprayed sugar crystals all over the counter. “I’m capable of making a decision that’s based on what I want to do, you know.”

Maisey laughed at me. Not with me, because I wasn’t laughing, but at me. She sat down at the counter in front of where I stood and took the caddy out of my hands.

“I’m not asking if you would be moving back for Wyatt, I’m simply asking if you are. But I want you to know that ifWyatt is included in your reasons why, I think that’s okay. More than okay, really.”

I leveled my gaze at her. “Well, then, it’s a strong yes that I’m coming back. As for where Wyatt fits and if he fits, I have no clue.” I closed my eyes and rubbed my chin, which looked good from the makeup I had on it but still hurt. “I kinda realized over the last few days that I may really feel something for him, but I’m not sure because he’s also really hot and a fireman, so maybe I’m just man-deprived after all of my failed relationships?”

Ooof. That came out all at once.

Maisey tilted her head to one side and swallowed a laugh. She reached out and grabbed my hand, shaking it vigorously. “Congratulations for finally realizing what you have right in front of you. One thing I can say in my experience is that when you find someone who hits you here”—she tapped her heart with the open palm—”you do what you can to not let them go. So, what’s the plan with Wyatt?”

My stomach filled with butterflies. “The plan is…well—I guess we might…”

“Oh boy.” Maisey rolled her eyes. “You’re not good at this, are you?”

I shook my head from side to side as I continued to rub my temples. “Not really. But I’m also still injured from the raft race so that could be affecting me.”

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