I can’t help my smile. She’s in parent mode and doesn’t even realize it. “That sounds like something my guidance counselor told me.”

She moves away, like she’s going to get up, but I pull her back to me. “I wasn’t insulting you. It’s good advice.”

Looking determined as ever, she nods her head. “Damn right it is.”

Now we’re both laughing, and the friction she’s creating, almost has my eyes rolling back in my head. Focus, Rhett. “I just want you to live it up this year. These are supposed to be the best years of our lives. Ones we’re going to look back on when we’re older and laugh about. We owe it to our forty-year-old selves to be complete assholes for a few months.”

She’s quiet for a few seconds, but then says, “Maybe that should be my mission this year. Balls to the walls while I can.”

“Balls to the walls. I like the sound of that. Do I get to help you?”

“Yes.” She leans down to press a soft kiss to my cheek. “You have a little freckle right there. I like kissing it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, but I’ll need you to force me to live in the moment—to make sure I’m not acting like a boring parent. Think you can do that?”

This will be fun. There’s so much I can show her, teach her, have her experience. “I know I can.”

“Good. I’ll hold you to it.”

I exhale and once again, I’m at peace with the girl in my arms. “You have no idea how refreshing you are, Sunny. I can’t do the superficial bullshit anymore. All I want is to be me—whether the rest of the school likes it or not. I’m having fun again. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve said that?”

“I guess I thought since you were so popular you had everything you wanted. I didn’t get it until now.”

“I have everything I want now.” I squeeze her a little tighter so she knows I’m talking about her. Then, I laugh, thinking of my dad’s face when I introduced her to him earlier tonight. “My dad likes you.”

She giggles. “I wasn’t expecting him to hug me the way he did. If I’m being honest though, your mom made me a little nervous.”

My mom has always had my back. She’s fought battles for me more times than I can count, even getting me out of a couple messy situations where it was clear I was in the wrong. But her little boy can do no wrong in her eyes. Mistakes and all, she’s still my number one fan. “That’s because she’s overprotective. I’m not sure that will ever change, but she’ll love you once you get to know her.”

Kinsley doesn’t look as convinced as I am about it. “Don’t worry. As long as I’m happy, she’s usually happy, too.”

“Even with my background? I mean, I’ve never been to a country club—I work at a diner.”

This is where she sells herself short. She’s so many things besides being a waitress. “Sunny, you work harder than most kids our age. She’s not going to fault you for your job. Plus, she’s going to flip when she finds out you want to be a designer.”

“I enjoy interior design like she does, but I want to design clothing. It’s not the same thing.”

“Doesn’t matter. You both have the same creative itch. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a match made in heaven.”

“I hope you’re right,” she responds, skeptically.

“I was right about you. Wasn’t I?”

“Rhett, honestly, I don’t know what you think. I mean, you told me a lot tonight, and that’s helped me get inside your head a little.”

I roll on my side, laying her gently next to me. “I think you don’t give yourself enough credit. I also think you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen—inside and out.”

She picks at a piece of hay in front of her. “Wow. You’ve gone out with a lot of girls, are you sure about that?”

I don’t like the way she compares herself to my past girlfriends. When I’m with her, and even when I’m not, I don’t think about them. I don’t picture what it would be like to be with any of them a second time—I just don’t. The only girl I see myself with is Kinsley. “There wouldn’t have been any other girls if I had you first, Sunny.”

“You mean that, don’t you?” It’s a question, yet needed validation, at the same time.

I scoot closer to her, placing a kiss to her hair line, right at her temple. “You’re not like the other ones. I need you to believe me.”

“How long, Rhett?” She questions.

I’m not exactly sure what she’s asking, but I assume she wants to know how long I’ve wanted her. How long I’ve had my eye on her, waiting for her brother to go away to college. “Way too long.”

“How long?” She says again, stressing the point.

“I remember when we went on a school trip to the capitol building for government class. She made us sit in alphabetical order on the bus, who even does that? Anyway, I don’t know if you remember or not, but we were only a few seats apart, and you were sitting next to Grayson. I was beyond jealous. That might have been the first time I felt possessive of you.”

“That was the beginning of our eleventh grade year, Rhett. Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

“Besides your brother, I guess I was scared you wouldn’t want to waste your time on me. You were smart, really focused, and you didn’t get caught up in the drama. There’s always drama in my world. It was easier to imagine being with you, than to face rejection.”

She giggles, even snorts once. “What? That is the most ridiculous thought process I have ever heard in my life, Rhett.”

“How so?”

“I didn’t exactly have any other offers coming in. Chances are, I wouldn’t have said no to you—not that anyone ever turns you down in the first place.”

“You say that, but we’re in a different place now than we were then. Just about anything could have made you happy—we were barely sixteen-years-old.”

“True, but I’m not that much different than I was then—except for being a year older and a little taller. What about you?”

I leave out the fact that her body is banging—because it is. But I don’t want her to think I’m only after one thing. Yet I lean into her anyway, biting her bottom lip. “I just want you, Sunny.”

She pushes me off her, and rolls me onto my back. Hovering over me, she straddles my hips. “Why did we waste so much time?”

“It wasn’t our time. We weren’t ready for this.”

“And we are now?”

I nod my head the best I can while laying her down on the ground. She feels amazing on top of me, and I want nothing more than to pull her close—so I do. When her head is resting on my chest, and her body is flush with mine again, I wrap my arms around her, and breathe her in. With complete confidence, I whisper, “We’re ready, Sunny. Balls to the walls, remember?”

I LIFT MY head from the warm chest I’m resting on, looking around in the darkness. Rhett’s asleep underneath me, his eyelashes resting peacefully on his cheeks. Digging my phone out of my back pocket, I try not to move too much, but I need to see what time it is.

When the light flicks on, I panic when it’s almost three in the morning. We’ve been in the barn for over four hours. I don’t have a curfew, but I’ve never stayed out this late before. It’s one of the reasons I have almost ten missed calls and texts from Carson—even one from my sister at work asking where I am.

I nudge Rhett but he doesn’t budge. After his game on top of a long day at school, he’s exhausted. “Rhett,” I whisper. “Wake up.” He doesn’t make any attempt to move until I try to climb off him.

“Where you going, Sunny-girl?” his says, his voice groggy from sleep.

“It’s so late, we have to leave. It’s three in the morning.”

He rubs his eyes, yawning a couple times as he wakes up. “It’s really three in the morning?”

“Yeah, I have to get home. Can you take me?”

He doesn’t seem worried about the time, even chuckling. “Well, I’m not going to leave you here,” he jokes. But his expression changes when he glances at his own phone, checking his messages.