The sudden intensity of his focus makes me feel like the world no long exists outside this car. “Beckett, I fell for you the first day of your sophomore year. Do you remember that morning? Penn gave me a ride to school, and you were in the back seat, looking at me in the rearview mirror with those big blue eyes. I couldn’t look away. But your brother thought it’d be weird to see a teammate with his sister, and it took me a while to change his mind. Then even longer to change your mind. I worked for this. For us.”

He squeezes my hand again, yet somehow I feel the pressure in my chest.

“I wouldn’t mess that up for anything. I don’t want anyone else. I want you.”

My heart explodes into a thousand shards of white-hot regret, and I lean across the center console. My mouth finds his, and suddenly we’re kissing, like the past week never happened. His hand slides behind my neck, his fingers diving into my hair, and I am gone.

Game over.

This is the best of us. This is what I’ve missed so much, and I’m so hungry for him that I don’t pull away until my lungs demand a deep breath.

He groans as he leans back in the passenger’s seat, and I wonder if his pulse is racing like mine is. “Well, that went better than I expected. So, a do-over, then? Clean slate?”

My heart is a mess of shredded tissue, still trying to beat. “I want that. I do. But I can’t deal with secrets, and—”

“And I need you to trust me.” His thumb strokes over the back of my knuckles. “Just believe in me, Beckett. I would never hurt you. Will you let us start over?”

I exhale. “Jake, I’m so messed up right now. Everything is in chaos. I can’t think straight, and I just need to … I need to take it slow.”

“Fine. I can do slow. Just stop pushing me away.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?” His smile is the sun breaking over the horizon, lighting up the whole world.

“Yeah,” I say, and he leans over the console to kiss me again.

“I have to get to the weight room, but I’ll see you at lunch?”

“Yeah.” Another kiss, and I’m starting to doubt that slow is a thing that really exists.

Tingling all over, I watch him get out of the car and head into the building. Then I take a minute to get my head back in the game before I go inside.

On my way down the main hall, I hear Coach Killebrew complaining to Amira’s mother that reporters were hounding her on her way into the building. Shouting questions about the circumstances under which Lullaby Doe was found.