Page 25

Cam

Family dinner – caption on Cam’s social media post – a video of Sadie, Allie, Luke, Bea, Rhett, Devon, Betty, Spaghetti, Dandy, and Boo around the dining table in Sadie and Cam’s backyard, July 9th

Sadie scoops Boo up off the ground, cradling him in her arms as we stand in the front doorway, waving goodbye to our friends. I installed a cat door for him a couple of days ago, and he’s been in and out ever since. He’s still skittish, but he likes Sadie. I get it.

“Do you think we should tell them?” she asks, after I shut the front door and we move back inside.

“Tell them what?” I ask.

She sets the cat down, and he darts down the hallway. “That when we first got together, we were only pretending?”

“Maybe you were only pretending,” I say, sinking onto the couch. “I always wanted it to be real.”

Sadie opens the little wooden box on the table by the television where she keeps her weed. She pulls out the cutest damn pipe I’ve ever seen—a yellow and pink, hard-candy-shaped glass piece the size of her palm—and packs us a bowl.

“Did you really?” she asks.

“I did. I would’ve asked you to date me for real on that first night if I’d thought you’d go for it,” I say, leaning back on the couch.

“No, you wouldn’t have.” She waves me off.

“I would’ve,” I insist. “I always wanted you, from the first moment I saw you—and even more once I knew you.”

“You have no idea how true that is,” she says, passing me the hard-candy pipe.

“What do you mean by that?” I ask, taking a hit.

She smiles at me, looking wistful, then devious, then delighted. “Hold on,” she says, running down the hall toward her room.

It turns out I was right when I made up the story about us fighting over whose bed to sleep in. Mine’s bigger, but her bedding’s nicer. We switch back and forth almost every night, and we still haven’t moved all of our things into one room together.

My phone buzzes with a text.

Shane: I still can’t believe we get to be on a team together next year.

Me: Me neither. It’s going to be amazing.

The woman from Checkers Media turned out to be legit. The company wants to fund a superbike team, and they liked the way Shane and I work together. I get to scale way back on my social presence, and I’ll be paid to mentor Shane. It’s worked out perfectly—

Sadie walks down the hall, and my thoughts melt away. She’s wearing tiny cut-off denim shorts, rolled over at the waist, and a pink shirt cut to show the underside of her boobs that says Show Me Your Willie . She even twisted her hair into space buns.

Leaning on the doorframe between the living room and hallway, she asks, “Seem familiar?”

“You’re dressed up like my tattoo,” I answer, probably drooling.

“Not quite,” she laughs, picking up the hard - candy pipe from the table and taking a hit. “In the original costume, my shorts weren’t folded over, and my shirt wasn’t cut off. But this is the original shirt.”

“What do you mean, the original?” I ask.

“It was ten years ago, so I can’t totally hold it against you. But I have to say, I’m a little offended you haven’t put it together yet.” She sits on the couch next to me, her eyes sparkling with mischief.

The original costume. Is she saying—Could she be?

She passes me her phone, and on it is a picture of her with blonde space buns. She’s wearing—I look up and down from her shirt to the photo and back. It’s the same shirt. This is the picture.

“ You’re the girl I used for reference for my tattoo?” I chuckle, pulling her in for a kiss.

She giggles against my lips. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I am.”

“Fuck me. That’s incredible.” I lean back, unbuttoning my pants. “You’re going to love this.”

“ Damn , I knew you’d like the outfit,” she laughs. “But I didn’t think it would be this effective.”

“It is that effective,” I say. “But that’s not why I’m taking my pants off.” I pull down my boxer briefs too, showing her the pinup girl who now has pink space buns.

“Cam,” she gasps, trailing her fingertips along the tattoo. “When did you—why did you?”

“I had her do it while you were on the phone with your mom. I’ve been waiting for you to notice. I’m surprised you never did, but I guess I do a good job of keeping you distracted by other things when I have my pants off.”

“But why?” she asks, looking back up.

I pull my underwear and pants back up. “I wanted her to be you.”

Her lips turn into a touched pout. “But I won’t always have pink hair.”

“But you had pink hair when I fell in love with you, and that’s what I wanted to remember.”

She swings her leg around, so she’s straddling me. “Did you know one of the things on my list is keep a secret?”

“I don’t think so,” I say, running the backs of my fingers under her partially exposed breasts.

“It is, and I wanted it to be that. I thought it was funny that I knew, and you didn’t. But I’m glad I told you. I like it better this way.” She leans forward, kissing the back of my ear.

Why did I bother putting my pants back on?

“What if the fact that we were pretending to date in the beginning is your secret?” I ask.

“Ooh, I like that,” she says, popping back off my lap.

“Hey, wait! I wasn’t done with you,” I call as she runs back down the hall.

When she returns with her Try It notebook in hand, she tucks herself under my arm. “I’ve got to cross that off.”

I watch as she flips the pages, looking for the correct entry, and when she lands on have a secret , I see lower down on the same page, she’s crossed off have a good boyfriend .

Leaning down, I hook my finger under her chin and pull her lips toward mine. What I intended to be a soft, sweet kiss turns into something loaded and passionate. She turns toward me, grasping my shoulders, and my fingers dig into the soft flesh of her ass as I pull her across to straddle me.

“You have ride it like you stole it on that list, baby?” I ask, rocking my hips into her.

“Not yet, but I think I better hurry up and add it,” she giggles.