More than you could ever comprehend.

She continued to stare at me and I continued to soak her in, drowning in both her presence and the memory of the girl I'd spent my life adoring.

"This is different," I said, reaching out to touch a short strand of her blonde hair. It was cut short now, almost as short as mine, but it didn’t make her look boyish. The opposite. She looked even more feminine. "Makes you look like Tinkerbelle."

"Is that a good thing?"

"It ain't a bad thing."

I knew I needed to pull my hand back and stop touching her, but when my thumb traced the curve of her cheekbone and fingers settled on the curve of her jaw, I knew that wasn't going to happen.

Because I needed to touch this girl.

I needed to convince myself that this moment was real and not another one of my recurring nightmares.

"It's really you." A shudder rolled through me as realization hit me like a wrecking ball. "Fuck, you're really here."

She blew out a breath and leaned her cheek against my hand. "Yeah."

"Molly-Dolly."

She reached up and covered my hand with her small one. A loan tear trickled down her cheek and she sniffled. "King Doofus."

My chest physically heaved at the sound of that old pet name and I leaned in close, unable to stop myself or think about what I was doing.

Resting my forehead against hers, I cupped her small face in both hands and blew out a ragged breath. "Can I just…hold you real quick?"

"To convince yourself that I'm really here?"

"No," I croaked out with a shake of my head. "To convince myself that I am.”

Chewing on her lip, she nodded slowly.

It was all the permission I needed.

"Fuck." It was the only word I could manage to say, as I wrapped her up in my arms and held her to my chest. "Fuck."

Moments later, her arms came around my waist, and then we were hugging, holding onto each other like our lives depended on it.

"Me too, D." Molly buried her face in the crook of my neck and released a strangled sob. "Me too."

9 Eight years ago

Molly

"What the hell are you doing here?" Brittany Beckitt demanded when I reached the beach. It was officially the first day of summer break and she was definitely starting as she meant to go on; being a pain in my butt.

This was going to be a long summer…

Choosing to ignore the meanest girl in my grade, I set my beach bag on the sand and quickly whipped my t-shirt over my head.

"Are you deaf?" she continued to rant when I didn’t respond. "I’m speaking to you, Peterson."

"And I'm ignoring you, Beckitt," I countered, hands moving to the waistband of my shorts.

"A one-piece?" Britt sneered, taking in the sight of my plain yellow bathing suit. "What are you, a baby?"

"No, Britt, I'm ten." Almost. "Same as you," I added, eyeing the tiny pink bikini she had on. Her suit was ridiculous, not to mention inappropriate. She didn’t even have boobs for god's sake. None of us did.