Page 66 of The Midseason Fakeout

When Aidan turns onto campus, I side-eye him. He parks in front of a building I haven’t been inside yet. “Where are we?”

“You’ll see.”

“Is this a good time to tell you I’m not really a surprise person?”

“Nope.”

After shutting the car off, he runs around to my side and opens my door. He holds out his hand, and I take it. Walking together, he leads me up the sidewalk before knocking twice on the door. It opens immediately, the smell of chlorine hitting my nose, stinging my eyes a little.

A security guard waves us forward, and we walk into a huge pool area. To the right, there are a bunch of platforms and diving boards. Still, buoy-less water waits below them. The uniformed employee steps into my view and says, “You have three hours.”

Aidan shakes his hand. “Thank you. I appreciate it.”

The guard nods at him and hands over a football I hadn’t realized he’d been carrying. After Aidan signs it, the man smiles and walks away, his footsteps echoing before he leaves out a side door.

Aidan places his arm around my shoulders and walks me toward the side of the pool. When we get closer, the flicker of candlelight dances off the walls and bleachers. There are beach balls of every color bobbing in the water as well as a large, circular floaty half in the water.

“What is this?” I ask.

Aidan holds up a finger and then runs around the other side of the pool. He reaches down, and immediately, a beam of light illuminates a screen on the edge. He grabs something else before jogging back over to me, a shit-eating grin on his face. “You said you wanted to go to the movies.”

“We’re going to watch a movie? Here?”

“In this,” he says, pointing at the large circular raft. Next to that, there are other smaller floats with snacks on them. One has popcorn. Another has candy. Another holds cups.

“This is…adorable,” I rasp. I peer up at him, my heart constricting. “But there’s no one here to pretend for, Aidan. If we wanted to keep up appearances, we should’ve stayed at the bar.”

He reaches out to cup my cheeks. “I thought you realized, Angel. I’m not pretending anymore. I’m not sure I ever was.”

My lids flutter closed. He strokes my cheek, and I get lost in his touch. I’ve waited so long to hear those words. “Are you sure?”

“I am. And unless I completely misread the signals, which I don’t think I did because I’m excellent at reading defenses, you feel the same.”

Popping up on my tiptoes, I press my lips to his. He wraps his arms around me, holding me. There’s something special about this kiss, something…understood. It isn’t a kiss to show off. It isn’t a kiss to pretend. This is a capture of feelings between two people, like a picture that depicts a moment for all eternity.

I pull away, savoring the feel of him. “I can’t believe you did this for me.”

“I can’t believe you caught that lineman’s tell. You saved my ass on that one play.”

It’s hard not to beam under his praise. I don’t know if he’s only teasing me, but I don’t care. “Always happy to help.”

He reaches around, squeezing my butt. “Now, get that fine ass in the floaty. We have a movie to watch.”

Leaning down, he nudges the raft all the way into the water and holds it in place. I frown, not sure exactly how I’m going to do this. I keep envisioning me toppling into the water and making a fool out of myself. It seems pretty stable but…

“You’re just going to have to trust me.”

His gaze fixes on me, and I know he’s talking about not falling off the floaty, but there could be so much more context to what he’s said, too. Knots form in my stomach. In front of me is the boy I always wanted. What he’s offering is a dream come true, but I also have to trust him. Trust this.

I turn, squat down, and then let myself fall backward. Miraculously, I hit the floaty and bounce.

I hope falling into this with Aidan will be just as easy. So far, being with him has been as natural as breathing. Putting a real label on it shouldn’t make a difference.

“Keep it near the edge while I put the food in.”

The raft starts to drift, so I lean over the side and paddle to stay close to the edge, but I end up going around in circles instead. “Um…”

Aidan peeks over and laughs. “What are you doing?”

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