“You think Emma was lying to me?” She sounds shocked.
“I don’t know. Kind of hard to believe it when I’ve never heard that rumor ever.”
“Were you ever friends with…Jonah?”
What the fuck? “No,” I bite out.
“I guess when we were together, he went to Emma and asked for advice about what would get me to…loosen up, are the words she used,” Addie admits, dipping her head.
I grip the steering wheel tight, fighting the anger that courses through me. Feels like Emma is trying to make her best friend feel like shit, which is all sorts of fucked up. “Do you believe her?”
“Tori confirmed it, so yeah. It’s almost like Emma is lashing out because she’s upset over Marcus,” Addie says to her lap.
“She’s acting like a bitch,” I say, not holding back.
“Yeah.” Addie lifts her head, staring out the window. “She is.”
“I’m sorry she upset you. And I probably shouldn’t have called your best friend a bitch,” I say.
“No, it’s okay. She is acting like one.” Addie flashes me a quick smile, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about her anymore. Or me. How was your weekend?”
“It was all right. Kind of boring. We won Friday, like I told you. The team did good. I hung out with Dom Saturday. We played video games like…all day,” I admit.
“Sounds fun,” she says.
“We should go out with him and Tori sometime. It’ll be fun. Just the four of us,” I say as I turn onto a road that takes us to the other side of the lake—the tourist side, where all the campgrounds, resorts and restaurants are, plus a few giant badass houses that sit practically on the water.
“Like a double date?” she asks.
“Definitely like one.” I pull into a mostly empty parking lot that’s a day-use area. No one is really around. The sun has already set and it’s pretty dark outside. I park in a space that faces the water and roll down the windows before shutting off the engine, turning so I can look over at Addie.
“Beck…” Her voice drifts, and she looks away, staring out her open window, her back to me. Her hair is perfectly straight and she’s wearing a simple white tank that makes her skin look tan.
I want to touch all of that skin. Explore her with my hands and my mouth. What she said Emma told her just sounds like an insult slung by a jealous friend. Addie isn’t cold. At least, she’s not with me.
She’s the farthest thing from an ice queen.
“What?” I ask, when she still hasn’t finished whatever she wanted to say.
Taking a deep breath, she turns to face me. “What exactly are we doing?”
I frown. “What do you mean? We’re just hanging out.”
“Is that how you view this…whatever it is we’ve got going on? Hanging out?” She raises her brows.
“I was talking about right now,” I say with a chuckle. “But if you’re talking about us, and how I feel about you…”
It’s hard to put into words my feelings for Addie, when my emotions for this girl are so vast. From the moment I met her, I felt connected to her, even when we were little and playing together at recess. When she’d come over to my house for playdates and my friends would make fun of me for hanging out with a girl.
I think I loved her, even back then.
It’s turned into something bigger than that. Better. Far better than anything I’ve ever experienced. I knew there was a reason I was so stuck on her. Even when we were just friends. Even when I was with someone else.
This girl is just it for me.
The only one.
“Adds…hold on.” I climb out of the car before she can say a word and jog over to the other side, opening her door. “Come with me.”
She’s watching me with wide eyes as she steps out of the 4Runner, her expression wary. I take her hand and lead her over to an empty picnic table, settling on the bench so my back is against the table and I’m facing the lake. I pull Addie’s hand so she has no choice but to sit on my lap, and she releases my hand so she can slip her arm around my shoulders.
Our faces are so close, it would be easy to kiss her. Instead, I search her gaze with mine, hating how nervous she looks.
She has to know how I feel about her, right?
Maybe not.
“I’ve wasted enough time when it comes to you,” I admit, reaching up to touch her cheek. Her eyes never leave mine, and I swear she’s holding her breath. “I’m falling in love with you, Adds.”
She doesn’t even blink. “What?”
“Yeah, there’s no falling.” I brush her mouth with mine before I pull away. “I’m in love with you.”
“Beck…”
“I know what you’re going to say, that we haven’t been together long enough or whatever, but I feel like I’ve been falling in love with you for years. I was just too much of a dumbass to do anything about it.” It’s all true. Even when I was with Sasha, I wanted to be with Addie.
Last year, like a complete idiot, I truly believed Addie didn’t want to be with me. That she only saw me as a friend. But I was wrong.
And I’m so glad we figured this out before we lost our chance to be together for real.
I drift my fingers down her cheek, emotion surging inside of me when her eyes fall closed, her lips parting. I trace her jaw, her bottom lip with shaky fingers. “I love you, Adds. And I want you to be my girlfriend.”
Her eyes slowly open, and they’re fucking glowing. “Okay. I’ll be your girlfriend.”
I wait for her to say something else. The most important thing. And from the smile curling her lips, I think she might be dragging it out on purpose. Fucking with me. “And?” I raise a brow.
She laughs, and it’s the most joyous sound. “I love you too, Beck.”
I kiss her because I’m tired of wasting time with this girl. Knowing that she loves me, that she wants to be with me…
Nothing is better than this moment, right here. Right now.
We kiss until our mouths are tired and our clothes are rumpled. Until it’s close to midnight and we’re shivering from the cold breeze blowing off the lake and our overwhelming emotions. She’s snuggled so close to me, I don’t know where I end and she begins, and when I tilt her face up, taking in her swollen lips and sleepy expression, I know I’ll never forget this night for as long as I fucking live.
“I need to get you home,” I whisper, kissing the tip of her nose before I press my forehead to hers. “It’s late.”
“My mom is going to kill me, and I don’t even care,” she whispers, a giddy smile on her face. “This was such a bad day, and you turned it into my most favorite day, ever.”
I cup the back of her head, my fingers threaded in her silky dark hair. “I love you.”
It’s like I can’t stop saying it. And when she grins and says, “I love you too,” I can’t get enough of hearing her say it either.
Fuck, I’m in deep.
And I don’t mind. Not at all.
“Come on.” I lightly smack the side of her bare thigh, making her yelp. It was torture, having her sit on my lap the entire time in those little cotton shorts she’s wearing. She even straddled me at one point, her knees digging into the wood bench, until it got too painful for her.