Page 18 of Yours for the Weekend

Casey captures my hands as I try to pull the blindfold off.

“Not yet,” she whispers before finding my lips with hers.

I gasp into her mouth, not expecting her to kiss me.

And I don’t know if it’s the anticipation over the night or the sensory deprivation the blindfold provides, but this kiss is electric.

It sends ripples across my skin. My belly tightens, and I can’t get enough.

I grab her by the back of the neck, locking her in place, as I deepen the kiss.

“Fuck, Dakota,” Casey moans. She tones down the intensity before having to practically pry my hands from her neck until she can put some space between us. Casey laughs and pulls my hands to her face to kiss my knuckles. “As much as I want to continue this, I would like to take you to dinner first.”

“Fine.” I pout until there’s a sharp nip on my bottom lip, and I squeal.

“I told you to put that lip away or I’d bite it.”

I laugh as Casey’s car door opens.

“Give me a second, I’m coming to help you,” she says.

I’m glad Casey’s out of the car so she can’t see how wide I’m smiling, my fingertips lingering on my bottom lip. My car door opens faster than I expected.

“Awh, did that hurt?” Casey softly kisses my lip, also catching the tips on my fingers. “All better?”

“Much,” I say. She helps me out. “Now can I please take this off?”

“Almost,” she promises before leading me forward.

I’m squirming under the blindfold, anticipating a crowd of people coming and going from the restaurant looking at me funny.

I wonder where we are. If it’s one of our favorite places or something new to try.

I’ve been on many dates the past few weeks, and I’m kind of hoping she doesn’t take us to one of the places I went with someone else.

I know this is a lot of pressure to put on a first date, but I want this to be really special.

“There’s a curb—yep, perfect,” Casey guides.

I frown. It’s eerily quiet—no chatter or the purr of car engines—the only sound I can pick up on is distant bird song and the faint rustling of leaves.

Where the hell are we?

My confusion grows as we walk for seemingly forever. “Casey?” I ask. “You’re not taking me somewhere to murder me, right?”

Casey barks out a laugh. “Five more steps.”

“That’s not an answer.”

Casey laughs harder, knowing I’m only joking. Of course, I don’t think she’s going to kill me, but I’m desperate to know where we are.

“Casey, seriously, I?—”

Casey unties the knot and removes the blindfold.

I blink once. Then twice. Then oh, my god.

The scene before me is beautiful. A thick picnic blanket is spread out with an assortment of food.

Meats, crackers, jams and jellies, cheeses, fruits, chunks of ciabatta bread with a Tupperware of oil.

A bottle of white wine chills in an ice bucket.

Two empty stemless wineglasses rest on either side.

And there are candles—so many candles—that glow in the setting sun.

Rose petals are spread everywhere. The sight is gorgeous, except I’m confused by one part: the setting.

The picnic is set up inside a dugout.

“Casey, this is amazing. I’m just …”

“Dakota, I’ve been captivated by you since the moment I first saw you. I walked up to the field for our first kickball game together, and all I could hear was your laugh. I smiled at the sound … and then you turned around, and you took my breath away. I was so nervous to talk to you.”

“ You? ” I gape. Casey is so confident and so gorgeous, it shocks me to think she’d be nervous to talk to me .

She smiles softly. “Yes. And then I realized how close you were with Nina, and you have no idea how pissed I was to find out she met you first. Nina and I had some history, and I wanted nothing to do with her, so I avoided you both.”

I knew they didn’t get along, but I don’t know the details beyond them butting heads their previous season of kickball together.

“I told myself it wasn’t a big deal. I tried to convince myself I wouldn’t like you, anyway. I mean, you were all smitten over Nina, so I side-eyed your taste in women.”

“Casey!” I slap her arm then laugh.

She chuckles. “I did a great job avoiding you, but I couldn’t help notice how you were everyone’s loudest cheerleader.

You were the first to celebrate someone getting on base or whenever we got the other team out.

You had this energetic personality that radiated warmth and kindness, and I admired you so much.

It was hard to keep my distance. And then you approached me right here in this very dugout.

We were on a break the night of a doubleheader. ”

“I remember.”

How could I forget? It was the night we bonded over our homophobic family members. It felt so good to have someone understand and to call out the hypocrisy with. It was validating. And it was the start of our friendship.

“I couldn’t avoid you after that. And even though you were with Nina—and I’d never admit it to myself—I think a part of me started falling in love with you that night.”

A wave of shock ripples through me.

She pauses, licks her lips. “You asked me if I thought we would have given it a shot if I met you first. And I do think everything happens for a reason, but I’ve spent years wishing I did meet you first. But I made myself shove that all down, ignore it until I could almost believe the lie that I felt nothing more than friendship for you.

“I never thought you’d want anything more than that from me. Not even at the lake house. I was so happy to be that person to help you move on, but still, even then, I never thought you’d choose me. That you’d want me ? — ”

“Case.” I clutch her hands in mine.

“—because no one ever chooses me. Not Fiona, who picked starting fresh over trying to make things work with me. Not Aaron, who I caught messaging his ex how much he missed her and wanted another chance. Hell, this is why I’ve been with Marcus so long.

I knew I’d never truly love him, so I was never at risk of getting my heart broken again. ”

Casey’s hurt and vulnerability has tears welling in my eyes. All I want to do is hug her, but I can tell she needs to finish this.

“So I pushed you away,” Casey says, voice raw. “Yes, I thought dating other people would help you realize Nina wouldn’t be the only person you could love, but my feelings for you were becoming impossible to ignore, and I had to put some space between us before they suffocated me.

“Yet I hated seeing you go on date after date. It was a selfish relief, they never went well. Until Remi.” Casey sighs.

“I know I was an asshole last night to her. I tried so hard to be your supportive best friend, but it killed me thinking you two were hitting it off. I kept imagining you falling in love with someone else— again —and I could hardly stomach it. So, yeah, I acted petty and immature and tried to make you jealous with Josh.”

“Yeah, who the hell was that guy?”

Casey cringes. “He’s no one, honestly. This random guy who messaged me on Instagram. But he’s beside the point. Look, your happiness is the most important thing to me—even if it’s not with me—so I shouldn’t have been so immature.”

I squeeze her hands. “But I’m my happiest when I am with you.”

Tears are falling from both our eyes. I wipe them from her cheeks then cradle her face in my hand. “And I do,” I say softly. “I choose you. Today. Tomorrow. And every day you’ll let me. I want you , Casey Elizabeth Greene.”

“You have me, Dakota Lynn Spring,” she whispers.

I pull her into my arms. We hold each other for a long time.

“Sorry,” Casey says, a little breathlessly. “I didn’t mean to make us cry. Not exactly the best first date behavior.”

“Stop,” I say. “This is the perfect first date.”

Casey smiles shyly, and I kiss her.

“I love you,” I whisper against her lips.

“I love you too.”

She chuckles, and I wipe away a stray tear from her face .

“Now,” I say, “let’s eat.”

Casey explains the various cheeses she picked out, and we sample some new things and devour our charcuterie staples.

We playfully argue over who gets to plan the next date.

We eat and talk until our stomachs are full and our cheeks hurt from smiling.

We pack up the picnic and go for a drive that ends with ice cream.

We laugh and talk about my mix of excitement for a new class with being bummed summer is over.

She shares how stressed her team was with the campaign, yet still found ways to joke to defuse the ever-growing tension.

Her coworkers are some of her closest friends, and it turns out one of them, Jessie, is the person to help her set up the date and make sure it was ready to go before we arrived.

I gasp when I hear Jessie made some obscene gestures while sneaking out as Casey led me to the dugout then smile at hearing how Jessie sweetly wished Casey luck and has texted approximately twenty-two times asking how the date went.

Casey and I spend hours together, and it only feels like minutes. And when we finally make it back to Casey’s house, we find another use for the blindfold.