Hold the Forevers

I didn’t know why Cole Davis had asked me out, but I knew it was a bad idea. I’d sworn off football players and dark hair and blue eyes. I’d sworn off broken hearts. I’d had one, and one was enough as far as I was concerned.

I was out of the room and into the hallway of Ramsey, the university gym, before I realized Cole was following me.

“Hey, wait up,” he said. As if he needed the help to catch me. “Where are you headed?”

I stopped in the hallway. “I don’t want to go to your party.”

“Okay. Well, what if we don’t go to the party tonight? We could hang out instead.”

“Don’t you have to go to the party?”

“Not if you don’t want to go,” he said with that same smile and those same blue eyes.

That wasn’t the response I’d expected. I tilted my head up to get another look at him, and all I found was sincerity. Cole was gorgeous and pursuing me, and every other girl would be dying for this to happen to them.

And I wanted to say yes.

I didn’t want to spend the next three years of college miserable all because one stupid boy had broken my heart.

“All right,” I said tentatively, releasing the tension in my shoulders. “What do you have in mind?”

His smile lit up his entire face when I said yes. I’d thought that damn smirk he always shot the camera was his real smile. But no, it was nothing like that. It was megawatt, full of joy, and completely irresistible. If he’d led with that, I might have said yes to the damn party. Fuck.

“Let me take care of that.” He slipped me his phone which I was jealous to see was the new iPhone. They’d been sold out in stores for months, and everyone was still raving about them after the first design had released last year. Of course, he’d have one. I entered my number into the shiny thing, still unable to believe this was happening to me. “I’ll pick you up at seven?”

“Sure,” I said, not able to hide my own smile. “See you then.”

My mind was still whirling when I pulled up in front of my dorm twenty minutes later. I didn’t even check my phone as I climbed the hill to the all-girls dorm, Brumby. If I had, I wouldn’t have been as shocked to find Josie sitting on the futon, watching a baking show.

“Josie! Oh my God!”

She jumped up from the futon and threw her arms around me. We swayed side to side with excitement. Josie—though she went by Josephine now—was one of my two best friends. She had grown up in Atlanta with her dad and spent summers in Savannah with her mom in her ridiculous mansion on the coast. We’d met at the age of six and looked forward to every summer together. Now, I was here in Athens, and she was full-time in Savannah at Savannah College of Art and Design, studying film.

“How did you get past security?” I gasped, releasing her.

She laughed, flipping her long black ponytail. “I smiled.”

Of course she had. “I completely forgot that you were coming into town this weekend.”

“You forgot?” Josie asked. “Who are you, and what have you done with Lila Greer?”

If I couldn’t call her Josephine, she certainly wasn’t going to start calling me Delilah.

“I just had a weird day.”

“Define weird.” She narrowed her hazel eyes, which were almost gold today. “Because you must have had something catastrophic happen to make you forget that I was coming up.”

I winced slightly. “I … kind of have a date tonight.”

Josie shrieked, dramatically jumping up and down and twirling in place. The little drama queen. “That’s such amazing news. Tell me everything.”

She dragged me to the futon and muted the show.

“Well, there’s this guy in my kinesiology class who asked me to a party, but it’s a football party.”

“Ah,” Josie said, understanding without me having to say anything.

“So, I said no. And I thought that was that, but he offered to ditch the party and take me out.”

“Oh my God. You said yes?”

“I mean … I probably shouldn’t have. He’s … Cole Davis.”

Josie’s mouth dropped. “Holy shit! He’s the one we were all swooning over when I came up for a game in the fall?”

I nodded.

“Remind me why you said no the first time.”

I shrugged, averting my gaze. “He … reminds me of him.”

Josie blew out a harsh breath. “Is this your first date since Ash?”

My body twitched involuntarily at the name. “I mean, no. I made out with a few guys at a frat party and went on a date or two. But …”

“But?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe I’m being crazy.”

“Crazy is good for you, Lila. Forget Ash. You’re going to go out with Cole Davis tonight and have the most amazing time.”