Page 169 of Our Scorching Summer

“Luca, think of Davide Benne,” Avery urges.

“It’s a tiebreaker, which means if we kiss, we’ve won. They don’tneedto,” he explains to Avery, but the host’s voice booms again, not giving her a chance to fight him on it.

“Who’d like to go first?”

Luca stands, extends his hand to help Avery to her feet, and walks with her toward the center of the stage. A bright, retina-searing light shines on them. Ave yanks at Luca’s tie, dragging his face to hers, and kisses him deeply. The crowd hoots with applause when my best friend walks back to her seat, her presence vivid enough to rival the sun.

“Now, our second couple.” The host waves at Nico and me, gesturing for us to take our places beneath the light.

Nico doesn’t move. His eyes run over my face as he waits for me to decide how we’re going to play this round of the game. My gaze bounces from the anticipatory crowd to Avery’s eyes, brimming with excitement, to Luca’s attempt at a neutral expression.

Oh, fuck it.

I hate being told what I can and can’t do. Even if it’s for my own good.

My hand wraps around Nico’s.

“Catch me,” I whisper against his ear and take the faintest breath, collapsing backward. Nico’s quick enough to piece together the move. His arms wrap around my waist for support as he catches me only a few inches from the stage floor. A beat of time passes as I hang in the warm hold of his embrace.

I connect my lips with his.

We kiss the kind of kiss that always fills me with an edge of worry and euphoria. It seems to last forever. Each swipe of our tongues is like a crawl to the finish line. For the sake of theatrics, I stretch one of my legs around Nico’s sturdy thigh.

The eruption from the audience is twice what it was for Avery and Luca.

“Looks like we have our winning couple,” the host says into the microphone, prompting Nico to pull me closer and lift me into a spin until I’m settled on my feet beside him. My head is dizzy from more than the silly performative swirl.

“We put on a good show.” I smile up at him, my heart beating fiercely in my chest.

“Two months of method acting will do that.”

* * *

Nico

r u gonna tell her?

Lily

Don’t think so :/ I can’t stress her out before our spa day

Nico

seems like it may be the best time to mention it

tomorrow is your bday, it would suck to do it then

Lily

I’ll worry about Ave. You worry about Luca not drowning you

Nico

he would miss me too much

would u miss me?

Of course I would.

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