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Back First Comes Love Save as PDF
Chapters (92)
  1. First
  2. Love Connection
  3. Zero
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. One Month Later
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Six Months Later
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-one
  27. Twenty-two
  28. Twenty-three
  29. Twenty-four
  30. Six Months Later
  31. Twenty-five
  32. Twenty-six
  33. Twenty-seven
  34. Twenty-eight
  35. Twenty-nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-one
  38. Thirty-two
  39. Thirty-three
  40. I Have Never
  41. One
  42. Two
  43. Three
  44. Four
  45. Five
  46. Six
  47. Seven
  48. Eight
  49. Nine
  50. Ten
  51. Eleven
  52. Twelve
  53. Thirteen
  54. Fourteen
  55. Fifteen
  56. Sixteen
  57. Seventeen
  58. Eighteen
  59. Nineteen
  60. Twenty
  61. Twenty-one
  62. Twenty-two
  63. A Christmas Date
  64. One
  65. Two
  66. Three
  67. Four
  68. Five
  69. Six
  70. Seven
  71. Eight
  72. Nine
  73. Ten
  74. Eleven
  75. Twelve
  76. Thirteen
  77. Fourteen
  78. Fifteen
  79. Sixteen
  80. Seventeen
  81. Eighteen
  82. Nineteen
  83. Twenty
  84. Twenty-one
  85. Twenty-two
  86. Note from the Author
  87. Sneak Peek – To the Stars and Back
  88. Two
  89. Three
  90. Four
  91. Also by Camilla Isley
  92. About the Author

Kassandra gives my hand a gentle squeeze and I relax a bit. Everything’s going to be okay. It has to be.

Twenty-seven

Remember That Time?

♥♥♥

Saturday, August 25—Chicago Area

After dinner, I’m unpacking in my bedroom when a familiar tap-tap-tap noise drives me to the window. I open it and lean forward on the bottom rail. Jake’s standing in the shadows of my backyard, throwing pebbles at my window as he used to when we were teenagers and he wanted me to come out after-hours. Unnecessary, but utterly romantic. For a second I’m tempted to use my childhood escape route and climb out the window and down the flower trellis, but I don’t want to break a leg—good luck notwithstanding—a week before the wedding. Instead, I blow Jake a kiss and ask him to wait for me on the front porch. He gives me a military salute and walks around the house.

Downstairs, I find my parents watching the news in the living room.

“I’m going out for a walk with Jake,” I tell them.

“Not too keen on climbing out the window anymore?” my dad asks with a smirk.

I stop dead in my tracks. “You knew about that?”

“And many other things. You’d be surprised, sweetie pie.”

“I don’t want to know,” I say truthfully.

“Have fun, pie.”

I wave goodbye and join Jake on the porch. He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me down to the grass while I kiss him.

“To the river?” he whispers in my neck.

“To the river.”

As if no time has passed at all, we stroll toward our favorite secret spot. Even if now I’m not so sure whether it was that big a secret.

“You know how all these years we thought we were being so smart?” I ask.

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Well, it appears we were so busted instead.”

I tell Jake about my dad. He laughs heartedly.

“Do you think it’s the same with your parents?”

“Maybe—probably.”

I blush. “I hope at least they don’t know about the lake cabin. That’d be so embarrassing.”

We reach our favorite bend in the river and Jake spreads a blanket on the grass in a spot where we’re sheltered from the road by the trees but can gaze up at the stars. We lie down next to each other and stare up at the night sky.

“Remember the first time we came here?” Jake asks, rolling over to face me.

“You mean the night you didn’t kiss me for the first time? Hard to forget—I cried about it for a week. I thought you didn’t like me enough to kiss me.”