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“That is not how several recurring dreams over the last thirteen years remembers it.”
“Technically.”
“Technically, it was two friends sharing a tent and s’mores,” Wil said, stepping even closer, andGod,she was extra-superWiltonight, and Katie could not take it. “But I am really starting to understand why I started a TikTok where it was a foregone conclusion I would get to kiss the person in front of me.”
“And also maybe why that almost-kissing part lasts so long in those videos.” Katie cleared her throat. “I forgot about…”
“Did you, though?” Wil put her finger on Katie’s collarbone.
“I absolutely did not forget,” Katie admitted. “However, I did maybesubmergethe memory a little. So that I could survive, probably.”
Wil traced her finger along Katie’s collarbone, tracing up her neck when Katie shivered. “I don’t have any kisses lined up right now. With anyone who is not you.”
Katie studied Wil’s face, wanting to memorize the way she looked after she’d said that.
Good. That was how she looked. So good that Katie wanted to keep the movie of it in her head forever.
“I’m happy to hear that.” Katie caught Wil’s fingertips where they were sifting through the hair behind her ear. “State your business, then.”
“You told me you wanted to go for a ride.” Wil raised her eyebrows. “I have a lot of buttons undone to signal I can provide a good one.”
Katie laughed. “In your new car. The one parked by the garage that looks like the Batmobile.”
“Where are we going?” Wil bent over and grabbed her jacket.
Katie waited until Wil was facing her again, then slowly fisted the front of the flannel, pulling Wil to her. “One last time, we’re going out investigating Mr. Cook, but really getting distracted. Not by anything in particular, just by being us, together. We’re going to do that before I put you on a plane with me to LA, because once we go to LA, the whole world is going to change all over again. I think those two girls in the tent should have one last drive.”
Wil kissed Katie’s neck. “I like it.”
Katie kissed Wil’s forehead.
Then they ran out into the snow.
Chapter Fifteen
Cy Newhouse, the unbearably beautiful and extremely famous bisexual placekicker for the Green Bay Packers, sat across from Wil in one of the leather seats of the private plane he shared with several other Packers players, including just-as-beautiful, just-as-famous former Packers quarterback Joe Starr and his increasingly famous girlfriend, Angela Goossens. Who were also on the plane with Katie. And Wil.
Surreal.
Cy Newhouse and Joe Starr and Angela Goossens were not flying to LA. They’d just come out to see Katie while the crew got the plane ready, to “visit,” Katie had told Wil, as though she were describing Diana dropping by Beanie’s house with a plate of casserole for ten minutes of conversation, barely worth mentioning.
That was what Katie was doing now, visiting with Joe and Angela in a separate bank of seats. Catching up with her friends.
Wil had never been on a private plane before. She had also never met one of the Packers, unless you counted standing in line behind a recently drafted running back at the Chipotle near the stadium, which she did not. She had certainly not anticipated meeting Cy Newhouse, ever. Or Joe Starr. Her father’s favorite player.
Wil’s father’s favorite player had told her to call him Joel. That was his real name. Wil had known that already, because it was something the color commentators liked to mention during the games, and therefore something her dad also liked to mention.
Her dad would have been so interested to hear everything about what was happening to Wil right now.
“I had my agent call you!” Cy leaned forward and put one finger on Wil’s knee. He smelled amazing. His eyes were just as blue as they looked in photos, and his dimples were a crime. Why did a six-foot-tall man with gorgeous brown skin and blue eyes and broad shoulders need dimples? What for? Killing her with? “How did that not work?” he asked.
Wil had no idea. She’d like to think she’d answer any kind of call from anyone representing one of the most photographed sports heroes in the world if it meant she’d get to kiss said sports hero, who looked like he knew how to excavate several layers of eroticism out of a sixty-second kiss.
“I get a lot of people contacting me about the channel,” she said. “I can only think that I didn’t believe it was real. There are a lot of prank calls from inside Green Bay.”
“Sure.” Cy nodded. “You have to protect yourself. What you’re doing is powerful, and that means assholes are going to notice.” He put his hands on his cheeks. “But Wil Greene.Wil Greene.I’ve been wanting you to kiss me for almost nine months. And now you’re in my plane, but you’re with Katie. My life isn’t going my way.”
Wil could feel her heart beat in her throat, and in her palms, a good kind of ache—but that ache wasn’t about Cy’s direct gaze and what he said he’d wanted from her. It was that he’d said,You’re with Katie.She wanted to ask him if he’d seen something between her and Katie that had told him,Wil’s with Katie.Maybe whatever he’d seen, he’d taken a picture of, or could describe to her, so she could keep it no matter what.