His lips mash into mine. We kiss, in the rough, intense, and raw way I remember. Not sweet and gentle like my kiss with Ollie, but hard, the kiss of two people who know they belong together, but maybe for all the wrong reasons. This doesn’t feel like some kind of pity on his part. It feels like we’ve never done or said anything before this that was even a fraction as real as what we’re doing now. His hands roam my body with a force and ferocity that lifts me out of everything I’ve just confessed and fills me with only one thing: need. All I can think as I sink deeper into him, my body outlining his, is that this is what I was waiting for. This is right.

The kiss breaks, and Levi’s eyes stay on mine. He brushes the tangle of hair off my forehead.

“He told me my name is Eden,” I say, not letting go of Levi’s torso as I dig one hand into the hem of his shirt and twist it, wanting to anchor myself to him. To make myself a permanent Levi fixture, so that this moment never has to end. “I didn’t believe him, not at first. I thought it was all another lie. A trick. But then…”

“Then what?” Levi asks me, tracing his finger down my cheek in a gesture so tender it makes goose bumps stand up on my arms.

“Then I jumped out of a moving car. And…off of the boathouse roof,” I mumble, not wanting him to reprimand me the way Ollie did. Ollie… Ollie. “Levi, what you saw. Between me and Ollie. I have to explain.”

“No, you don’t,” he says, his hands framing my face. “I was gone. Gravelle told you I was never coming back. I wanted you to be with him; it’s what I would have said if I could’ve gotten a single message to you.”

“But that wasn’t… I could never…” I stammer. “You have to understand. Ollie and I, we’ve always loved each other. Since the third grade, he’s been my person.”

“Your chlorophyll,” Levi supplies, but with no edge to his voice. I can’t believe he remembered that.

“Yes,” I breathe, still not letting go of his shirt. I twist my fingers deeper into the fabric, fearing this closeness between us will disappear into the void like it never happened. “I never, ever thought I’d get him back.”

“But you did,” Levi answers, his eyes suddenly looking distant and aloof. No, I want to cry out. Don’t do that. Don’t shut me out.