Second Chance Summer (Chance #1)(53)
Author: Emma Hart

“What else do I have that’s ready for you?”

“I don’t know if I should answer that.”

His low chuckle down the line tells me I’ve made the right choice.

“Probably shouldn’t,” he agrees. “But it’s ready for whenever you’re ready.”

I sigh, my hand hovering over my college sweater. “I was planning on coming back next weekend, but I was waiting for you to call before I made any plans. I guess I can now.”

Heaviness settles in the pit of my stomach at the thought of making real plans to leave. Without Reese.

“No need to sound so sad, babe. Sure, you’ll be leaving behind your cowboy, but look what you get to come back to!”

I laugh. “And you wonder why you’re single. Honest, Jay, your head is bigger than anyone’s I know.”

“No, Kia. I’m single because I have a hard and fast rule of, “Fuck feelings and just f**k.””

“Don’t I know it?” I throw my school sweater on the bed to pack in my suitcase.

“So, is your cowboy not coming then?”

“Not when I do. I’m comin’ back without him, and hoping he comes in a few weeks or something. I dunno, Jay. This is why I left in the first place – the distance. I just don’t know if we can make it work.”

“Fuck yes you’re going to make it work!” he cries down the phone. “I’ve listened to your mopey ass for a damn year. I don’t get all that feelings shit, you know that, but there’s no way you’re walking away now. If you come back here and stroll into my apartment without the intention of making your relationship with the cowboy work, I’ll be hauling your pretty little butt back on a f**king plane and sending you back to Ranch County to sort out your crap.”

My lips twitch. “You know, for someone who has a f**k feelings rule, you’re a pretty good advocate for making a relationship work.”

“Because it’s you. I haven’t f**ked you, unfortunately, so that means I care about you and I want you to be happy. It’s a pain in my ass, but I think I’m stuck with it.” He sighs dramatically, but I know he’s grinning.

“I love you, too, Jay.” I laugh, throwing some more clothes in the general direction of my bed. “I’ll call you when I know exactly when I’m leavin’, okay? You know, so you can make sure I don’t innocently wander into a Playboy bunny inspired f**kfest or something.”

“Hey, that’s not-”

“Bye, Jay.” I hang up and shake my head. My life is truly dysfunctional right now, when I think about it.

My mother is a raging alcoholic. My father has been living possibly only minutes away from me for a year with a new fiancée and baby, and I never knew a thing about it. My best friend here is in an am-I-aren’t-I pregnancy situation, and my best friend in New York is gonna cause the dictionary definition of “whore” to be rewritten – in his honor.

And my boyfriend, the guy who was never supposed to love me after I left him, does. More than anything I ever believed possible. He loves me in the fairytale way my daddy loved my momma – and he makes me believe in true love. More than that, he was always right. Age doesn’t mean a thing when it comes to love. Age doesn’t dictate how, when, or how much you love someone. All that dictates that is the heart, because as crazy and impulsive as the heart is, it’s never wrong.

Which is why I’m still leaving for New York. My heart is telling me I have to.

And that’s all there is to it.

I lay my suitcase flat on the floor and unzip it, flipping the top open. I take my books from the side, putting them in first, followed by my school sweats. My wardrobe beckons me, and I crawl across the floor to get there. I pull the doors open, and the first thing I see is the shoebox of photos I stuffed in there on the day I arrived home.

The photos from last summer.

My hands hover over the box for a minute before my fingers curl around it and slide it out. I move back from the wardrobe and tip it upside down, emptying the images all over my floor. Apart from one or two fleeting thoughts over the last few weeks, I’ve barely thought about these. But now… Now I want to see them.

The first I pick up are the graduation photos. There’s a whole stack of pictures from the day – both the ceremony and after-party – and most of them are held together by an elastic band. I slip it off and onto my wrist and flick through the pictures. Reese, Adam, Luce, me… There are pictures of all four of us receiving our diplomas. There are group shots, couple shots, individual shots… They’re all endless. I smile as I look at them all, remembering. But none of them makes me smile as much as the last image in the pile.

It’s of me and Reese at the after-party. We’re standing to the side, the bonfire’s light illuminating us. His arm is slung around my shoulders, and his face turned into mine.

“High school is over then,” he had said casually.

“Yep. Took long enough.” I glanced up at him, and we both grinned.

“And now it’s the summer.”

“You’re on the ball tonight,” I teased him.

“Hey.” He laughed and pulled me closer to him, sending happy tingles through my body. “I feel like I should tell you somethin’ about this summer, though.”

“Oh, you do, do you?”

“Mhmm.” His lips brushed the hair covering my ear, and his warm breath fluttered across my skin. “You should know, Kia, this summer is gonna be the best damn summer you’re ever gonna have.”

My skin tingles even now at the memory. It was a promise and a threat mixed into one, but it was a perfect threat. It was the threat I wanted him to carry through with, and he absolutely did.

The pictures show me what I didn’t realize back then. Everything he did, every word he said, everywhere he took me, it was all for me. He pursued the idea of us relentlessly.

Just like this summer. He wanted me back, despite everything, and he pursued it just as relentlessly as he did last summer. And I realize, now, he always knew he was gonna win. Because you don’t have a charm like Reese Pembleton’s and not get what you want. Every time.

I flick through the rest of the images. Beach pictures, at the bowling alley, all-nighters in the diner, at the bowling alley, and just casually hanging out. There’s a whole stack of selfies of me and Luce and I set some aside to take to New York with me. And then I grab a picture of me and Reese in the lake, me on his back and his lips against my cheek.