“We’re still going to Last Resort,” I reminded him. “But it’s thoughtful. I like it.”
He dragged me harder against him, dropping his mouth onto mine. Promising so, so much more.
He groaned and pulled himself back. “I want to keep doing this.” He adjusted his pants, proving his point. “But I also have surprise cake.”
“Cake!” I gushed. “Chocolate?”
“And strawberry.”
“My favorite.”
He kissed me again. “I know. So, we have to go downstairs for that. Then I’m bringing you back up here and giving you your real present.”
I licked my lips. “Maybe I’ll give you my present.”
“Fuck,” he breathed.
“Cole!” his roommate Barry called from the other side of the door.
“Coming!” Cole yelled. He shot me a look of pure lust.
“I’m going to put this in my purse.” I’d left my purse in his bedroom hours ago, and I didn’t want to lose my new keychain. As small and insignificant as a keychain was for a birthday present, it made my insides squirm with excitement.
Cole went back downstairs while I attached my keychain to my keys. Then I grabbed my phone and glanced down at the screen one last time before I joined my boyfriend for birthday cake.
I froze in place.
I had a new text message.
My stomach dropped out of my system. My heart stuttered. I could barely swallow around the knot in my throat, and my hands shook. I hadn’t seen that name on my screen in nearly a year. And I hadn’t believed Marley when she said that Ash would text me. It had seemed impossible.
And yet … Ash had texted me.
Happy birthday, Lila. Missing you tonight.
5
Savannah
December 8, 2006
My arms pumped to the time of the cheerleading chant at the Holy Cross football game my senior year of high school. I executed a little hop step, pressed my body forward, and shook my pom-poms. “Holy Cross! Holy Cross! Holy Cross!”
It was the last play of the game. The Holy Cross Academy boys had the ball, and the quarterback had just gotten into position. The crowd died down from our side as we anticipated what Ash Talmadge was about to do. I shivered in the cold. My fingers had long ago gone nearly blue in the unseasonably cold Savannah winter. But still, my eyes were glued to the number four on his jersey.
They hiked the ball. Ash stepped back, ball in hand, and searched the eligible receivers. Then with one beautifully arced ball, he threw downfield. His wide receiver caught the ball in the end zone at the last second of the clock, and the stands erupted into cheers.
We’d won!
My heart was going to burst out of my chest. I couldn’t believe it. It had come right down to the wire. And though some of the girls on the cheerleading squad for St. Catherine’s Academy—the school that resided across the street from the all-boys equivalent, Holy Cross—had never cared about football a day in their life, we were all celebrating together.
“We did it,” Shelly cried, throwing her arms around me.
We jumped up and down together. My face ached from smiling so hard.
And I couldn’t even believe this moment.
Not that Holy Cross had won. They’d won this game the last two years that I’d attended St. Catherine’s. But that I was standing on the sidelines as a cheerleader, celebrating with Shelly Thomas of all people. Though I’d been going to St. Catherine’s for three years, this was my first season cheering, and I was loving it.
“Hey, stay after. I want to talk to you,” Shelly said.
I nodded. “Sure.”
Shelly winked at me, immediately stepping back into her position as captain. “Okay, girls, let’s close out this game.”
We moved back into formation, spending the next half hour cheering as the marching band played from the stands and all of the audience dwindled to nothing.
Shelly called it a wrap, letting the other girls leave to see their families who had been waiting patiently for us to finish. When it was finally just the two of us, she waved me closer.
“Delilah,” she said as she slung her cheer bag over her shoulder, “I am so glad that you joined the squad.”
Honestly, it had always surprised me that I’d even made the team. St. Catherine’s only had three hundred and fifty high school students. Cheerleading was coveted among the girls. But there was no dance team, which was where my real passion lay. I spent most afternoons and all weekends at the dance studio with my best friend, Marley. But my mom had thought cheering would be good for my social life.
Considering I’d gone to public school until my mom got the job at St. Catherine’s the summer before sophomore year, she wasn’t wrong. I could use any help I could get, trying to fit in with these uber rich girls who had known each other their entire lives. I hadn’t even been fortunate enough to join the school freshman year. Nope, sophomore year instead. And only because my mom got a shockingly huge tuition discount for working for the Catholic school. Which did nothing for my social standing.
I must have made some sound of assent because Shelly continued, “But I have bad news.”
“Is everything all right?”
Shelly had been having some issues at home. I knew that despite her wealth, life wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine. It wasn’t like that for anyone even if they tried to project that.
“With me, yes. Don’t worry about my parents.” She flashed her teeth. “But we can’t go on the ski trip.”
I jerked to a stop next to her. She took another step before seeing I’d stopped. “What? Why not?”
I’d be lying if I said that I hadn’t been anticipating this trip all semester. My mom had taken up another job as an overnight caregiver for the elderly to help pay for cheerleading, and I had to help pitch in at the studio to cover everything else. I’d used up a sizable amount of my savings to pay for the pants, jacket, goggles, gloves, and hat. Shelly’s parents had offered to cover everyone’s lift passes, which was the only way I could make it work.
She winced. “I guess some of the other girls’ parents found out that my parents weren’t going. That it was going to be a bunch of high school senior girls with my twenty-one-year-old brother.”
“Oh,” I whispered.
We’d all known this. A lot of the other girls had been excited about it, hoping that they’d get to hook up with college boys.
“Once my parents got wind of the other parents’ displeasure, they canceled the whole thing. They won’t even let me go visit Shane.” She rolled her big brown eyes.
My mind was racing back to when I’d purchased my ski clothes. Was I still within the thirty-day window? Would I still be able to return them in time to get my money back?
“That’s terrible,” I told her because she clearly wanted me to say something. “I’m sorry you don’t get to see your brother.”
“I’m sorry that you don’t get to go! I was looking forward to seeing you on those bunny slopes.” She flipped her strawberry-blonde curls. “I still can’t believe you’ve never been skiing.”