Page 131 of The Lilac River

“Maybe,” I admitted, my chest tight. “Is that okay?”

She looked up at me through her lashes, all soft and open. “More than okay.”

My heart was pounding so hard I was sure she could hear it echoing between us. The air around us thickened, charged like the sky before a summer storm. Something electric passed between us, and I felt like one wrong move would send it all crashing down. I shifted a little closer, moving slow, leaving enough space for her to pull away if she wanted.

She didn’t.

Instead, she leaned toward me. Just a little. Just enough.

“Can I—” I started, but the words got stuck in my throat.

“Yes,” she whispered.

I hesitated for just a heartbeat. I’d kissed a few girls before, mostly at parties, mostly after too much beer, but nothing had ever felt like this. This felt magnetic. It felt magical. It felt like the first page of something I wanted to read a thousand times. Important.

Carefully, I reached out and brushed my thumb across her cheek. Her skin was warm from the sun, impossibly soft. When I leaned in and pressed my lips to hers, something inside me clicked into place. Like I’d found something I didn’t even know I’d been missing.

Her lips were soft, tentative at first, like she was figuring it out along with me. Then she pressed more firmly into it. Her hand slid up to rest against my chest, right over my heart, and I swear it was going to break through my ribs. I slid my fingers into her hair, cradling the back of her head like she was fragile, too precious to be real. When she sighed into my mouth, I almost lost it.

I pulled back just enough to look at her, to see if this was real. Her eyes fluttered open, blue as a mountain lake under the sun. She smiled, and something in me cracked wide open.

“Wow,” she breathed.

“Yeah,” I said, finally finding my voice. “I’ve wanted to do that since the first day I saw you.”

“Really?” She bit her bottom lip, and I nearly groaned at how cute she looked. Those soft pink lips and the way her teeth sank into them, like she didn’t even know the effect she had on me.

“God, yes,” I said honestly. “I’ve been driving my brothers crazy talking about you. My little brother, Wilder, is pretty sure you’re a fairy princess or something. He is only nine, though.”

She laughed then, bright and sweet and the sound wrapped around my chest like a string, tying me to her forever.

“Nash Miller,” she said, her fingers reaching up to trace my jaw. “I think you might be trouble.”

“The best kind,” I said, grinning. And I leaned in again.

This time, when our lips met, I didn’t hesitate. I kissed her like I’d been dreaming about for weeks. With everything I had, with everything I was.

And when she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me back just as fiercely, I knew it.

My life would never be the same again.

Lily

I’d never been kissed before.

Not really.

Tommy Bradshaw had tried back in seventh grade during a game of spin the bottle, but I’d turned my head at the last second and his lips had landed somewhere near my cheekbone. That didn’t count.

This? This was entirely different.

This was Nash Miller.

The boy every girl at Sundance County High noticed. The one with the easy swagger, the football jersey that clung to his broad shoulders, and a grin that looked like it came with a warning label. The one who could’ve had anyone, but for some reason... he’d chosen me.

When his lips touched mine, it felt like the world stilled. His kiss was soft but certain, and the warmth that bloomed in my chest spread all the way to my toes. His hand in my hair was gentle, reverent, like he couldn’t believe I was real.

And I couldn’t believe he was kissing me.