“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” I HEARD SHOUTED from behind me. I turned around to find Braden and Mel there. Both wore smiles, so I plastered one on my face, too. I’d done a good job of avoiding the hell out of Mel lately. I was still supremely pissed about the fact she’d ratted me out to God knows who. It could have been my stepmother. It could have been Sebastian. All I knew was that Sheriff Rothchild knew exactly where to find me. Whenever I thought about sharing that with her and, her tattling on me like we were six and not sixteen, well, seventeen now, it made me want to scream.
“Thanks,” I said to Mel, not really feeling thankful at all, but petty as hell instead.
Braden walked toward me and pulled me in for a hug. “Happy Birthday, gorgeous. Got any big plans?”
I did. I had the same plans I did most nights. My plans were to go home and then wait until everyone was asleep and sneak out to see my boyfriend.
Adam. Jesus. I couldn’t even think of him without becoming all moony-eyed. I mean, he made me crazy before but now that we’d made love something had changed. My feelings had grown. I felt this connection to him that seemed so much deeper than before and way more grown-up. Maybe more grown-up than I was ready for because he made me want to do crazy things like forget this school, these fake people and their stupid, snobby island and run away with him.
Thank God Adam was a hell of a lot more responsible and rational than I was.
“Thanks, Braden.” I pulled out of our hug and put a little distance between our bodies. I didn’t want to give him the wrong impression. Because despite his flirtations and advances that door was firmly closed. Hell, it was locked. Even if Adam and I weren’t a thing, Braden and I would never be. I was coming to believe he maybe was a nice guy, but he wasn’t my type. He was, however, patient and always cool with me when I turned him down. He was easygoing. Way different than Sebastian in that sense. He was still a playboy, but if I never dated him I didn’t anticipate any problems with the guy.
“Nope, no plans. Just a birthday dinner with Sebastian and Georgina and then bed.” God, I was getting so good at lying. I didn’t know whether to be proud or ashamed.
Braden pulled his bottom lip into his mouth and gave it a good suck before saying, “Or you could just go out with me. I promise I’ll show you a good time.”
Ha! I bet he would. That lip suck said it all.
“No, thanks. I’m tired tonight and I think I need to wash my hair.” I threw back jokingly.
Slamming his hand to his chest, he clutched at his T-shirt over his heart. “Damn, Liv, you sure do know how to hurt a guy.” He turned to Mel. “Did she use the old washing her hair excuse?”
Mel giggled. “She did.”
“That’s what I thought. I can see there’s no hope here. Have a good evening, ladies.” He gave us a mock salute and left Mel and I standing in the hallway alone.
I didn’t know what to say. It was awkward as hell. I wasn’t ready for a fight and she looked like she wanted me to say something, anything really.
I pulled my bookbag up on my shoulders higher and headed toward the front door of the school.
I hadn’t made it ten feet when she said, “Why are you mad at me?”
“I’m not mad,” I lied, not turning around. I kept walking and it wasn’t long before I heard her footsteps right behind me.
“Yeah, you are.”
I tried to ignore her and just keep on walking, but she wouldn’t let up and finally she grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop in the courtyard of the school.
“What’s wrong?” she demanded like she didn’t already know.
I’d finally had it with her shit and all of a sudden I was jonesing for that confrontation I’d been avoiding for days. “You told on me. I told you a secret, Mel. Something I told no one else and you told.”
Her hand fell from my arm and I could see her throat working as she swallowed. She shuffled back a step and stared at the ground.
That’s what I thought. She’d done it and now there was no taking it back. She couldn’t even defend herself. It only pissed me off more.
I spun on my heel and started walking home. It was one of the rare days I didn’t have anything after school and it was my birthday. I shouldn’t have to deal with this shit.
Pounding footsteps behind me told me Mel was running toward me.
“Wait, Liv. I’m sorry. I was worried about you.” She fell into step beside me, short of breath. “You can’t be mad that I was worried.”
I shook my head. “No, I’m mad at myself. I thought you were the one person I could trust. I was so wrong. But I won’t make that same mistake again.”
I kept walking even when she stopped again. “Come on, Liv. Give me a break!” she shouted from behind me but fuck her. I was done with people like that. I didn’t need any more negativity in my life than I already had. And I had plenty back at the house.
But I knew in my heart it was short-lived. Less than a year and I’d be out of there and at college, and Georgina and this place wouldn’t have a hold on me. And once I had the money my father left me, I wouldn’t need her help anymore. I thanked God every day my father had the good sense to leave me that money and not Georgina because it was becoming all too clear the woman had probably only married him for his money. I hated that. I hated to think that my father had been duped by her. He’d loved her.
I entered the house to an excited Harry. We raced each other up the steps and I dropped my bookbag onto the floor in my room and unpacked my books and homework. I was an hour into it when Georgina texted me that dinner was ready.
I almost rolled my eyes at how impersonal that was. It was my birthday, damn it. I could smell cooked chicken as I walked down the steps and disappointment hit me hard. Dad always took me for Mexican on my birthday and Georgina knew that. We hadn’t done that since he’d passed. We hadn’t done a lot of anything since he’d been gone.
The table was set. The fine china was out and pale pink napkins lay next to the plates. I smiled because my dad hated those napkins. He didn’t much like anything pink or floral print.
Georgina smiled behind a glass of wine at the head of the table and I sat in the seat to her right. “Happy Birthday, Princess.”
Princess. She used to call me that before Dad died. Ya know, when she was still pretending she liked and cared about me. I sometimes wondered if it was all an act or if my dad’s death had changed her. Either way, now, it sucked.
“Thank you.”
The cook brought out a meal of baked chicken and salad and I knew there wouldn’t be any cake. God, how I missed my beloved Mexican food.
I was halfway through my piece of chicken when Sebastian finally decided to join us. My spirits wilted as he sat down. We’d almost made it through the meal without him.
“Sebastian, how nice of you to join us. No football practice today?”
Even I could see the boy was a sweaty mess. Georgina was too busy drinking her wine and living in her own little world. I almost felt bad for him in that moment and then I remembered what an ass he was to me.
“I just finished with practice.” A plate of food was placed in front of him and he ate it in record time.
Shoveling the last bit of food in his mouth, he found my eyes across the table briefly before looking down again. “Happy Birthday, Livingston.”
It was awkward to say the least. We didn’t typically say anything nice to each other. Before my dad died we were indifferent to each other and after when he started being creepy, I avoided him like the plague. “Thanks, Seb,” I muttered, placing my fork in my empty plate, wishing this meal would just be the hell over so I could hide in my room until I met Adam in the field tonight.
“So I’ve been thinking about the ball.”
Oh hell, I didn’t like it at all when Georgina got to thinking about anything. First, it was the classes, and then some crazy extravagant dress, and then Braden. No telling what she was going to come up with now.
I fidgeted with the napkin in my lap. “Yes?”
“Well, we need a theme. It’s only two weeks away now. I was just going to go with pale pink. But I’m curious, if you would like a particular theme for the dance?”
It slipped out before I even knew what I was saying. “The stars.”
Sebastian’s head snapped up and his eyes met mine with an intensity that made my bones feel like they were shaking in my skin.
“The stars! How lovely. That’s a brilliant idea. So romantic,” Georgina exclaimed, taking a big sip of her wine.
Even though I was looking at anything but Sebastian, I could still feel his eyes on me. Searing me with their glare.
I gave Georgina a genuine smile. It was obvious she thought my idea was a good one and she hardly ever gave me a compliment. Despite how I loathed her sometimes, I still craved praise like any other young girl.
“The stars it is!” Georgina toasted to the air since Sebastian and I didn’t have wine glasses. “It’s going to be beautiful. I can’t wait to see you in that dress. You’re going to be so lovely.”
I smiled again until I remembered she wouldn’t be so happy when she found out I wasn’t taking Braden. But still, I was feeling pretty good. This had been a way better birthday dinner than I’d thought it was going to be.
“May I be excused?” Sebastian asked and I felt my brow rise. The boy never asked. He always just got up and left. Everyone was playing so nice tonight. It was weird.
“Of course. I didn’t have the cook make any cake or dessert.” Her eyes zeroed in on my big breasts. “I figured you were watching your weight.”
My body curled in on itself. I slumped over at the table, trying to hide my big breasts. She’d caught me off guard. Unaware. Buttered me up before the blow. I wanted to cry.
Sebastian’s chair scraped back against the floor angrily. He threw his napkin on top of his plate and practically ran from the room.
I excused myself quietly and did the same before I freaking cried my eyes out in front of that evil bitch. I was good usually. I didn’t let her affect my self-esteem or self-worth. I knew I was good. I knew I was beautiful. My daddy had made sure of that.
It was after midnight when I snuck down the steps and out of the house. It was late, and I hadn’t been spending enough time with my puppers since I’d met Adam, so I grabbed his leash and my blanket and we headed out together. The weather was changing. The nights were becoming colder, so I’d pulled on a thick hoodie over my T-shirt and leggings before leaving.
I smiled as I crossed the bridge. It was far, but I could still see Adam in the distance. This. This was what I’d been looking forward to for my birthday all day. I could tell he’d seen me, too, because he’d paused and all of a sudden he was sprinting across the field and then so were Harry and I.
Harry’s leash and my blue blanket dropped to the ground and I jumped into Adam’s arms, my lips desperate for his. He didn’t disappoint. He picked me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist. Harry jumped on the big lump that was us, excited to see Adam.
“Happy Birthday, beautiful.”
I sucked in a breath, shocked. “How’d you know?”
He gave me a coy smile. “I dunno. I may have stalked your social media. By the way, your Instagram is pathetic.”
I wasn’t into Instagram or Facebook much. Just the bare minimum and I hardly ever uploaded. I liked to live in the moment. God only knew how many of those you had left.
I hugged him hard around the neck. “Thanks for the birthday wishes.”
He pulled back and looked down at me, concern coloring his features. “Was it a good day?”
I snuggled into him again. “It is now.”
Adam laid out the blanket, but I never let go. It was awkward and hilarious and really good entertainment watching him try to get that blanket down for us while I clung to him like a spider monkey.
He sat us down, me straddling his lap, my legs still wrapped around him. He leaned back on his hands. “Are you ever going to let me go?”
“Never,” I whispered back. The fever was back and he wasn’t even touching me. And I knew in that moment. It wasn’t the fever. It was love. God, I loved this boy so much, I was burned up with it.
“I have a present for you.”
I leaned back in his lap. “You do?”
He grinned at me shamelessly. And Lord have mercy, he was so delicious when he did that. So ridiculously gorgeous I wanted to jump his bones right out there in that field in the open.
He lifted me out of his lap and sat me next to him effortlessly. A cold breeze bit my ears, so I pulled my hood over my head as Adam reached into the pocket of his leather jacket and pulled out a small box.
It wasn’t wrapped. It was one of the foiled gold paper boxes that jewelry came in. I may have eeked a little as I took it from his open palm. I stared down at it, feeling nervous suddenly. No one had given me a gift today. No one had given me a gift for my birthday since my dad had passed.
It felt momentous, opening that box. Normally I would have ripped the top off like a maniac. But I remembered how Adam held my hand the first time. Slowly, carefully, sweetly. So, I took my time lifting the lid and pulling back the white cotton on top.
And there nestled among the white sat a gold ring. I lifted it out of the box, holding my breath. It was a thin band that opened in the front. On one end where it opened sat a star and on the other a moon. I stared at it, thinking how perfect it was. It was like they were meeting that star and that moon, much like Adam and I had met in that field that night. Adam Nova, the star, and me his Luna, the moon. It was more than perfect. It was sweet and simple and I instantly loved it. My eyes burned with emotion as I slid it on my finger. I couldn’t look at him. It embarrassed me how much I loved it. How important that scrap of gold was to me. And then he took it further and really blew me away.
“That was my mom’s.”
My head snapped to him. “What?” I breathed, barely able to speak. No. He shouldn’t give me something so precious. I didn’t deserve it. I started to take the ring off my hand, but he pressed his hand over mine, stopping me.
“No. She’d want you to have it.” He lay back on the blanket and pulled me along with him, until I lay across his chest. “She would have loved you and your love of the stars.”
I didn’t know what to say. My heart felt like it might just burst out of my chest it felt so big. And the fever was there. So strong. So hot. I couldn’t stop myself. A tear slid out of the corner of my eye and onto his T-shirt beneath my head.
“I think I love you,” I whispered. That’s what this feeling was, right? This heat. This all-encompassing emotion that seemed to control every decision, every thought, every thing in my life.
His body stiffened under mine before he brought the arm wrapped around me up to brush the hair off my face. “What did you say?”
I cleared my throat nervously, scared this might take things too far. Terrified this might make him run away from me. But I was more frightened of him never knowing. Of him never understanding how I cared for him. So, I said it again, this time with more conviction. “I think I love you, Nova.” I was looking at the sky. The moon was big and round and white. A full moon. And the next words came too easily because I meant them so, so much. “I think I love you to that moon and back.”
His arm curled around me tighter and then his other arm came around me, too. He clutched me so tightly to him, I could hear his heart beating quickly beneath me. His breath came faster and he squeezed tighter.
And in those seconds where he said nothing at all and just held me I was so frightened. I didn’t know if I’d made the biggest mistake ever or one of the best decisions of my life.
I held on to him, hoping and praying it wasn’t the last time I got to do this when he tilted his head forward until his mouth was pressed to my ear. “Just so we’re clear. I don’t think that I love you, Livvy. I know it. I know I love you. I knew I’d love you the first time I ever saw you beneath the stars. And I know I’ll love you fifty years from now. And hell, I don’t just love you to that moon and back, baby. I love you to Pluto and back even if it would take me nineteen years to get there and back.”
I felt like I’d died. I felt like my heart had frozen right there in my chest. I didn’t have a clue what to say. I just wanted to play those words over and over again in my mind until I had them memorized forever and ever. I wanted him to write them all down and put them in a bottle and leave them right here for me every day for always.
I was stunned, shaken to my damn core, and I hadn’t a clue how to navigate such a mature and adult situation, so instead I said the first thing that popped into my mind. “Nineteen years?”
His chest shook under mine as he chuckled. “Yeah. A hell of a lot longer than it takes to get to the moon and back.” He gave me a squeeze.
Oh. My. God. Swoon. I was freaking out. He loved me. A whole damn lot.
“This is the best birthday ever,” I whispered to no one in particular and Adam’s chest shook again.
“I guess it’s going to be tough topping it for next year, huh?”
Next year. He was talking about being with me next year. And he loved me. And I loved him and for a split second under the stars everything was perfect.
I figured it was the moment to drop the ball bomb on him. I’d waited as long as I could and since it was all about the love tonight I thought he’d have a hard time saying no.
“Since you love me and I love you, it only makes sense you take me to my deb ball, then.”
He snickered. “I don’t think me and deb balls are a thing that go together, Livvy.”
I put on my best puppy dog eyes. “But they could for me, right?”
His eyes rolled even as he smiled. “Maybe.”
We lay there, us two, surrounded by the darkness, but all I felt was light. The sun eventually started to creep up into the sky and Adam insisted he’d walk me home.
He kissed me a block from the house, Harry dancing around us, and watched me walk all the way home. I only knew that because I turned around approximately five thousand times to make sure, much to Harry’s dismay. And there he stood, watching me, my forgotten blue blanket tucked under his arm. I’d get it from him later, I told myself, too enamored with him to care. His eyes on me were the next best thing to his hands on me.
It was 5:30 a.m. when Harry and I finally walked up the driveway to my front door. But I paused, sure I’d heard voices, grabbing Harry by his collar. It was still mostly dark out, but I could see shadows on the front porch. I tugged Harry to the side of the house so we could hide in the darkness. Kneeling down, I prayed he kept quiet and made sure to give him lots of cuddles and whispered praise.
Meanwhile I felt like I’d stepped into another universe. I couldn’t believe it. Georgina did own actual pajamas and a face underneath all of that makeup. I also couldn’t believe I’d just caught her kissing Sheriff Rothchild. On our porch. At five-thirty in the morning. I kneeled there, numb. I hadn’t seen her kiss anyone since my daddy. Not that it wasn’t fair for her to move on. But why was she hiding it? And clearly she was. The sheriff’s clothes had been rumpled. And she was wearing a silk robe over God knew what. Maybe nothing. And they weren’t just kissing. They had been freaking kissing.
Eventually they said their goodbyes and the sheriff walked down a couple of blocks and got into an unmarked car I could only assume was his personal vehicle. I peeked around the house to see Georgina watch him drive off like a lovesick fool. After I was sure she went inside, I sat down next to a bush with Harry, feeling like my world had been rocked.
Why the hell were Sheriff Rothchild and Georgina sneaking around? Why didn’t they just come out and tell everyone they were dating? I couldn’t think of anyone who would actually care. Did Sebastian know about it? Did Braden? What in the hell was going on?