“Please don’t. My dad still wears that. I cannot have you wearing the same cologne as my father. Weird.”
“Fair.”
He stopped walking and turned toward me, his free hand coming up to stroke his thumb over my cheek. I stared into his eyes and tried to rationalize the way I felt about him. He was looking at me like he had something to say. I waited but he said nothing. Instead, he kissed me. I didn’t think I would ever get tired of his mouth on mine. My hand found the front of his shirt and I held on. The man kissed like it was the only thing he had ever truly practiced. Football players trained for the Super Bowl. Olympians wanted gold medals. His kissing was all of that combined.
When he pulled back, his forehead dropped to mine.
“Damn, woman. You fuck me up so good.”
I laughed. “Is that a good thing or bad?”
“It’s the best thing.”
We stood there like idiots for a moment, grinning at each other in the dark. I loved him so much it was almost funny. Almost. The laughing part of it was going to wear off and then I was just going to be standing in the wreckage of my own heart come September. I wouldn’t be laughing then.
I took a long drink of my beer and we started walking again. He drank from his bottle. We weren’t moving fast at all. If I had my way, we’d walk all the way to Washington.
I started chewing my lower lip. I’d been doing it since the coffee shop. Lana’s face in the alley. The way she’d saidplease.And I thought about him and what was happening between us. Or what could happen.
I didn’t want secrets between us. We’d been operating in secret for too long. I wasn’t doing it again. I wasn’t going to be the woman who kept things from him and told herself it was for someone else’s benefit. If I wanted anything with him, it needed to be on a clean slate.
“I have something I want to tell you,” I said.
He looked over at me. “Okay.”
“I’m not sure it’s entirely my place to say it.”
He was quiet for a beat, letting me find my way there. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.”
“I know.” I pressed my lips together. “That’s the problem. I want to tell you. I just also told someone I wouldn’t. I’m in the middle of two people I care about.” I stopped walking and turned to face him. The stars weren’t out, but the moon was in full glory. “I know that sounds like I’m already making excuses. Maybe I am. Ugh, this is so messy.”
“Summer.” His voice was patient. “Whatever it is, just say it.”
I blew out a breath. “I know who keyed your car.”
His eyes held mine as he waited. I loved that he didn’t push. He didn’t seem upset, but he was definitely waiting for me to tell him.
“It was Lana,” I said. “She did all of it.”
He didn’t say anything immediately. I watched him turn it over. He looked out at the water for a moment before looking back at me.
“Lana,” he repeated. “I’m not sure who that is.”
“She’s at the bonfire. Dark hair. Young.”
“Ah, the one that’s been staring at me all night. I thought she was going to tell me she thought I was a piece of shit.”
“She told me this afternoon. She was a mess about it. She watched your video and completely fell apart.” I turned my beer bottle slowly in my hands. “She knows it was wrong. She knew it when she was doing it. But she was angry and scared and she loves this town. She didn’t know what else to do with all of it. Lana has been through a lot. I know that’s not an excuse but it’s true.”
He was quiet again. I couldn’t read him and it made me nervous. Was he going to call the police? Sue her?
“She wants to tell you herself,” I said. “She asked me not to say anything yet. I told her I wouldn’t until she did, but I don’twant secrets between us.” I looked at him directly. “I didn’t want anything sitting between us. Not even something small.”
“I’m not mad,” he said.
“At me or at her?”
“Either.” He ran a hand through his hair and looked back toward the distant glow of the bonfire. “She was at the protest.”