I’m all nervous, anxious, contained energy, and it has nowhere to go. And so I don’t wait, not any longer. I’m sure this time. It’s not the moment, or the setting, or the fact that we are missing someone else. It’s him. It’s Max.
I close the gap between us, and I kiss him. I feel him smiling in the second before he kisses me back. His hand at the side of my face, his fingers in my hair. Everything that makes Max Max.
When I pull back, I feel like the world should be changed somehow, but it’s eerily the same. The world is silent. Max is silent. Even the wind has died down.
“Everything is so still,” I say, feeling the calm settle through me as well, now that I’m here, sitting beside him—decided on something.
He looks off into the distance. “Right now we’re hurtling through space at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour. We’re practically flying.”
I turn my head to face him, scrunch up my nose, laugh. “Why do you know that?”
He grins, cuts his eyes to me, to see my reaction. “I have a thing about space. I’m thinking about studying astronomy.”
I can’t stop the smile that spreads across my face. I lean closer. “What else don’t I know about you, Max?”
“Wait and see.”
Thank you to everyone who helped take this project from idea to finished book: My agent, Sarah Davies, for all the guidance and support on each and every project.
My editor, Emily Easton, whom I’ve had the privilege of working with on six books now!
Phoebe Yeh, Samantha Gentry, and the entire team at Crown Books for Young Readers/Random House. I’m so fortunate to work with you all.
My critique partners, who are always willing to brainstorm ideas and talk through plots. Thank you to Megan Shepherd, Ashley Elston, Elle Cosimano, and Romily Bernard for the insightful feedback, support, and friendship.
And last, as always, thank you to my family.