First

‘Where can I put this condom?’

When I make a face, he chuckles. ‘Hey, brown eyes, welcome to adult world. It isn’t always pretty like the movies say.’

‘There’s a Ziploc in the console.’

He picks up the bag and eyes it. ‘There are goldfish crackers in here.’

‘I got hungry. They were stale anyway.’

He grumbles something, but turns as much away from me as possible to clean himself up and drag his jeans back on. He notices my water bottle and wets a section of the beach towel. I’m shushed when I reach for it and he attends to my sore flesh with familiar meticulousness. Once I’m wiped clean, he bends down and presses a kiss to my newly-christened womanhood.

It doesn’t take him long to hunt down all my clothes. He helps me get dressed.

‘You okay?’ he asks as I finish shrugging into my shirt.

‘A little sore.’

His hand around the base of my neck pulls me to him for a slow kiss. ‘Sorry for that.’

‘I’m not.’

‘No?’

‘I wouldn’t have wanted it to be anyone but you.’

His fingers intertwine with mine and my eyes burn when I realise we’re saying goodbye.

‘You’ve got to get back,’ he says quietly. ‘Jake’ll be worried.’

‘Will you call me to tell me when you reach Arizona?’

‘’Course, babe.’

He gets out of Old Blue first and I follow, legs a little wobbly. He snags his shirt from my front seat and drags it on. I hand him his wallet and walk him to his bike. My hands hold his face still as I go up on tiptoe to kiss him one final time. ‘Love you, Dally.’

He doesn’t stop at my pronouncement, doesn’t reel from it. He just gives me that cheeky grin, as if I tell him that every day. ‘See you, brown eyes.’

I turn my back to him, refusing to stand awkwardly and draw this farewell out any longer than necessary. He’s doing exactly what I asked. After all the sacrifices he’s made for my family, it would be cruelly selfish to ask him to stay.

And even if he’s gone, I was able to tell him the truth before he left.

I am in love with Dallas Miller.

I think I always have been.

Day 5

— Early Morning

I fill up Old Blue once I get back to town. I decide to not go home; I’m still too raw from my interlude with Dally to go face Jake. Maya’s apartment is a safer haven. It’s early, nearly six, but she tends to rise with the sun.

My knock clearly didn’t interrupt her sleep, since I hear her walking toward the door. She must look through the peephole because she mutters, ‘Catherine?’ and the locks are undone.

‘Maya, I had to tell someone—’

I trail off when my mind fully processes what I’m seeing. Maya tugs the sheet more tightly around her.

‘Oh, I’ll come back,’ I mumble, horrified I’ve interrupted one of the rare moments she gets with her mystery man.