Hold the Forevers

“What happened?” I gasped as he set me on my feet. “Tell me everything.”

“I got a job offer.”

“Oh my God!” I shrieked. “Doing what? Which one?”

“Marketing. It’s an intro position, but it’s something. And I got it all on my own, Lila.”

“I knew you would.”

He cupped my jaw with his hand and kissed me long and hard. I was half-ready to drag him back to his house to celebrate. Forget the rest of Twilight. This was what we’d been waiting for.

“What team?”

He paused infinitesimally. That should have been my warning, but I wasn’t prepared. “The 49ers.”

I managed to hide how crestfallen I was at the news. I kept my smile on wide. “That’s amazing. San Francisco.”

“I know it’s far away, but there are direct flights out of Atlanta every day. We can still see each other. We can make this work.”

I nodded. “Of course we can. We’ve been together two years. What’s a little long distance?”

Inside, my stomach was all twisted up as I wondered if it really was possible. I’d only heard nightmares about long-distance relationships. But I loved Cole so fucking much. I didn’t know how I was going to get to San Francisco or what the future held, but there was nothing that we couldn’t get through.

16

Frat Beach

October 29, 2010

Georgia–Florida weekend was called the world’s largest outdoor cocktail party for a reason. Every Halloween weekend, the two rival teams traveled to a neutral playing field in Jacksonville, Florida. The masses descended on the town and the surrounding beaches. The Landing, which was typically a desolate tourist trap, transformed into the biggest Jacksonville party scene. A mere hour north, St. Simons Island, dubbed Frat Beach, was one long stretch of beach parties, crazier than any spring break trip.

And I loved every minute of it.

My only regret was that Cole was in San Francisco and not here for the annual meet up.

Even though I wasn’t in a sorority, many of my friends on the dance team were, and we were filling up a bunch of beachside hotel rooms for the weekend. I’d agreed to share the room with Channing; her girlfriend, Kandice; and our other dance team friend, Denise.

As soon as we arrived Friday afternoon, we changed into bikinis and cutoff jean shorts and headed straight for the beach with a few bottles of cheap champagne and a case of beer. The dance team had erected a tent for all our belongings right next to a music platform. Everyone was drinking and dancing. The beaches were descended on like locusts.

Denise had been crowing the entire drive about her “friend” from Brunswick coming here for the weekend. We were all wondering if this mysterious Tanner actually existed by this point.

“I swear, he’s coming. He texted me and said he’s trying to find us.” She latched onto my arm. “Come up to the hotel with me to see if we can find him.”

Channing shot me a look, and I just laughed. I was pleasantly buzzed. Why not?

“Sure.”

We left the team and hiked through the crowd and back up to our hotel. She had left the navigating to me as she typed fiercely on her phone.

“Do you see him?” I asked.

Denise looked around and then pointed. “Tanner!”

She shrieked and then ran right to him.

He picked her up and drunkenly swung her around in a circle. “Denise, there you are.”

I stopped in my tracks when I saw who was standing next to the mysterious Tanner.

I blinked.

“Ash?” I breathed.

He was shirtless, in nothing but board shorts the color of his sea-blue eyes.

“Lila!”

I hadn’t seen Ash since the beginning of last summer. We’d had it out after he visited for the Bama game sophomore year. Though I hadn’t exactly wanted him to hear what happened with Cole, it hadn’t made me any less angry with him for what he’d done in high school. We’d run into each other in Savannah some the next two summers, but I’d kept the encounters brief. It was easier to have him out of sight, out of mind.

Cole didn’t say anything about Ash. He didn’t have to. I knew the fire of hatred that had been there from seeing me drunkenly walk in with him. The what-ifs running through his mind. There was a reason he’d pulled me upstairs and fucked me when Ash could still hear us. And Cole wasn’t going to like me running into Ash now.

Ash stepped forward and pulled me into him. “It’s so fucking good to see you.”

I tried to ignore my pulse racing from his presence. “Yeah. What are you doing here?”

“Wait, you know each other?” Denise asked.

“Oh, sorry, Denise, this is Ash Talmadge.”

Ash nodded at her. “We’ve met. She’s friends with Tanner.” He gestured to the mysterious Tanner. “Tanner’s my roommate.”

I really must not have been paying attention to Denise. I had no recollection that her Tanner from Brunswick was also at Duke.