“LIV, DID YOU HEAR ME? Liv!”
My eyes shot to Mel’s and left my view of the ocean. “Sorry,” I panted out, from next to her as we ran the length of the beach.
It was the weekend and we’d gotten up early to get a run in mostly because our parents insisted on it. Can’t be chubby at your coming out party. Eye roll. Mel had been going on and on about some guy she met at a party the other night, but I’d been a terrible friend because all I could think about was last night.
And even though I’d been staring out at the beautiful sunrise over the Carolina beach, I hadn’t noticed it at all. No, I was still back in the driveway, barefoot and with the tattooed guy standing in front of me. Imagine my shock. I never dreamed for one moment it was him leaving me the notes. Mostly because the person who left me notes knew a lot about the stars and that guy? He didn’t look like he knew much about anything except for how to get in trouble.
But it was him. Stingingly cold blue eyes and all. He’d been standing there looking too damn beautiful in the twilight. I didn’t know what had possessed me to walk back outside that night. I’d just known, had a feeling deep inside me. Those colorful tattoos standing out against his skin like tiny paintings on the plain white wall of a museum. His dark hair too long, his eyes eating me up.
I finally met him and he’d followed me home and he’d stood there seemingly lost at first and then angry all of a sudden. And me, I’d been different. I’d felt safe with him. I’d snatched that cigarette out of his gorgeous mouth and demanded a name. I smiled as I remembered myself in that moment. Brave. I’d been a badass.
“What are you over there mooning about?”
Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I panted out, “Nothing.”
I wouldn’t be telling anyone about tattoo boy. No, he was my secret to keep. Besides if Georgina caught wind of him there would be hell to pay. Those tattoos and bad boy attitude weren’t exactly her cup of tea. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell Mel. It was more a matter of couldn’t. I wanted to lay it all out there for her. This was one of the most exciting things that had ever happened to me. Of course I wanted to share it with her, but I knew better.
She came to a dead stop and bent over at the waist, trying to catch her breath. Her blue eyes sparkled up at me. “You’ve met someone.”
I laughed nervously and continued jogging in place like she didn’t totally have me pegged. “What? No! You’re crazy!”
“No, I’m not,” she said, sitting up and stretching her legs. “You never get moony-eyed. But you totally are right now. You’ve been daydreaming all morning.”
Denial wasn’t just a river in Egypt anymore. “No way. I’d never date anyone from the island. And you know it.”
Her eyebrows took flight right to her hairline. “Ah, but did you meet someone who wasn’t from the island?”
My face got hot. “No. There’s no one. I was just thinking about schoolwork and etiquette classes and the stupid debutante ball coming up. I’m overwhelmed, not in love, crazy lady!”
She started a slow walk back to the house and I fell in step with her.
“I didn’t say you were in love. I said you met someone.”
“You’re wrong.” If you were gonna lie, then you had to stick to it.
The look she threw told me she knew I was full of shit, so I just smiled and batted my eyelashes. That move had saved Southern girls for centuries.
“Fine. Don’t tell me about lover boy.”
I pursed my lips before throwing back, “How do you know it’s not lover girl?” I licked my lips and her eyes fell to them.
Her eyes went wide. “Oh my God! Is it?”
I stopped on the beach so I could double over in laughter. “Come on, Mel,” I said through my giggles. “You’ve known me for years. You don’t think I would have mentioned that I was a lesbian?”
She threw her hands up in the air. “How the hell am I supposed to know? You’re like the Fort Knox of secrets over there. You hold everything so damn close to your chest.”
Her face was red and she’d crossed her arms over her breasts. I’d known Mel long enough to know when she was getting pissed, but still I kept laughing until she finally leaned forward so we were eye to eye. “You’re a dick, Livingston Montgomery!” Her ponytail swung out as she turned around and started stomping down the beach.
I smiled as I yelled out, “No! But I do, however, like dick!”
I’d never had a dick in my life, so I didn’t know how much I liked it or not, but I just couldn’t miss the opportunity to give Mel a hard time.
She paused long enough to shoot me a look over her shoulder while calling out, “Hilarious.”
I jogged to catch up to her, still chuckling quietly. I pulled her swinging ponytail. “Don’t be mad, Mel. I was only joking.”
She gave me some side-eye action and tried to hold back a smile. “I know. But you’re still a dick.”
I nodded. “I am. Forgive me?”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Good. I can’t have the only person in all of Saint Ashley who actually likes me mad at me.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re so dramatic. I am not the only person who likes you.”
“You totally are,” I deadpanned.
“Braden likes you.”
“Braden likes anyone with a vagina, Mel. That hardly counts.”
She nudged my shoulder with hers. “You should give him a chance. He’s a good guy, has money, and his daddy is the sheriff.”
I didn’t tell Mel that those qualities meant diddly squat to me. No, I wanted a man who thought I’d hung the moon. I wanted a man who loved me. I just wanted a man. Not a boy who only considered himself important because of his social status. Love couldn’t be measured in dollars.
We reached my house just in time to avoid any more talk of Braden, so I waved Mel off and headed toward my house, thankful for the weekend where etiquette classes and school were nonexistent. And even though I didn’t usually go to the field on the weekends, I would tonight because I’d told him tomorrow and it was finally tomorrow. It had been a long wait all night in my bed imagining what his name could be. Imagining what he might say to me. I’d hardly slept a wink at all.
I was daydreaming about tattoo boy again while I reached into the fridge to grab a cold bottle of water. I turned around and closed the fridge and ran straight into a hard body.
“Oomph.” My water bottle rolled across the floor and Sebastian leaned over and grabbed it.
I stood there, staring at him as he blocked the exit to the kitchen. I held my hand out, hoping he’d hand over the water bottle but knowing all too well the kind of shit my stepbrother normally did.
He didn’t hold the bottle out but instead kept it in his fist right at his side. “Come get it, Livingston.”
So, I did. I leaned over far enough that I didn’t have to walk a foot to get close to him and snatched the bottle out of his hand.
“Can you move out of the way?” I ground out, my hand tight around the water bottle.
He nodded. “Sure.”
I started forward, but he still blocked my way, so I backed up, determined to not get close enough that he could do something creepy like smell me or whisper in my ear. My skin crawled at the thought.
He smiled and I felt sick. He always did this. Pretended to be amicable and then delivered a killer blow. “I’ll move. As soon as you tell me where you’ve been going every fucking night.”
I swallowed. Terrified he knew. Terrified he’d followed me. I thought I’d been careful. Always making sure he wasn’t home or waiting until everyone was tucked into their beds. I realized now how wrong I’d been. Sebastian was always watching me. Always waiting for a weak moment to attack. Always looking for a way in.
I shrugged my shoulders and looked at the floor. I was a terrible liar, but I’d lie until the cows came home about this. There was no way in hell I was telling Sebastian about my daddy’s field. About the notes. About my tattooed boy waiting there for me.
My head swam. How would I get out tonight? Would he be watching and waiting for me to leave? Would he follow me across the bridge and ruin the one place I had left? Ruin my chance to finally talk to the boy who’d revealed himself?
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping.” I kicked at the tiled floor with my tennis shoe and more sweat pooled at the bottom of my back. I felt like I was under a heating lamp instead of Sebastian’s watchful stare. “I sometimes walk to the beach. I think it’s the stress of the ball coming up. Of all the classes with Ms. Donnelly.”
I looked up at him through my eyelashes briefly to gauge whether he believed my lie. His lips were pursed like he was in thought and I had a brief second where I thought I would get off scot-free.
“By yourself?”
I looked up at him, stunned by his question. He’d warned away all the boys at school. Who did he think I was taking long walks with?
“Yeah. By myself,” I said quietly, so sick and tired of this. So done with being worried about Sebastian. So over the interrogations and intimidations. So sick of being worried constantly. So tired of walking on eggshells.
“Mmm,” he rumbled out, his brown eyes thoughtful, his stature intimidating the hell out of me. Sebastian was big and strong and smart. He was a deadly combination when he wanted to be. But he must have decided to cut me some slack today because he moved to the side and I didn’t waste a second wondering why as I rushed past and straight to the shower. I locked the hell out of that door and while I showered, I thought about how being careful wasn’t good enough anymore. He was on to me. I couldn’t risk him finding my field, my notes about the stars, or my tattooed boy. He’d take them all away from me as brutally as possible and I couldn’t risk that.
I finished bathing just in time to join stepmonster and evil stepbrother for dinner. It was silent as we ate, but Sebastian’s eyes were forever watchful. They rarely left me, even as he cut his steak.
I gave a big yawn at the end of the meal, claiming I was exhausted, and headed to bed. Harry and I climbed the steps and I turned off the lights and slipped under the covers with my cell phone, Harry warming my feet at the bottom of the bed. I watched YouTube videos on my cell phone until late, making sure everyone in the house was asleep, especially crazy ass Sebastian.
I didn’t take Harry. I was scared his toenails across the tile would wake someone, so it was just me and my blue blanket as I stole off into the night.
Praying the tattooed boy was still there waiting for me, I jogged across the bridge in my black yoga pants and Saint Ashley Prep T-shirt, my blue flip-flops pinching between my toes. I whipped through the grass like lightning, excitement spurring me on when I came to my spot in the field. I’d waited later to make sure I knew everyone was completely asleep. I gazed around, looking for my Coke bottle, but more importantly searching for the boy.
Nothing. No Coke bottle. No letter. Nothing. And the clouds were so thick tonight, there weren’t even any stars. I could have cried.
“Helloooo,” I called out but was only greeted by silence.
My breathing became labored and my heart felt like it was pounding out of my chest. Oh my God. It was over. He wasn’t here. He’d left me no notes. We were done. He was done with me after last night. I was pretty sure this was what having a panic attack was. I didn’t know why I was so devastated. I’d just met him, but I think that was mostly the reason I was so sad. I didn’t get to know his name, why he left the notes, how he knew so much about the stars.
The prickle of tears burned my eyes as I threw the blue blanket on the ground haphazardly and sat down. I was beyond disappointed. I buried my face in my hands, trying to hold back the tears. I was stupid. Why had I gotten my hopes up about some tattooed bad boy? It was so unlike me. But he’d tricked me. He’d tricked me with the stars and the romantic notes and the freakin’ Coke bot—
“You’re late.” A deep voice snapped me out of wallowing.
I looked up through blurry eyes and there he stood, the source of all my sadness. God, he looked good and not just because I was so relieved to see him. He was standing right over me, but still I could see the muscles underneath his tight white T-shirt that fed into tight dark jeans. My eyes devoured him like he was their favorite snack. I got all the way down to black boots that looked like Doc Martin knockoffs and I was practically swooning. He was intimidating as hell, but God, he was beautiful. My eyes swept back up his body and to the tattoos that poked out of the top of his T-shirt and onto his neck. And that jaw. It was hard and square—unyielding. I wanted to touch it. And then my eyes hit ice-cold blue ones. They weren’t smiling. They weren’t friendly, but still my stomach somersaulted as I took them in. His black hair was messy, like he hadn’t brushed it in a while, but it didn’t matter. It was perfect just the way it was.
He was the quintessential bad boy, but everything about him was just too damn good.
I couldn’t look away, which was probably why he finally asked, “Are you gonna move over or what?”
“Oh,” I mumbled stunned and dazed, scooting over on the blue blanket to make room.
As he was sitting down my mind suddenly cleared. “Wait!” I shouted.
He went from a crouching position to standing straight up again beside me. “What?” He looked startled.
And even though part of me was feeling starstruck, I wouldn’t let him be another person in my life who controlled me or railroaded over me.
I looked toward the blue blanket. “You gotta give me a name before you sit on my daddy’s blanket, tattoo boy.”
He quirked a dangerously dark eyebrow down at me. “Tattoo boy?”
I said one word back, giving him big eyes, because he had to be kidding me. He had nicknames for me, too. “Luna?”
He nodded thoughtfully before answering. “Adam. Adam Nova.”
I blinked, not quite believing it. “Nova?”
Like the star. A star that burned bright until it burned out. I was pretty sure that was what a nova was. It seemed highly unlikely that a boy who knew about the stars had a last name like that. He had to be full of shit.
“Yep,” he said, sitting down next to me like we’d done this my entire life. Like it wasn’t a big deal. Like butterflies weren’t swarming my belly. Like this wasn’t the most epic event of my teenage life.
“You’re joking?”
“Nope.”
What the hell? I wanted to know more. How did a guy who knew about the stars have a last name like Nova? “Are you going to elaborate?”
“Nope,” he mumbled as he reclined back until he was looking at the cloud-covered sky.
I lay next to him. It was as awkward as you can imagine. I was stiff and scared, just a sixteen-year-old girl who’d never even kissed a boy, much less lain next to one on a blanket beneath the stars.
So, I did what I normally did when I felt embarrassed or awkward. I talked because I was one of those who couldn’t help it. “Don’t you wanna know mine?”
His head slowly turned in my direction and once again those blue eyes were on me, making me shiver and feel like I was full of fire simultaneously. “Wanna know what?”
His voice said that he didn’t care what the hell I was talking about, but those eyes told a different story. Those eyes said he couldn’t get enough of me.
I scoffed at his question. “My name.”
He scooted over so he was closer to me. “Of course.”
Oh. My. God. Did Adam Nova ever have a normal conversation in his entire life or were they all like this—overcomplicated as hell. Jesus, if he could just articulate one freaking thought it would be awesome.
“Then why didn’t you ask?”
He shrugged. “I figured you were going to tell me.”
“When do you leave the notes?”
His face was back to the sky. “As soon as it gets dark out.”
“And then what?”
“And then I wait.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” he said to the clouds.
“And when I finally get here? What then?”
He blew out a long breath and then fell quiet. I thought maybe he wasn’t going to answer me, but his voice and what he said shocked me. “I watched.”
You could have knocked me over with a feather and I was already lying on the dang ground. My jaw worked as I stumbled over my next words. “Why?”
His head seemed to turn in slow motion as his eyes collided with mine like two semis wrecking head-on. “Because I couldn’t not watch.”
Goose bumps broke out on my skin and I felt my chest tighten. I couldn’t describe what I felt in that moment. I felt scared. I felt excited. And flattered. No one watched me, but Sebastian. No one really cared but my creepy stepbrother and for the wrong reasons. And while Adam was odd in his own right something told me he was safe. I lay there on the blanket, staring at the sky in awe, in shock. He’d watched me. He’d put tiny notes in a bottle and watched me open them and then he’d lain here in this very spot and stargazed. Why? Because he couldn’t not watch me. I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
“Are you gonna tell me or what?”
I snapped out of my daze and turned to look at him, but he was back to looking up at the sky. “Tell you what?”
“Your name,” he whispered.
I felt myself smile. He wanted to know it, even though he hadn’t asked. I wanted to know a million things about him myself, but I knew he’d be a tough nut to crack. So, I did what any teenage girl who liked a boy did. I played hard to get. And boy was I playing because I was already got.
“Tomorrow.”