Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
ELIZABETH
Valentine’s Day
V alentine’s Day. A day of hearts and flowers and romance. Jayson is taking me to Ana?s, a very exclusive restaurant located in the next town over. Maria and I went dress shopping last weekend, and I found a gorgeous dark blue V-neck chiffon A-line midi dress to wear tonight.
Pulling the plastic protective covering off the hanger, I hook it over the bathroom door. Cranking up the music I have playing, I shake my butt to the beat as I finish straightening my hair with the flat iron.
My phone chimes.
Maria: What do you think? Too much?
She attaches a selfie of herself standing in front of a full-length mirror. Maria is wearing the yellow cocktail dress she bought. It looks good against her tanned skin and dark hair. She’s paired it with gold T-strap five-inch heels. Her hair is twisted up on top of her head with loose tendrils curling around her ears and neck. She looks stunning.
She and Ryder started dating a month ago, and I’m trying not to act weird about it around her. She’s so smitten, and I just want him to be happy.
Me: You look beautiful.
Maria: I’m so nervous.
Me: You will break hearts tonight. Have fun.
Maria: OMG! He’s here! Got 2 go xxoo
I go back to the bathroom mirror and pick up my tube of mascara, needing to hurry because Jayson will be here in ten minutes. My hand shakes as I bring the wand to my eyelashes. Dammit . I toss it aside and brace my hands on my bathroom vanity. In the mirror, I take in my reflection, but I don’t recognize the girl staring back at me anymore. I used to.
My phone chimes again.
Julien: Our boy is about to climb the walls waiting to come get you.
Me: I’m almost done getting ready.
Julien: Hold on…
My phone goes off, and I see Julien’s name requesting a video call. I swipe to accept.
“Hey, sexy girl,” Julien says as soon as his face comes up on the screen.
I squint at the grainy image. Julien’s face is hard to make out.
“Where are you? It’s really dark.”
“I had to hide in the laundry room so Jay couldn’t hear me. You look gorgeous, Liz.”
I snort. I’m still wearing my unicorn bathrobe. “Yeah, right. Are you about ready to head out?”
“Yeah. I’m going to wait for you guys to leave first, just in case. And I want to see what happens.”
“What’s going to happen?”
“You’ll see.” His grin is a mile wide.
Even though he’s full of teasing right now, I know Julien is apprehensive about his date tonight. I’m the only one who knows about it, and he has sworn me to secrecy. He still hasn’t come out to his parents, or to Jayson and Ryder. I feel guilty about keeping secrets from Jayson, but it’s not my secret to tell, and I will not betray Julien or his trust.
“Did you and Elijah decide on a restaurant?”
“We thought it would be safer if we drove to Fayetteville. No one should know us or recognize us there.”
When Julien first told me he liked Elijah, I was worried. Not because of anything he said, but because I didn’t want Elijah to break his heart. Come to find out, Elijah had been crushing on Julien since the first time they met. When Elijah would show up to the races at the Fields or the parties we went to, it wasn’t to see me. He was there for Julien. I was merely an excuse—even the first time he asked for my number.
It took Julien a while to accept his feelings for Elijah, but once he did, the two of them have been inseparable. But I’ve been sworn to secrecy because Julien isn’t ready to tell his family. He’s scared of what will happen. Terrified at how his parents or Jayson will react to learn that he’s bi. It guts me to think that Julien feels that way, because I know in my heart that they will accept his bisexuality with open arms. They love him. He deserves to be happy without having to live his life in fear or feel shame because of who he is. Because to me, he’s perfect.
“Julien, Fayetteville’s like over an hour away.”
“Better to be safe than sorry,” he replies. “Liz, hold on. I think I just heard Jay leave the house.”
I haven’t even put my dress on.
“Got to go. Love you!” I blow him a kiss and end the video call.
Mom shouts my name from downstairs, and I rush to shimmy into my chiffon dress, hastily step into my yellow strappy heels, spritz on some perfume, and dash downstairs. If I wasn’t holding onto the stair banister, I would have tripped.
Because waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs is a very handsome, well-dressed Jayson. I haven’t once seen him wear anything fancier than khaki slacks and a dinner jacket. Tonight, however, he’s dressed in a dark charcoal suit, a blue dress shirt, and a dark tie with blue and silver accents. He even styled his hair.
Leaning a shoulder against the wall and one hand casually draped in the pocket of his slacks, Jayson looks every bit as dashing as a GQ model. His intense silver gaze rakes up my body in slow increments from my strappy heels to the panels of my dress that seem to float around my knees to the deep V of the dress’s bodice.
“Liz…Jesus…”
The butterflies in my stomach wake the hell up and flutter their wings.
“Hi.” I smile.
When I get to him, Jayson offers me his hand.
“Hi back.”
Careful of my hair, he reaches one hand around my neck and spreads his other hand across the dip of my spine, pulling me in. He holds me like that, gray eyes traveling over my face, before inching in and capturing my lips in a kiss that makes my toes curl.
“If I didn’t have to make the reservation months in advance, I would take you upstairs right now and eat you for dessert,” he whispers in my ear.
Mom loudly clears her throat.
Awkward .
“Picture time,” she says, camera in her hand, with Dad right beside her.
“Is this how it’s going to be at prom next year?” Dad asks her.
She pats his arm. “Oh, much worse, I’m afraid.”
He groans.
Jayson and I stand for what seems like hundreds of pictures because once Mom is done, Hailey jumps in with her phone to take more.
“Sorry, fam, but we need to go,” Jayson apologizes.
He guides me outside, his hand placed possessively at my back. On our way to his truck, I stop when I see bright twinkling lights. Our oak tree is decorated from top to bottom with fairy lights and silver origami stars, and an old-fashioned swing hangs from the bottom branch. I take it all in. It’s the most wondrous thing I have ever seen.
“It’s beautiful.”
Jayson threads his fingers with mine and brings my hand to his lips for a reverent kiss on my wrist. He leads me over to the swing and holds it steady for me to sit down.
“Aren’t we going to be late for dinner?” I ask.
“I planned ahead.”
He smiles, waiting behind me as I smooth down my dress and gently lower to sit on the polished wood board of the swing. Once I’m settled, he gives me a small push.
“You keep surprising me,” I say, tilting my head back to look up at him.
“I used to daydream about doing this when we were younger.”
“Your dream was to push me in a swing?”
“Actually, yeah. You would be wearing your blue princess dress, the one you wore the first day we met, and that plastic tiara.”
“Don’t remind me.”
Looking back, that whole outfit was embarrassing.
I straighten my legs, feeling the wind rush up my dress every time I pendulum forward.
“I liked that tiara. And stop interrupting. I’m trying to be romantic.”
“Oh, by all means, please continue.”
He playfully narrows his eyes. “Like I was saying, I would picture you in the swing like this, and every time I gave you a push, your hair would whip back, all beautiful and shit. You’d smile at me and laugh, telling me to push you higher so you could swing into the sky to catch the stars.”
He lifts a hand and plucks one of the silver origami stars down from its string.
“Open it.”
I place my feet on the ground to stop the swing from swaying and carefully unfold the paper. Inside, he wrote, “a daughter who has your eyes and your smile.”
Curious, I ask him, “What does it mean?”
Jayson bends down to my upturned face and says, “Inside every star is a wish.”
My brows scrunch together before understanding hits me. His wish is for a daughter— our daughter. Tears spring to my eyes, the emotions I feel so intense, it would set the world on fire.
“Every star on our tree is filled with a wish. Wishes that I want to share with you. Spend the rest of my life giving to you. All you have to do, Liz, is reach for the stars, and I will give them all to you. I love you so fucking much.”
He kisses my ear, my neck, my bare shoulder, then my lips.
“Jayson, I don’t know what to say.” I’m so enamored with this boy. “I love you, too. So much.”
A single tear slips down my cheek, one that he captures with his finger and brushes across his lips.
The mood is completely shattered when Hailey shrieks feet away from us.
“That’s the most romantic thing I have ever seen!” She picks up her phone and snaps picture after picture of us and the tree. “Brea won’t believe this.”
Jayson groans against my shoulder.