“I think so, things were a little weird at first because I’m not the greatest around kids, but Madison is pretty easy to like. She’s so sweet. And then she fell asleep, and we ended up kissing. It was nice.”
“Nice?” Callie piped up. “That is not something you want in a kiss, Della. You want passion, fire, awe inspiring.” She looked a little dreamy-eyed, probably picturing Drew in her head. I completely agreed with Callie even though I wasn’t going to tell her that. All of those things were what I felt every single time Justin had kissed me; every time he touched me.
“Just give it some time, Della,” Zoey instructed, glaring at Callie who still looked to be in lala land.
By the time ten o’clock was rolling around, the girls were heading up to the guest room to paint each other nails. They insisted they would be waiting up for details, no matter how late it was.
“There you are,” Nash called out from the darkness as soon as I shut the patio door. I smiled as he rushed forward and wrapped me in a quick hug before turning around to point at his back. “Hop on.”
“Seriously? You haven’t given me a piggy-back ride since we were like ten. You probably won’t even be able to hold me.”
He snorted and pointed at his back once again. “Trust me, I think I can handle it. And close your eyes.”
“But-”
“Just do what I say for once, Della. I promise, I’m not going to dunk you in the water,” I could hear the smile in his voice as I hoisted myself onto his back and closed my eyes like he had instructed. We walked for about ten minutes, branches slapping me in the face the whole time, but I didn’t peak even once.
“Here we are.” He slid my feet to the ground, and I felt his hands on mine. “Okay, you can open your eyes now.”
I gasped when I saw where we were, I couldn’t believe I had forgotten about this place. Nash and I had come to this little alcove almost every day when I spent the summers here. Grams would prepare picnics for us, and we would alternate between swimming, eating, and making forts with the tree branches. It was our spot.
Of course, it was a little bit transformed since the last time I had seen it. Twinkling lights were wrapped around the tree trunks, and tiny votives were lit and arranged on a blanket that was spread out in the sand with a large picnic basket on top of it.
“You did all of this?” I whispered as he pulled me down next to him on the blanket. “Mmm hmm,” he murmured, smiling as he pulled out sandwiches, fruit, and cookies. “And I even made all of this by myself. Well, with a little supervision from my mom, so at least you know it’s safe to eat.”
“Wow, thank you. I feel pretty special.”
“You are, Della.” He caught a piece of my hair, twirling it through his fingers as he reached out to stroke my cheek. “I did all of this because I wanted to show you much I want you, how good I think we’ll be together if you just give us a chance. Do you think you’d be willing to do that?”
I stuffed a cookie into my mouth to give myself time to think. I thought about what Callie had said about just giving things a try, but I was also worried about how this would affect our friendship. Nash held my hand the entire time, silently staring back at me, waiting for my answer.
“I think we could give it a try, on one condition.”
“Anything you want,” he responded quickly.
“If things don’t work out for whatever reason, I need you to promise me that we’ll stay friends. I don’t want to lose you, Nash.”
“I think I can handle that, Della. In fact, I’m glad you brought it up. There is one thing that I wanted to talk about before we go any further.” He gave me a tight smile, letting go of my hand. “You know it’s been awhile since Mariah and I broke up, but I thought I should let you know that we hooked up about two months ago. It was just a one-time thing, stupid really, but I didn’t want to start anything up with lies between the two of us.”
I shrugged my shoulders, showing him that it really didn’t bother me, even though it reminded me all too much of how things got started with Justin. But Nash wasn’t Justin. At all. My heart wasn’t sure if that was a good thing, but my head was telling me that it was. Nash told me the truth upfront.
“Nash, we weren’t together then. I wasn’t even ready for another relationship, so what you did in the past doesn’t affect us now. Let’s just make sure to always tell each other the truth, no matter what.”
“Of course.” He gave me a relieved smile, pulling my hand back up to kiss my palm.
We talked for what felt like hours, just laying there looking up at the sky, his arm wrapped around my shoulder while I listened to the steady thrum of his heartbeat. It felt good to be with Nash like this. We were comfortable together, and I wished we could stay this way forever.