Page 92 of Jesse's Girl

She presses a kiss to my chest, then rests her chin there, peering up at me. “Why didn’t we see this?”

“See what?” I ask.

“Back in high school. Why didn’t we ever… hook up?”

“I dunno,” I say with a frown.

Probably because I was following Naomi around, begging for scraps.

“Did you ever think about it? Back then?” She gives me a skeptical look.

“No,” I say, then immediately come clean. “Well, once.”

She perks up, amusement tugging at the corner of her lips. “Once? When?”

I take a slow breath. “You remember that winter we got a massive dump of snow and went sledding at Cherry Park?”

“Oh, God. Yes.” She props herself up, resting her chin on her hand. “When I ended up in the duck pond? I still have nightmares.”

Ada’s crazy carpet had veered badly off-course, cutting a diagonal path down the slick snow. She’d hit a rock and flown ass over teakettle into the filthy, freezing water.

I’d never run so fast in my life.

“When I pulled you out, your teeth were chattering so hard you couldn’t even call Marcus an asshole. But you fucking tried.”

She laughs. “He deserved it. Still salty he almost assassinated me.”

Though his aim hadn’t been intentional, his spinning push was what started it all.

The guys had laughed about it for weeks. The phrase “to infinity and the pond!” even made it into the yearbook that year.

Ada’s brow furrows. “Wait, so, are you saying it was somehow appealing that I was frozen and covered in bog water and duck shit?”

“Uh, no,” I say with a smile. “It wasn’t then. Shockingly, duck shit doesn’t do it for me.”

“So when was it?”

“I took you to my house, remember? So you could shower and, y’know, not die of hypothermia?” It had been the closest place she could warm up. “I had to lend you some sweats ’cause your clothes were soaking wet and reeked of pond scum.”

I’d run a load of laundry for her, feeling weirdly nervous about the idea of her naked in my bathroom.

“Did you? I barely remember that.”

I nod. “Anyway, when you came out of the bathroom wearing my clothes, I had this moment where I… Ah, fuck, I dunno. I thought you were cute.”

“Cute?”

“Hot. Whatever. I was seventeen and a girl was wearing my clothes. It was a very confusing time.” I laugh and squeeze her arm.

It had seemed almost intimate—like something a girlfriend would do.

I kiss Ada’s cheek and smile again at the memory.

“You never told me that.” Her voice is soft.

“Never told anyone that.” I pause, tracing my fingers down her arm. “I knew there was no way. You were going out with that dude from across town?—”

“Levi?”

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