Chapter 16
Adam
Of course they had to time the eclipse. That wasn’t a question. After all the fuss over whose theory was the correct one,
the only option was to hide his arousal, straighten out Carly’s mussed hair and go outside. Which is how they’d ended up on
the sidewalk, sweaty from the make-out session and the overhead sun.
Adam had gotten carried away with the kissing—and the kissing, to be fair, had been exceptional. Unlike the fake Hollywood
kiss, or the awkward surprise kiss that Carly had planted on him, this kiss revealed that Carly had velvety lips and a quick tongue. When she’d pulled back, her glasses were crooked and her hot
breath across his chest made goose bumps erupt up his arms.
The whole thing had been impulsive, an adjective he’d never before used to describe himself. But something about opening up
to Carly, and her sharing the truth about her dad, had shifted the way Adam saw her. And maybe changed what he was willing
to do to get Carly to see him differently, too.
While they timed the shadow bands and the eclipse, Adam kept chancing looks at Carly to get a read on how she’d felt about the whole thing. He anxiously fiddled with his wristwatch to avoid saying something he couldn’t take back like, Do you want to try that kissing thing again?
“And now,” Carly said.
Adam nearly fell sideways at the sound of her voice, then he quickly focused his attention on the watch. He let out a shaky,
hopeful breath as he registered the time.
“Two minutes and forty-seven seconds,” Adam said. His eyes flicked to Carly.
She slid the eclipse glasses off and her jaw dropped open in shock.
2:47 meant the eclipse had shortened again—but this time, by a full minute.
Adam was a logical person. He understood that the loop shortening was a good thing. While he’d planned to research ways to
block the light from the sun in order to completely end the loop, maybe they didn’t have to. At the rate the loop was changing,
they could just wait for the eclipse to end. If it shortened by a minute each loop, that would only be three more times.
Only three more times to see the shadow bands. While he’d wanted this moment to come, he thought he’d have more time. He’d
have to use the next three loops wisely if he wanted to actually discover what caused the shadow bands in the first place.
“This is totally bonkers, right?” Carly asked as she bounced from one foot to the other. “I mean, it’s a minute shorter? How is that possible? Am I that amazing of a kisser?”
Adam laughed. He didn’t mean to, but she was funny. She gave him a little punch in his arm, and that was fair.
“Don’t make fun of me, I’m serious!” she said. “What else could be happening here?”
“Honestly, plenty of other things.” Adam fisted a hand through his hair. He wished that he was a more creative person so he could come up with alternative ideas, but he just didn’t have that particular skill set. “But whatever is happening seems to be leading us in the right direction.”
Carly gave him a look, like she was annoyed that he wasn’t completely agreeing with her. And even when she was irritated,
she was still so pretty. So damn pretty. He was a sucker for her glasses. He wanted to watch her take them off, put the tip
in that pretty little mouth of hers and . . .
“Adam, you’re doing the staring off into the distance thing again,” she said.
He shook the fantasy from his head. “We should head out before the madness sets in.” Adam warily eyed the main road. In the
center was a drum circle, and about a dozen people wearing cat masks danced around to the unmistakable beat of Taylor Swift’s
“Blank Space.” Fairly harmless, really, but he wasn’t super interested in seeing what else the night would bring. “Let’s get
our stuff and go.”
He could drive them back to the tree house, or to the lavender field he liked to watch the stars from. And then they could
talk through the change in time and spark some ideas for the next few loops. Adam headed for the library, and Carly kept in
step.
“Here’s an idea,” she said. “Why don’t we consider kissing again.”
Her bluntness nearly caused Adam to trip through the sliding glass doors of the library. Instead, he walked through and kept
his eyes trained on the desks where they’d just been.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to kiss Carly.
He really did. But the kissing couldn’t be what was causing the change—it just couldn’t.
Yes, the evidence might lean that way, but more likely was that they hadn’t found the real cause, and the timing was coincidental.
So he didn’t want to pretend otherwise just to get the chance to kiss her again.
That would be taking advantage of the situation, and of her, and he really wasn’t interested in either of those things.
“The kissing isn’t the direction we should be pursuing,” Adam firmly said as he shoved keys and a notebook into his tote bag.
“The kissing is coincidental to the loop ending.”
“How can you say that?” She planted her hands on the desk, as if in a challenge. “I had a theory, we looked for evidence and
found it. We’re on the right track.”
Adam slung the tote bag onto his shoulder. He gathered all his strength because, really, turning down a perfectly good offer
to make out with Carly was not easy. “I’m not about to pretend that your Together Theory has any kind of logic—why us? Why physical contact? It makes zero sense.”
She gritted her teeth. “Plenty of things happen in the world that can’t be explained. People are powerful. What’s that phenomenon
called, where the moms push cars off of their kids?”
“Hysterical strength,” Adam said. “Caused by a massive rush of adrenaline, which is something science explains.”
“Ah, but what about the magic of a hot dog-eating contest? How do you explain one person eating seventy-three hot dogs?” She
put her hands on her hips in triumph, but he shook his head and looked up to the sky.
So she tried again. “You don’t know everything just because you own a telescope.”
“Two,” he said.
She narrowed her eyes at him.
“I own two telescopes.” He always leaned into the facts.
She licked her lips, which drew his attention to her sweet little mouth. He was deeply annoyed by the fact that he’d just
vowed not to kiss her. “Despite the fact that you’re a pretentious asshole, I want to kiss you again. I liked kissing you.
Fuck the science.”
His breath came out shallow as he processed what she’d just said. Carly wanted to kiss him, even without scientific reasons? No, that wasn’t possible. She barely tolerated him. Then the gears in his brain clicked together and he finally understood her motivation.
“I know what this is.” He crossed his arms. “You’re trying to trick me into kissing you so you can once again chalk changes
in the time up to us. Am I right?”
“I mean, me being right would be awesome.” Carly pursed her lips. “But also? It’s been a long time for me with anyone else.
I know a lot of people in the loop just hook up with someone new every day, but that kind of scares me. So it’s just . . .
again, a long time. I haven’t had a lot of options here.”
Carly finally took a breath, locked eyes with him and added, “If you don’t want to kiss me, I totally understand. But I’d
be more than okay with it.”
Adam swallowed. So Carly was lonely. He was lonely, too. They both had already kissed each other. What was once more?
“Fuck it,” he said. He dropped the bag and his hand reached for her. His knuckles brushed against the line of her jaw as he
tilted her face up to admire her full pout.
“Is this okay?” he asked. Unlike the other times, this wasn’t strictly in the name of science. And, well, maybe earlier wasn’t
for science, either, he supposed. But if he was getting the opportunity to kiss Carly properly, then he was going to make
sure they both enjoyed every second of it.
Carly’s breaths came out quick and she nodded her head. Adam pushed her against the library wall and boxed her in with his
arms. She bit her lower lip and he let out a moan in her mouth as she rocked her body into his hardness. He moved against
her, and she whimpered as his thumb found her nipple and flick, flick, flicked it.
“Still okay?” Adam asked.
“I don’t think you need to ask anymore.” Carly laughed. “Never been more okay.”
He was exactly where he wanted to be, too. Having Carly’s nails scratch down his back suddenly made the library his favorite
place in the world.
“Is this what I have to do to get you to be nice to me?” His fingertips trailed down the curve of her hip and she shivered.
“Touch you here?”
“Is this what you think being nice is?” Her teeth sank into his bottom lip.
One of his knees slipped between her legs to spread them apart, then gently maneuvered to her center and skimmed the outside
of her panties. He longed to know if she was wet.
He pinched her nipple. “Your mouth tastes like peppermint, but what does the rest of you taste like?”
“Woah.” Carly laughed. “How long did it take you to come up with that line? Not complaining, just impressed.”
She didn’t protest when he began to lift the hem of her dress, a slow rise of the fabric up her skin. His lashes fluttered
wildly at the sight of her full thighs, and eventually her panties. “You told me not to ask, but is this okay?”
“Please just find out if I taste like peppermint everywhere,” she practically begged.
Who was he to deny her?
Adam tried to hide his grin as he hooked his thumbs into the top of her panties and brought them down until they were fully
off. And then there was Carly, open and ready. Her chest rose and fell with deep, anticipatory breaths.
This was a lot, all at once, but just seeing her in this state of wanting scrambled any sensible thoughts he might have had.
Thoughts like . . .
You barely know this person.
It’s getting dark and you should head home.
This is a public library and anyone could walk in.