Page 54 of When We Were Reckless
Now we were sitting side by side, watching the movie on a fifty-foot screen at the drive-in one town over. Jesse drove his Silverado tonight and had reserved a spot right up front. Then he’d set up two striped beach chairs in front of his truck with a cooler filled with drinks. Like he’d planned this whole thing. Which he had.
Was this a date?
Sweat slicked my skin and gathered at the backs of my thighs. I lifted my hair off my neck and gathered it into a high ponytail, securing it with the elastic band on my wrist. It had been a hundred degrees today, and although it had cooled off after the sun went down, it was still hotter than balls out here.
Jesse took the tub of popcorn out of my lap and handed me a cold drink from the cooler. I thanked him and pressed the bottle against my forehead before I unscrewed the lid.
I side-eyed him. He was looking all chilled and relaxed in a Quiksilver T-shirt, shorts, and Vans. He still dressed the same as he did as a teen. I kind of loved that. Even though he had changed a lot in the past year, I took comfort in the fact that his fashion sense hadn’t. His T-shirts were always faded and so soft. I had to wrap both hands around the bottle to keep myself from reaching over and touching him.
“Why did you bring me here tonight?”
“I thought you’d like it.” He leaned his head against the back of his chair and turned his face toward me. “And I missed hanging out with you. You’ve been avoiding me, Sunshine Girl.”
He hadn’t posed it as a question, but he was waiting for an explanation. As if he didn’t know why I’d been avoiding him.
I took a swig of Arizona Iced Tea to buy me a little time. Green tea with honey, my favorite. He knew that too, which was why he’d brought them for me. “Can you blame me?”
He smiled a little. “No. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“You can’t always get what you want.”
“I know that.”
Yeah, I guess he did. But for a while, he had everything he’d always wanted. The career that had earned him millions. The jet-set lifestyle. And the girl of his dreams.
Was it better to get what you want, only to lose it all? I wouldn’t know.
I faced the screen again, a small smile playing on my lips when I saw in my peripheral that he was watching me and not the movie. I wish I knew what he was thinking. I wish I could get into his head and read his thoughts.
Were they dirty? Sweet? Did he ever dream of me the way I dreamed about him? Of course, he didn’t. I sighed. Stupid heart.
Time was moving too quickly. At the end of August, I'll be headed to college.
The closer it got to leaving, the more nervous I felt. I had these butterflies in my stomach that never seemed to go away. It was a big step, the first time I’d be away from my home and my family—the start of a whole new adventure.
It felt like I was standing at the edge of a cliff, about to jump off. So, I was excited but nervous and scared too.
And then there was Jesse.
Every time I thought about leaving him, it made me sad. A guy who wasn’t even mine. A guy who was sitting right next to me. So it was stupid that I missed him already.
When we were at the waterfall, and I’d made that wish on a star, I wished that Jesse would move back to California. A lot of freestyle riders lived there, so my wish wasn’t entirely selfish. It was for him too.
Had he made a wish that night? If he had, I wondered what it had been. His wish probably had nothing to do with me.
Chapter Nineteen
Quinn
“You planned this whole thing,”I accused as he followed me up the stairs to the second floor. When I reached my bedroom door, I whirled around to face him.
“It’s hot. What better way to cool off than a dip in the pool?” He smiled at me, feigning innocence, and held up the boardshorts in his hand, jerking his chin toward the end of the hall. “I’ll change in the bathroom.”
“I’m not wearing a bikini.”
He pressed his lips together and crossed his arms over his chest like I was unreasonable. “It’ll be dark. And it’s just the two of us.”
“Exactly.” I slammed my bedroom door shut, not sure why I was so angry.
