The Day That Saved Us (15 page)

“Yeah.” He nods. I’m so glad I’m not alone in this. My heart sings. His eyes travel around my face, taking everything in. “Things will definitely change. They’re going to be better.”

So many questions swirl inside my head. We’re in uncharted territory. How long has he felt this way? Where do we go from here? “How are we going to make this work?” I ask.

That question scares me more than anything. “Let’s not worry about that right now.”

“We’ve got the rest of the summer,” I agree. “That’s what matters.”

“Tyler gets USC,” Brodee mutters.

“You get Hatteras.”

Brodee knows.

Hatteras is everything.

HARPER SQUEALS IN
my ear.

I could hardly sleep last night, thinking about what happened, so when a phone call from
Harper
is what wakes
me
up—a first—she knows something is going on.

“Shhh…you’re screaming in my ear.” I chuckle.

“Peyton-Parker, it’s eleven o’clock. You should not be this tired.”

“What?” I sit straight up and look at the alarm clock on the nightstand. 11:03 AM. I can’t remember the last time I slept in that late. Maybe never.

“Obviously, you were having some nice dreams.” I can imagine her suggestive eyebrow wiggle. “I wouldn’t want to wake up either.”

I groan. “You cannot make a big deal out of this, Harp. I don’t want Brodee to regret it. Oh gosh. What if he regrets it? What if he woke up this morning and second-guessed the kiss?”

“Chill out. I’m sure he’s downstairs waiting for you. He’s already talked to Skylar this morning. Why do you think I called you?”

“He did? What did Brodee tell him? Was he acting weird? Did he say he regretted it? What does Skylar know?”

Harper laughs at me. I can hear myself. This isn’t me.
Take a chill pill, Peyton.
I take a deep breath. Then bolt out of bed to throw on some clothes and brush my teeth.

Harper continues her amusement. “I’ve never heard you like this before. I like it.”

“Like what?”

“Flustered.”

I roll my eyes. “He could tell me he regrets it. If he does, I have to keep my cool. This cannot ruin us, okay? You have to help me. Help me be rational, Harp.”

“Oh em gee, Peyton. You need to
calm
down.” Harper chuckles. “It’s going to be fine.”

“Yes. Yes, it will,” I attempt to reassure myself. My nerves are haywire. It’s not working.

“What are you going to do about Tyler?” she asks, and the whole situation comes into view like a panoramic picture.

That nauseating, sinking feeling sets in my stomach. I hate hurting people. I especially hate hurting people who don’t deserve it.

“I need to talk to him. Brodee and I don’t know where this will go, but I can’t be with Tyler.”

“Obviously,” she says dryly. “You and Brodee didn’t talk about it last night?”

“There wasn’t much talking going on last night.”

“I bet there wasn’t.” Her innuendo makes me sigh.

I pause and reconsider my phrasing. “We’re not talking about the future.”

“Living in the now.”

“I can’t think past that.”

“Well, maybe you should slap on some mascara and chapstick and head downstairs to face your Now.”

I take a deep breath. “Right. I’ll call you later.”

“You better!”

I begin to jog down the stairs, but I don’t want to appear too eager, so I take a deep breath and slow my pace. By the time I reach the last step I feel like I’m moving in slow motion. Brodee is sitting on the couch, feet propped up on the ottoman, flipping through the channels.

When he sees me, his feet immediately meet the floor and he sits forward on the edge of the couch, setting the remote beside him. He slowly stands, not taking his eyes off me. I can’t read him yet. This could go either way. He’s not smiling, but neither am I. First, I want to know last night meant the same to him as it did to me.

When it’s quiet for too long I cave. “Hey.”

“Hi.” There’s his heart-stopping smile. I take a breath, but I don’t move. I want him to say more.
Gosh, I don’t want this to be awkward.

“I was wondering when you’d wake up,” he says. “I almost came up.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I don’t know.”

Silence. We stand. We stare. We don’t move.

“Screw it,” he says under his breath and strides toward me. His arms are around my waist, and his mouth is on mine in seconds. My smile can’t be stifled. He kisses my teeth.

Brodee laughs. “Sorry. I didn’t want to wait any longer.”

“You made a good decision.” I bite my lip to stop my silly grin.

“It feels so good to finally be able to do that.”

“Yeah?” The smile can’t be suppressed any longer. “How long? Before truth or dare?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Really?” The flutters are rampant in my stomach. “Are we talking weeks? Months? Days?”

“Years. Two or three give or take.”

My eyes grow wide.

His throaty chuckle sends my heart into overdrive. “I’m a guy, Pete. I’m dumb, not blind.” I laugh. “I didn’t want to ruin us for one kiss. It just took me too long to realize it was more than just a kiss I wanted.” I press my lips to his again and dive my fingers into his hair.

“
Finally
.”

Brodee and I jump apart. Carter walks from the stairs toward the back doors with a cheeky smirk. “I can’t believe it took you guys
this
long.” And then he’s out the sliding glass door, closing it behind him.

We laugh. My face is hot. I cover my cheeks, wishing my hands were ice packs.

“Guess the secret’s out,” Brodee says.

“Where are our parents?” Suddenly, I’m mindful of our out-in-the-open affection and look around downstairs like they’re hiding, spying on us.

“On the beach,” he says, tugging me back to him and kissing me. I don’t want him to stop, but…

I pull away just enough so that our lips don’t touch. “Before we do anything more, I really need to talk to Tyler.”

He groans his consent. “This is going to be awkward, isn’t it?”

“Yup,” I reply. “And we’ll never hear the end of it from Rylie.”

“Screw her. I don’t even care anymore. She can think whatever she wants. We didn’t do anything wrong.”

I agree. “Tyler’s working right now, and I don’t want to do this over the phone, so we just need to slow it down a bit until I talk to him.”

Brodee doesn’t look too happy about that, but he gets it. We unhurriedly break apart. We have years to make up for and only a little over a month to do it.

I wait for guilt to set in, but it doesn’t. Not in the way it probably should. I don’t feel bad about kissing Brodee. I feel bad about giving Tyler hope for a future, for pursuing something I wasn’t fully committed to. But I can’t, would never, take back this chance we have. Hopefully, Tyler and I can remain friends, but something tells me he won’t want to be.

MRS. HAMILTON ANSWERS
the door. When she sees me, her face lights up. “Oh, hi Peyton. It’s so good to finally see you!”

“You too.” I smile, though uncomfortably.

Mrs. Hamilton is the epitome of class. Even though we’re at the beach, it looks like she just left the salon. Her light blonde hair rests effortlessly on top of her shoulders, flipping out at the ends. And her entire outfit is probably J. Crew or Lilly Pulitzer. She has better taste than I do. That’s for sure.

“Come, come.” She opens the door wider. “Tyler was just washing up. He should be down in a minute.”

“Okay.” I wring my hands and drop them to my sides to keep myself from fidgeting.

I don’t know why I’m so nervous. It’s not like we’re in some serious relationship. It’s not a legit break up. Just two people not kissing anymore. We’re not that close. Right?
I’m lying to myself.
It’s more than that. I know it. Tyler wants more. I wanted more.

I thought I wanted more.

I’ve never broken someone’s heart before. Not to say I think so much of myself that he’ll be heartbroken, but if I do, I’m well acquainted with what it feels like. I don’t want to be the heartbreaker.

“I just need to pop dinner in the oven.” Mrs. Hamilton says as she leads me into the kitchen. She grabs the big roasting pot on the island and pushes it into the oven behind her. “Tyler says you’ll be attending USC in the fall as well. That’s just wonderful. It’s such a fabulous school.”

“Yeah. I’m excited,” I lie.

“I know Tyler is very excited you’ll be there.” She looks knowingly at me. A twinkle in her pale blue eyes. Maybe it’s a hereditary gene. “You two will have so much fun together. I can’t wait to hear all about your adventures.”

I’m a horrible person.

And then I hear Tyler jogging down the stairs.
Saved
. When I turn, he’s striding toward me with a big grin on his face.
Or not.
My stomach drops, but I try to smile. I worry it looks more like a grimace. His arms loop around my waist as he picks me off my feet in a bear hug.

“Hey you.” He squeezes.

“Hi,” I say breathlessly because I’m literally having a difficult time getting air into my lungs.

“Your ears must have been burning,” Mrs. Hamilton says.

He puts me back down. “What was she saying about me? Don’t listen to a thing she says.” Tyler walks over and slings his arm around his mom’s shoulder. “She’s a liar.”

She smacks his chest and chuckles. “Oh stop.”

Seeing them stand side by side makes me realize where he got his height, and it definitely wasn’t his mom. He towers over her. Her petite frame barely comes to his chest.

“We were just talking about y’all going to USC,” she explains. “And what a wonderful time you two will have.”

Tyler nods, and his eyes trail to me. “Ah. Yes. We’ll have
such
a wonderful time.” He mimics her voice.

“Knock it off.” Mrs. Hamilton laughs and slaps his chest again.

I need to talk to him now. Like right now. “You want to go for a walk?” I ask.

He kisses the top of her head. “We’ll be back, Ma.”

He takes my hand and tugs me toward the back door that leads to the beach.

“Peyton, you’re welcome to stay for dinner. We’d love to have you.”

I don’t have the heart to tell her no. Tyler can explain it all. “Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Hamilton.”

“Please. Call me Claire.”

I pause and clear my throat. “Thank you, Miss Claire.”

Once we’re on his deck, the door shut behind us, he asks, “Is everything okay? You seem off.” Tyler steps in front of me and loops his arms around my waist, tugging me against his body.

My hands press against his pecs to put some distance between us, but I drop them instantly when I realize how intimate that feels. “Umm…” I say to his chest because I can’t meet his eyes yet.

“That doesn’t sound good.” He loosens his hold and drops his arms to his sides.

It’s almost worse that he knows it’s coming. “I know. I’m sorry,” I mumble. “You know these last few summers have meant so much to me. We’ve had a lot of good times. Umm…but I think we need to put the brakes on this now.”
Put the brakes on? You mean slam the dang brakes and never take the foot off.

My eyes lift up and up to meet his. I was right. Looking at him makes this so much harder. The hurt hidden there is more than I was expecting.
Why can’t this be easy?

“Oh.” Tyler blinks and he runs his fingers through his hair, taking a step back. “Okay.” His shoulders sag in defeat. “Right…” he breathes.