Page 28 of One Last Time

A quiet hum escaped my lips and I leaned toward him, too. “Say that again.”

“I’m in love with you.”

“Yeah, you are.” I grabbed his face, pulling his lips toward mine. I could taste the coffee on them he’d been drinking when I arrived, and I kissed him deeper, my fingers threading through his hair.

I leaned back and Noah moved with me, falling on top of me and just about catching his weight on one elbow, chuckling as his head shifted so he could kiss my neck.

“I thought you said I had packing to do?” he murmured against my skin.

I laughed, dragging his mouth back to mine. “Shut up.”

• • •

“Don’t forget to pack these,” I said, grabbing the pair of Superman underwear from the pile Noah had dumped on the bed earlier and throwing them at him. He caught them deftly in one hand just before they hit him in the face.

One day, I might stop finding it hilarious that badass Noah Flynn wore Superman undies, but that day wasn’t coming up anytime soon.

“Okay, so I’m gonna run back home to pick up some bras and then come back here so we can leaveon time.I swear. Hand on heart.”

“Yeah, yeah. Hey, don’t forget this one.”

He picked my bra up off the floor to toss at me.

“Shoot. Thanks. And don’t you guysdarego without me.”

“Elle, you’re driving. And Lee won’t have room because he’s picking up Rachel, so I couldn’t leave without you even if I wanted to.”

He had a point, but we were still on a schedule—mainly enforced by Rachel. I gave him a brief kiss before hurrying home, where I shoved a handful of bras into my purse, relieved that my dad had taken Brad to a movie so I didn’t have to say goodbye again.

Back at Lee and Noah’s, I found them packing up the cars. Noah was loading our bags into the trunk of my beat-up old Ford. I joined him there, moving my stash of bras from my purse to my suitcase and pointedly ignoring the way they raised their eyebrows at each other.

“Told you she’d be late,” Lee said.

“I’m not late,” I objected. “You guys are just early.”

Lee’s phone pinged with a text and he waved his phone in our direction. “That’s Rachel, wondering if I’m on my way yet. You sure you’ve got everything this time, Shelly?”

“Uh, pretty sure,” I said, going back through my mental checklist. Wait—did I pack conditioner?

Lee must’ve known what I was doing, because he got quickly into his car and leaned out the window to say “We’ll see you guys there, yeah?”

“See ya,” we both called.

“Are yousureyou don’t want me to drive?” Noah asked as we got into my car.

“Oh, come on. I’m not that bad! And you just have to ignore that sputtering sound when I turn the engine on.” I patted the dash affectionately and started the car, not missing Noah’s uneasy grimace when the engine gave its trademark sputter.

My car’s air-conditioning left a little something to be desired, so I rolled down the windows and put on my sunglasses, grinning at Noah. “Here’s to the start of the best summer ever.”

Earlier this year, Lee and I had driven cross-country to Harvard for spring break. It had all gone by too quickly and it was a little rushed, but it had been a lot of fun. And right now, with the wind in my hair and the sun on my face and the radio blaring, it felt like I was back there, crossing off the thing on everyone’s bucket list and having the best damn time.

And speaking of bucket lists…I really,reallyhad to make it up to Lee this summer.

I felt a pang of guilt that it was Noah here with me now, and it was starting to look like it was always going to be Noah over Lee. I couldn’t imagine how my life would be without Lee in it so much—and honestly, I’d kind of gotten used to Noah not being around every day.

I was starting to think of all the ways Noah might start slotting into Lee’s place in my life once this summer was over. Movie nights, trips to the mall…entire weekends spent beating our own high score on a video game.

Would it get to be too much?