“What?” He shifted onto his side and propped his head on his hand to look down at her.

She met his gaze, her heartbeat thumping hard. “I’m remembering, Ash. I can see prom. Pieces of it.”

Concern creased his face, and he pushed a stray hair away from her eyes. “KC…”

“I wanted you to say yes because that was the first night I was having doubts,” she said, speaking in a rush now.

“Doubts?”

“Yes. Graham had asked me to marry him, and I think it triggered something. I knew saying yes meant saying no to every other future possibility.” She pressed her hand to her forehead. “I realized I wanted you to be a possibility.”

Ash’s gaze searched hers, a line between his brows. “What do you mean?”

She closed her eyes, inhaled, the full memory rushing back at her. The moment in the hall, the argument, the confusion. Ash pleading with her not to go home with Graham.

Then the kiss. That kiss. The shock of being grabbed by her best friend and feeling his lips on hers, feeling his feelings for her pouring into it. The panic fading, the warmth building.

The devastation when they broke apart and Ash had started lying to Graham, when she’d thought it hadn’t been real, that Ash had just been proving a point.

Tears burned beneath her lids and she opened her eyes, Ash hazy in her watery vision but a shot of awareness going through her that filled in gaps that had been empty so long.

Ash was frowning in confusion. “KC, what is it?”

She shook her head in wonder, feeling as if a piece of herself had been put back in place. “I kissed you back.”

Ash gave her a half smile. “I know. I think you forgot it was me for a second.”

“No, I didn’t,” she said. “I kissed you back because I felt it. Because I wanted it to be true.”

His eyebrows lifted in question.

“I wanted it to be real. I wanted it to be you.”

Awareness dawned on Ash’s face. “KC…”

“The moment you kissed me changed everything. If all three of us had walked out of prom, I wouldn’t have been able to go back, to unfeel what was there between us.” She looked at him, the reality of it locking into place. “It would’ve been you. It was always going to be you.”

His eyes shone with tears.

A long moment passed as a pang of sadness went through her. “I’m sorry I didn’t remember,” she said softly. “All these years…”

He pressed his fingers over her lips and shook his head. “We weren’t ready for each other then. We wouldn’t be the people we are now if we had gotten together so young. We would have messed it up.” He touched his nose to hers. “You needed to get idiot cowboys out of your system to realize bookish dorks are totally where it’s at.”

She laughed. “Bookish dorks are my favorite.”