But he didn’t kiss me. He pressed his forehead against mine and let out a ragged breath that smelled of mint. “You drive me fucking insane sometimes.”

I drove myself fucking insane. “Sorry?”

Cam pulled back a little, his eyes searching my face. “Don’t run off like that again, okay? I was worried shitless when I couldn’t find you and no one knew where you were.”

I almost apologized again, but apologies were really like wishes. There were an abundance of both in my life and neither really made a difference. So I did something I don’t even think I’d ever done, not even before.

Scooting forward, I pressed my lips to his smooth cheek. His eyes widened, and I inched back. Under his intense stare, I wondered if that had been the wrong thing to do.

Cam started to move forward and then stopped. His eyes were so large and they were truly beautiful, unique in the way the hue seemed to deepen and darken. “Avery?”

I swallowed. “Cam?”

He didn’t give me his lopsided grin or show off his one dimple. “Go out on a date with me.”

There was a tugging in my chest and I was reminded of that moment when he’d come back to campus early after fall break and had come straight to my apartment. Something had cracked inside me then and it did so now, like a wall of… reservation. The party hadn’t worked out, but Cam… he was different. He’d always been different.

And he was here. That had to mean something. It sure felt like it did.

My brain was telling me this was a bad idea and I told my brain to shut the fuck up, because it rarely told me anything helpful. I took a breath, one I didn’t need. “Yes.”

#

Jacob sat across from Brittany and me in the small coffee shop in town, rocking a pair of dark shades and the bowler hat from his Halloween costume. The three of us had skipped History. It had been his idea, and honestly, I was way too wired to be sitting in class. Besides, the only class I’d missed all semester had been the first day of astronomy. Skipping one more time, even if it was my major, couldn’t be that big of a crime.

He groaned as he sipped his latte. “Whoever let me drink as much as I did last night should be smacked in the face.”

I glanced at Brit as I picked at my chocolate chip scone. She shot him a sheepish look. “Well, you let me spend ‘quality time’ with Jimmie, so whatever.”