EPILOGUE
When Jamie said he had a surprise for me Sunday afternoon, I didn’t quite know what to expect. We’d only just gotten together last night at the fundraiser—what could he have possibly organized that fast?
“So where are you going?” Ivy asked me for the fourth time, watching as I ran a brush through my hair. The curls from last night had relaxed into a cute, red wave, and I even threw on a little bit of mascara. “Is it a picnic?”
“I told you, Jamie said it was a surprise. I don’t know what we’re doing.”
“Can I come with, then?” Junie asked, lips puffed into a pout as she stood just outside the bathroom. “I don’t want to stay home.”
“Sorry, kid,” I told her, touching the top of her head as I left the bathroom. “I do know one thing about the surprise, and that it’s a date.”
Ivy wrinkled her nose. “No kissing. Jamie said you’re not allowed to kiss until you’re married.”
I pressed my lips together, the same ones that’d been all over Jamie’s the night before. “Right.”
Nellie
I’m sending you a bill for therapy
Um, I’m pretty sure I saw YOU macking on Beck the night of your birthday and I gave you a pass
Nellie
okay but this is the SECOND TIME I walked in on you two kissing. You were supposed to be arguing, not eating each other’s faces. This is way more traumatic.
you hear that?
it’s the sound of the world’s smallest violin
Nellie
Rude
poking fun aside, I’m happy you two worked it out (:
because now we can double date!!!
it’s going to be perfect.
“Daisy!” Mom called from downstairs. “Jamie just pulled up!”
Junie flew by me first to bound down the stairs, all but knocking me into the banister. The front door opened before she could get to it, and Jamie stepped inside quickly before shutting the door.
“Jamie!” Junie called, rushing up to him. She tilted her head back to peer up at him, batting her lashes. “Jamie, can I come with?”
“Next time,” he promised Junie, lifting a hand out to her for a shake. “What should we do?”
“A picnic!” Ivy called, jumping up as if she’d been invited, too.
Jamie chuckled, giving her a thumbs up. “Deal.” And then he turned to my mom. “I’ll have Daisy text you when we’re on our way home, Mrs. Carmichael.”
“Oh, don’t worry. Just have fun.” Mom gave me a smile from where she sat on the couch, giving the bottle of nail polish in her hand a shake. “Who wants their toes done?”
All of the kids yelled out “Me!” Even Theo.
Even as they hurried away, Jamie didn’t immediately open the door. “Your surprise,” he murmured to me. “I think you’ll like it.”
“You’re building the suspense quite high, so I’d open the door before you can’t live up to it.”
Jamie scoffed a little. “Brat,” he muttered with a small grin, but opened the front door.
In all honesty, I was excited for whatever surprise Jamie conjured up. He typically had good ideas—and this one was no different. I didn’t really see anything until I stepped out onto the porch, and then saw it in the driveway.
Not Jamie’s car, but a dark red convertible sat parked with its top down.
“No way.” Despite purely not believing my eyes, a grin spread across my lips, and I rushed down the steps. “No way! No way Beck let you borrow it!”
Jamie’s lips mimicked my smile as he trailed after me, his face a mirror reflecting my happiness. “It took a little persuading, but I let Nellie do the heavy lifting.” He lifted his hand, giving the keys around his finger a delicate swing. “He has a soft spot for you, apparently.”
I was so excited that I launched myself at Jamie, wrapping my arms around his neck and dragging him down. He tucked me close, his hand pressing gently at my back. “He has to be nice to the bestie,” I told Jamie with a little squeal. “All boyfriends do.”
“Right. Good thing I’m the boyfriend and the best friend.”
I smacked him lightly on the arm, drawing back to grin at the convertible. “Where are we going?”
Jamie took a step back to open the passenger door for me. “I checked online this morning,” he mused, watching as I slid into the car, carefully shutting the door behind me. “And a certain art store is finished with renovations and finally reopened to the public.”
I gave another loud gasp, grabbing the top of the door. “You’re kidding!”
“As if I would joke about something as sacred as the Jefferson art store.”
Excitement lit through me as Jamie slid into the driver’s seat, starting the car up and easing down the driveway. “I can’t believe you finally fixed the pothole,” I mused as we eased out onto the road without bumping over the hole in the driveway.
“See, I’m not just book-smart.”
“I never doubted you.” I reached over immediately after Jamie put the car into drive, easing my palm against his. “Is this okay?” I asked him. “I know you normally like to drive with both hands on the wheel—”
“Don’t you dare let go of my hand, Daze.”
Pressing my lips together, I looked away so he couldn’t see my smile.
We didn’t make it out of Addison limits before the song switched to a different one on his playlist. The intense beginning was a wild shift, and I almost didn’t place the song at first, since the intro was long.
When I recognized it, I laughed aloud. “Why is It’s All Coming Back to Me Now by Céline Dion on your playlist? ”
Jamie’s cheeks were pink. “N-No clue.”
“You’re such a bad liar.” I twisted up the dial just as Céline started singing her first line, and I couldn’t help but join in with her, but with more flourish.
The thought of Jamie rocking out to Céline Dion made me laugh even harder, but in a way, it was also so Jamie.
He wasn’t into rap or rock or even pop music.
No, he apparently dug 50-something-year-old Canadian singers with an insane vocal range.
I held my phone to my lips like a microphone when the chorus picked up, dramatically leaning into the melody. Jamie pointedly ignored me, instead squinting through the windshield as if he was in the convertible alone.
I shifted my phone in front of his face. “Sing with me!” I told him, cutting through the song.
“I don’t sing.”
“You said don’t dance either, and yet I distinctly remember what it felt like to dance with you.”
Vividly. And judging by the look that passed across Jamie’s expression, he distinctly remembered it, too. His hand tightened ever so slightly in my own.
The music suddenly swelled, and I took that moment to pretend to be swept up in the song. Surely it wasn’t only Jamie flushing now. It was definitely me, too.
And then, with faint words that almost were carried away in the wind, Jamie began to sing with me.
Or, really, he spoke the words—he really did try his hardest to siphon all musical quality from them—but excitement burst through me at the win.
I twisted the volume dial up further, feeling the speaker near my feet vibrate with the effort to pump the sound out.
Jamie’s voice got louder, too, but now his singing was tinged with the musical sound of his laughter. It was hard enough that the amusement split across his face, creasing his cheek with that dimple.
This was yet another thing I loved about Jamie.
The way our laughter bled together over the silliest things, like driving down the road, top down on the convertible, pretending like we could sing as well as Céline Dion.
Jamie would resist, but he’d end up caving to my antics every single time.
Dancing with me. Singing with me. Having fun with me.
He could make me forget any of the darkness swelling in me, and I could make him smile like he hadn’t done it in years.
I loved that I was the one who got to see that smile.
Jamie slowed for a stop sign, the last one before we left the city of Addison, and as soon as the car stopped, I stretched across the console. I laid my palm against his cheek to turn his head toward me, taking the advantage to press a deep kiss to his lips.
He hadn’t been expecting it, judging by the sharp breath he drew in through his nose, but he immediately melted into me, his hand tightening around my own. He chased my kiss with one of his own, lips a firm and heart fluttering pressure.
And then the convertible jerked as his foot slipped a little on the brake.
I fell back into the passenger seat with a wild laugh, pulse thumping hard in my throat. “Careful,” I teased, bringing our hands up and laying his knuckles against my warm cheek. “If you crash Beck’s car, he’ll kill you.”
“No, Ms. Jennings will kill me.” Jamie cleared his throat, and when I glanced over, I saw that his skin had grown pink again. I absolutely loved it. “And then you’ll be boyfriendless. All because you kissed me.”
“Well, we can’t have that.”
Jamie checked both ways, but before he lifted his foot from the brake, he turned to me again. “One more,” Jamie begged, stretching over.
A happy little thrill raced through me, and I pressed a chaste kiss to his lips. “Love you.”
My happiness reflected in Jamie’s face, pressing a little indent into his cheek. “I love you.”
And with that, Jamie eased away from the stop sign, taking us on our adventure.
NELLIE
“Think of it this way,” I murmured to Beck, combing my fingers through the silky strands of his hair as we sat cuddled together in the hammock in my backyard. “If he crashes the car, your aunt will kill him. Not you.”
Beck’s arm was tucked underneath my neck, and his other hand delicately traced shapes into the skin of my arm. “No, she’ll kill us both. She’ll probably kill you, too.”
“Me?”
“She’ll think I’ve been persuaded by your irresistibly cute face.” Beck let out a theatrical sigh. “She’d be right.”
I snorted, snuggling deeper into his side.
The cotton shirt he wore smelled so much like him that it made me dizzy, and I was sure he’d caught me taking discreet huffs ever since we’d laid down.
The hammock swayed lightly in the summer breeze, the sun partially obscured by the tree limbs overhead.
It was the epitome of a lazy Sunday afternoon. I could’ve stayed there forever.
“I’m happy for them,” Beck murmured, continuing the lulling designs on my arm. “I always thought they’d be cute together.”
“It’s weirder than I thought it’d be,” I admitted, still not quite able to get the image of the lovebirds kissing from last night out of my mind.
Objectively, it’d been cute how Jamie had shuffled his feet apart to kiss Daisy.
Subjectively, I so did not need a visual of what my brother looked like kissing.
“But not bad. I’m happy they realized their feelings, too. ”
And I was glad that Daisy had listened to my advice and had confessed to Jamie.
While I hadn’t been completely certain of Jamie’s feelings, Destelle had totally called it, though, from just a quick glance at Jamie and Daisy at our birthday party.
I’d texted her about it last night, and she’d called me immediately.
We’d spent the rest of the night giggling over our brother falling in love.
“Nellie.” Beck drew my attention back to him.
“Mm?”
He didn’t speak for another moment, and I blinked lazily, waiting. His fingers stopped tracing along my skin, now just resting there, holding me as we rocked. When he spoke, his voice was very soft. “I love you.”
L-O-V-E. The word spelled itself in my mind as warmth spread through me, like a little spell. I watched my palm, resting on his chest, ever so slightly rise and fall faster. “Were you nervous saying it?”
“I don’t think I’ve said it before.”
“You haven’t.” I shifted so I could push up on my elbow, looking up at him. “I haven’t either. But I love you, too.”
Beck lifted his head to look down at me easier, his green eyes electric as they searched mine. They were so bright, as if the sun itself was shining in his eyes. And then he murmured, “I can’t lean down any further.”
A small smile crept across my lips. “And?”
“And I want to kiss you, but I can’t lean down any further.”
Now my small smile bloomed into a wide grin.
Using his chest as leverage, I pulled myself up the few inches, sliding up in the hammock so my lips could find his.
Beck kissed me back immediately, and my heart somersaulted in my chest the way it always did.
The way I was sure it always would. Beck kissed my lips once, twice, three times, and then he kissed my cheek, then the other.
His peppering kisses always had me giggling, radiating happiness.
And then he planted one final one to my forehead. “What was it that Daisy called us?” he mused, tucking me firmer against his side. “Beauty and the bad boy?”
I wrinkled my nose a little at the cringiness. “And those two are beauty and the bookworm.”
“I think it fits.” Beck’s lips brushed my temple. “I think it fits very well.”
And we stayed like that for a long time.
Long enough for the breeze to start feeling chilly and for Dad to open the patio door and call us in for dinner.
Beck had texted Jamie while we ate, worried about the car, and he checked in that they’d made it to Jefferson safe and sound.
He even sent a picture of Daisy, elbows deep in art supplies with the world’s biggest grin on her face.
The beauty and the bookworm.
I looked over at Beck. Beauty and the bad boy.
Yeah, I had to agree. The titles did kind of fit us.
P-E-R-F-E-C-T-L-Y.