Page 85 of Tourist Trap

"Miles—"

I quiet her by pressing my lips to hers before leaning my forehead against her.

"I'll never be done with you, Claire. Don't you get it? I've waited six years to have this. I'm not going to just have it for one summer. I'm in this for the long haul."

Her breathing hitches as her eyes widen, and I smile.

"I'll come see you; you'll come down here if we have to. Whatever you want, I'll make it happen."

She smiles then, wide and happy, and I know I said the right thing. I hate that I keep messing this up, but I'm on a mission to change that, to make her as confident as I am in our relationship.

“Okay,” she whispers, and I smile again, leaning to kiss her once more before a car honks behind us. Claire lets out a laugh, and we both look to see the light has gone green. The car behind us lays on its horn now, and I roll my eyes, sticking an arm out the window to flip a bird to the person behind me, as I put the car back into drive and continue on to the Seabreeze.

"Fucking tourists," Claire says with an exaggerated eye roll.

I let out a loud laugh, the sound free, and then we drive off to see our friends.

* * *

"Boys versus girls," June shouts, pushing her brother away from the table she secured. "You can't sit with us!"

We've been here for approximately five minutes, and already, I'm regretting it.

"Are you kidding me, June?" Grant asks.

"Girls versus boys. May the best team win."

"What about me?" Deck asks, putting a hand to his chest. "I'm an honorary girl."

"Not tonight, you're not. Go to your side of the bar," June says, arguing.

She and Deck go back and forth as they tend to do, and while they're distracted, I start to stealthily move Claire to the opposite side of the room from June because the girl kind of scares me on days like these. I always forget just how insanely competitive June is.

"No, no, no," June says, her attention snapping to Claire and me, my arm around her waist. "No. You two separate."

"Excuse me?" I ask, raising an eyebrow at my best friend's little sister.

"No, no, Miles, that won't work on me. I've heard stories about you now." She puts a hand on her hip and then grabs Claire's elbow. "Your grumpiness is no longer effective."

"Uh, what kind of stories?" I ask, looking from June to Claire, whose face has gone suspiciously red.

"All kinds. I know things I never wanted to know about you, but because you make my best friend sohappy,which means she'll probably be closer to me more often now, I accept it. But the line stops at trivia night."

"June, come on," Claire tries, but June turns her ire on Claire.

"No. You can spend a single night not attached at the hip." She then shifts to me with begging eyes. "Give my best friend back for one night."

"Oh, stop it, we're not attached at the hip, June," Claire says with a laugh, but still, she steps away from me, and I give her a glare.

"Where are you going?" I ask, reaching for her once more, but she steps away.

"It's boys versus girls, bud," she says with a smile. "You're the enemy."

"The enemy?"

"Oh yeah," she says with a teasing smile, taking another step back toward the table where Lainey is already sitting with Helen, who, it seems, they conned into being on their team. A boon for us because Helen is terrible at any trivia that happened before the year 1990. "May the best team win."

Something about the way she says it and the look in her eyes sets me on fire, and I lean forward, grabbing her wrist and tugging her into me. She stumbles before falling into my chest.

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