The night I’d kissed Everly without knowing her name was also the night my brother almost died.

I hadn’t known until much later that the reason Jonah was so late for his show was that he and Ruby had gone off the road in the storm. They’d gotten trapped in her car without a cell phone and nearly succumbed to hypothermia before Jonah dragged them through the whiteout to a farmhouse to call for help. He had the scars from frostbite on his fingers to remember that night for the rest of his life, but I’d only had a kiss in the dark.

I’d been pissed at my brother for being so late. I’d had to quell the crowd’s increasing agitation by buying a round for the whole bar. My younger brothers both gave me the eye when I did this, but I gave them the finger. It wasn’t like I was drinking. It was Cokes for me forevermore. 

The news traveled through the bar fast and everyone was happy again. The sweet thump of triumphant adrenaline dumped into my veins, that buzzy high of risk-taking the only high I could chase now. In an instant I’d turned the mood from near riot to full-on party.

Jonah owed me, I’d thought.

I glanced toward the front door again. 

And that’s when I saw her.

There at the corner, perched on a stool with her whole body tense, was a girl who looked so familiar that I’d done a double take. The way the light shone down on her made her look like she was bathed in a spotlight. Her curly blonde hair fell like a waterfall down her back, with a few shorter tendrils sweeping down to graze her creamy cheeks. Her hair and eyes were all softness but there was a hard edge to her mouth that I liked. A lot. “Who is that?” I leaned in and asked my brother.

“Who?”

“The girl! On the stool by the door?”

Beau looked over as she slid from her stool and melted into the crowd. “What girl?”

“Forget it.” I was still looking at where she was, at the negative space she left there at the very edge of the bar.

Beau watched me watch for her. “You’re actually paying attention to a girl?” I glared at him. He raised his eyebrows innocently. “What?”

“Don’t start.”

He grumbled and headed over to the bar with his twin and Claire, all of them refilling their beers on my dime and leaving me alone.

“Hey.”

I turned and there she was, right in front of me, a strangely purposeful expression on her face. “Hi,” I said, because what else is there to say when the first girl to catch your eye in nearly two years is talking to you? I winced at how rusty I’d grown.

I stepped to her. I wasn’t drunk, but I felt like it. She laughed, a wild sound. What’s so funny? I wondered.

“I usually don’t come out,” she said, shaking her head. She rocked on her heels, bumping lightly against me.

I reached out to steady her and liked the way she felt under my hand. Her skin was really soft. “I feel like I should know your name. We’ve met before, right?”

She’d tossed her head and laughed like this was the most amusing thing she’d ever heard. “Yeah, a bunch of times.”

I knew it. I knew she was right. There was something about her, but I couldn’t place her at all and it was pissing me off because I wanted to know her. I wanted to know everything about her. “I would have remembered you,” I told her, because I would have sworn it was true.

She’d gotten this wild look in her eyes that made me want to press her against the wall and make her scream my name.

She looked at me like she could read my thoughts. I loved the way her eyes were shining at me. I could get addicted to having her look at me like that. I was an addict, after all. 

The storm howled outside. Cold air seeped in through the window but she was warm and without discussing it, we started moving, dancing to the cheesy Christmas music piped in through the speakers. I didn’t care about the music. I wasn’t sure why she was in my arms, but it felt right to have her there, just like it felt right to bend and kiss her after only a moment.

“Kiss me,” she said.

I couldn’t believe my luck. “What?” I had to be sure that’s what she really wanted because I was ready to do all that and more.

Our lips connected.

Everything went black.

The darkness was total. Silently I thanked Jonah for being a prick and missing his own concert, because this was way better than any show of his could be. I kissed her with two years’ worth of pent up emotions, all the things I’d bottled up inside and only let out when I jumped out of airplanes or rode dirt bikes on the dunes in the Sahara. Kissing this familiar stranger was the same kind of adrenaline rush.

Bodies thumped and jostled us, rocking us like a boat on ocean waves. I’d only seen her for a second, but sight didn’t seem important right now. What was important was the way she felt in my arms, the smell of her shampoo as I buried my nose in her hair. Her voice, low and husky, was what mattered. The taste of her lips was the most important thing about her. 

It felt like seconds, but it was also as long as a lifetime.

The generator kicked in and the emergency lights came on. I blinked as my eyes adjusted, and in the whooping crush of people surging together in celebration, she slipped from my grasp. “Hey!” I growled, shoving a guy to the side. “Watch out for the lady!”

He glanced at me, eyes unfocused. “What lady?”

I turned. “Hey!” I called. “Where’d you go?”

I caught a flash of blonde hair. A bright streak of red lip. Was that her? “Baby?” I didn’t even know her fucking name. I spun around, my heart racing. “Hey ,wait a fucking minute! Let me get your number at least?”

A rush of cold air. “Close the goddamned door!” someone shouted. 

“Wait, no. Don’t!” I shoved my way through everyone in Crown Creek, all these people here to see my brother. I had found the one thing for me, the first girl to stir anything in my soul since I’d caught Noelle. I knew, with a certainty I seldom felt, that if I found her again, I wouldn’t have to keep doing what I’d been doing. Pushing myself. Running on empty. Risking everything. I knew that if I caught up to her, she’d help me learn to stay still. 

The door slammed shut, caught by the wind. The shuddering reverberation went right down to my toes. It felt final, but no, fuck that. I pushed it back open. 

Freezing cold air bit into my bare forearms. The temperature had plummeted at least fifteen degrees since I’d left the house. It was the kind of startling cold that took your breath away, but that wasn’t why I swore under my breath. 

There was nothing in the road. Caught in the streetlight, the falling snow swirled in a storm of glitter, like the finale of one of our shows. The snow was all I saw.

The wind was already scouring her footprints off the sidewalk. In the distance there was the glow of brake lights as the only car on the road turned out of sight. 

She was gone. 

I knew her lips. I knew her shape. I could still taste her kiss. 

But I didn’t know who she was, why she was so familiar. The suffocating familiarity of my hometown fell away, leaving me like I was an alien, a stranger dropped in an unfamiliar place where I didn’t know the language. 

But her body was still etched into my skin. If I touched her again, I would know her. I only had to find her again. 

But I didn’t know her name. 

Until now.

“Everly,” I repeated, and kissed her again.