Chapter 44
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
EVE
I ’m a college graduate.
The tassel flip and the empty case I was handed to display the diploma that’ll get mailed to me didn’t really make it feel real. But it’s starting to sink in, after a full day of photos and tears and celebration.
A happy squeal draws my attention to the left. Conor is splashing Harlow in the shallows. Rylan and Aidan are standing on the dock with Sean, looking at the boats and talking.
“What are you doing all the way down here?” Hunter’s walking across the sand toward me, hands tucked in the pockets of his suit pants.
The wind picks up, flopping a piece of blond hair onto his forehead. He’ll need another haircut soon.
“I wanted to stick my feet in the water,” I reply.
I was also hoping he’d follow me down here and away from everyone else, since I haven’t given him his graduation gift yet.
“Sean seems to be having fun,” I comment.
Hunter glances toward his brother, who’s still standing with Rylan and Aidan. “Yeah. He always does.”
“You’re waiting for him to relapse.”
He exhales. “I probably always will be. But I don’t think it’ll happen tonight, so that’s something.”
Hunter leans down and picks up one of the flat rocks lining the shore. He sends it flying toward the water with a powerful flick of his wrist. It skips four times before disappearing below the dark surface of the Sound.
“Impressive,” I comment.
“I’ll show you. C’mere.”
I take a few steps toward him, closing the distance. Hunter wraps an arm around my waist, spins me, and tugs me to him, pressing a kiss to the crease of my shoulder.
I shiver, relaxing back against his chest. Not just from the cold, although the dress I wore for graduation isn’t retaining much heat in the cooling air.
“You okay?” he murmurs. “You’ve been quiet tonight.”
“Yeah, I’m good. Just…thinking.”
“Thinking about what?”
“Well, I called my dad last night and basically told him he no longer had a daughter.”
“What did he say?”
“Nothing. I hung up on him. And right after, my mom handed me an envelope from him. With a nice note and a crayon drawing from my little sister and a check that means I might not need to eat ramen for every meal once I’m in New York. He dropped it off at her salon. Pretty sure it’s the first time they’ve talked face-to-face in ten years.”
“Wow.” His arms fold across my chest.
I lift my hands, running them back and forth along his forearms. “Yeah. It was a lot easier to hate him when he was entirely hateable.”
“You don’t hate him, Eve. That’s why it’s hard.”
I blow out a long breath, admiring the glassy surface of the Sound. Overhead, there’s nearly a full moon. Everything—the water, the few boats bobbing, the rocky sand—is bathed by a silvery, ethereal glow.
Something warm and rough brushes the back of my palm. A stone.
“Here. Hold it between your thumb and middle finger,” Hunter instructs. “And hook your index finger around the side. Make sure your thumb is on top. Keep your wrist parallel to the water, and then?—”
I hurl the stone as far as I can. It skips and sinks in the same motion, disappearing a split second after it hits the water.
“I think you got the hang of it,” Hunter says.
I laugh once, then turn so I’m facing him. “You know I’m not athletic.”
He grins. “Your bowling is better.”
“ Barely .” We went with Conor, Harlow, Rylan, and Aidan last week.
“We’ll practice when you visit me in Philly.”
“Okay,” I agree, playing with a button on his shirt. “I can’t believe we graduated . It doesn’t feel real yet.”
His hand skims up my bare arm, leaving a trail of goose bumps behind. These ones have nothing to do with the temperature. “Four years went by fast.”
“We’re spending the first and the last night of college together,” I say, a little awestruck.
Hunter twirls one of my curls around his finger. “Good start. Better ending.”
I smile, but it fades fast. “I wish I could go back to the beginning.”
“I don’t,” he says.
“You…don’t?”
“Nah.” He tugs gently on the piece of hair he’s holding. “All the best stuff is still ahead, Eve.”
“But we’re going to be living ninety-seven miles apart.”
Yeah, I mapped it. An hour and forty-five minutes by car. Two hours by train. Nine hours by bike—not that I’ll be testing that time estimation.
It doesn’t feel like I had enough time in the same place as him. Not enough of this time, together.
“It won’t be forever. We are.”
I stare at him, stunned.
Hunter raises his eyebrows. “I was kind of hoping for an agreement.”
There’s no way he could have known what Ben said to me. The exact words that officially ended my last relationship— I’m not sure we’re forever —are still burned into my brain. But they fade a little more as Hunter’s sink in.
“We are forever,” I agree, rising on my toes so I can reach his mouth.
Hunter groans into my mouth as I nibble on his lower lip, his hands coasting down my back and settling on my ass. “ Why are we at a beach with our friends again?”
I giggle. “Because they’re our friends and it’s our last night all together.”
“I’m not feeling very social,” he murmurs, and then kisses me.
I kiss him back for a minute, then slip out of his hold and jog over to the spot where I left my bag.
“What are you doing?” Hunter asks, sounding startled.
I don’t usually take off while we’re kissing.
“You’ll see,” I reply, searching through my bag.
I locate the box, stand, and walk back over to him.
Hunter raises an eyebrow when he spots it. “ Another diploma?” he teases.
The shape is pretty similar.
“Not for two years,” I tell him, holding the box out. “Open it,” I urge.
Hunter unwraps the box carefully, folding the wrapping paper and slipping it into his pocket before lifting the lid.
He doesn’t react right away. He just stares.
I chew on the inside of my cheek, waiting for a reaction.
Nothing.
“You…like it?” I finally ask, peering over the side to make sure nothing’s wrong with the painting.
It looks the same as when I packaged it.
Thank God, because it took me forever. I sketched it ten times to get the positioning right before adding color to the canvas. In it, Hunter, Aidan, and Conor are standing on the blue line of Holt’s hockey rink, wearing their jerseys, facing the goal. I looked up Aidan’s and Conor’s numbers and photos of the jerseys, so I know they’re accurate. In the top left corner, you can see the championship banner that’s now hanging from the rafters of the rink.
When Thea saw it, she told me I should show it to someone in the athletics department. That surely they’d want to use it as a mural or for marketing material. That it deserved to be seen by a lot of people.
But I painted it for him.
“Eve.” Hunter’s voice sounds choked. “I can’t believe—it’s perfect. I seriously…I can’t believe you did this. Thank you. It’s the most thoughtful gift anyone has ever given me.”
“You’re welcome,” I say, relieved.
Hunter closes the box very slowly and sets it on the sand. Then he wraps his arms around me, tugging me back into him. “You know how I know we’re forever?”
“How?” I whisper.
“Because I don’t think it’s possible to love someone more than I love you.”
Salty streaks roll down my cheeks. Hunter wipes them away with his thumbs. “Don’t cry.”
“They’re happy tears. Because I love you too and I’ve been wanting to say it for a while and it—it feels really good to say it to you.”
Hunter grins. It’s the widest smile I’ve ever seen him wear. “You love me?”
I nod. “ So much.”
“Hey, Morgan! You guys in for burritos?” Aidan shouts.
Hunter sighs. “Phillips always knows how to make a moment more romantic.”
I laugh. “Is he talking about that Mexican place you guys always go to?”
“Probably. I’m surprised they’re still open. They must be doing special hours for graduation.” He tucks a piece of hair behind my ear. “You wanna go?”
“Yeah. As long as we can go to Holey Moley for donuts later. They’re open until three a.m. on Saturdays.”
“We can do whatever you want,” Hunter says, picking up the box with his painting inside like it’s made of glass.
I grab my bag and sling it over my shoulder.
And we walk, hand in hand, back to where our friends and his brother are waiting by the cars.
And I decide that Hunter was right.
All the best stuff is still ahead.