Page 80 of The Summer I First Saw You
“No, it was some stray dog running around. Super old. He was just being playful.”
Liam sits up. “Daisy, are you serious? A wild dog bit you, and you didn’t even check it out? It could have had rabies, for fuck’s sake.”
“It wasn’t rabid,” I say.
Harrison raises a brow. “Just super old.”
“Barely had any life left in him.”
Harrison’s mouth twitches. “It appears he had alittlelife left in him.”
Liam glances between us. “Rabies isn’t a fucking joke.Remember that girl Shelley who was a year ahead of us at Prep? She got bit by a rabid bat and died.”
“This wasn’t a bat,” I reply.
Harrison grins. “Just a dog.”
I nod. “A really old one.”
Liam groans. “I hope one of you dies of rabies just to prove my point.”
41
HARRISON
Where are you? I just parked.
It’s Monday night, and I’m impatient. The minutes have dragged since I left her side yesterday at the beach. I climb from the car, frustrated that the call coming in is from Audrey rather than Daisy. She called over the weekend too. I was too preoccupied and too uninterested in what she had to say to answer. And why the fuck is she calling anyway? She knows I prefer to communicate in writing.
“Sorry,” I tell her briskly. “I saw your call and forgot to call back. But this is a bad time. Can I call you later in the week?”
“Sure,” she says. “But you’re good? Things are going well?”
They say that the opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference, and I get that now. Because questions like this from her once annoyed the shit out of me, had me thinkingyou lost the right to ask me about my life when you started fucking your boss.But nowI’m not mad at her. I just couldn’t care less what she wants or how she’s doing.
“Things are amazing,” I reply. “We’ll talk next week.”
I hang up before she can reply, just in time to receive Daisy’s text.
Daisy
Look up.
I do as she’s said and there she is, ahead of me. There’s a grin on her face as she licks the ice cream cone in her hand—intentionally voracious and filthy. Every man in the vicinity turns to watch.
If I could choose any superpower right now, it would be the ability to make her invisible to everyone but me.
“Want a lick?” she asks with a sly smile, holding the ice cream out. I grab it and throw it in the trash in a single motion, and then my mouth lands on hers.
It’s not that hands-cradling-face kiss she thinks is so magical, but it sure isn’t tentative either. It’s a kiss that saysI’m going to fuck the hell out of you the second we’re alone,and I’m sure we’re drawing attention, especially when I’m in a suit and clearly a decade too old for her.
I don’t fucking care. All that matters is her mouth against mine, the way she sways into me as if she can’t help but move closer.
“Wow,” she teases. “It’s almost as if you missed me.”
“You fucking know I missed you,” I growl. “I haven’t been able to think about anything else.”
Her palms spread over my shirt. She reaches up and tugs on my tie. “We should have met at your house, then.”
