This Summer Will Be Different(92)

At one point, Zach retrieves a gift-wrapped box from his car and hands it to me. It’s a game of Trivial Pursuit.

“Is this for me, or is this for you?” I ask.

“Don’t raise questions you don’t want answers to,” he says, taking out a box of cards. “I’ll just ask a few to the group.”

Zach and Bridget are debating the validity of one of her answers when I feel Felix’s fingers in my hair. He’s braiding it down the center of my back. When he finishes, he wraps the end around his hand and gently tugs my ear to his lips.

“I’ve been waiting to get you alone all day.” He kisses my temple, then slides a hand toward my inner thigh.

“You go first,” I say. “I’ll distract them.”

I stand to let Felix out of his chair.

“I need to take care of something in the house,” he announces.

“He’ll be right back,” I say.

Felix looks at me over his shoulder as he’s walking away, and even in the dusk, I can see the mischief in his eyes. After a minute, I tell everyone I’m going to get a sweater. Zach snorts.

I use our knock. Tap, tap, pause . . . But I don’t get to the third tap before Felix opens the door, laughing.

“They all know what we’re doing, right?” I ask as he pulls me inside and shuts the door.

“Of course,” he says. “But now no one will come inside for at least thirty minutes. Until then, it’s just us, Lucy.”

Felix backs me against the wall, and we kiss. He tastes like good rye and woodsmoke and the sweetest end to the best day of my life. When we part, he takes my hand and tugs me toward the stairs. Fingers laced, we climb up to our bedroom in the home we’ve built together. A house full of books. A field full of flowers. Our own special island.

At last Felix. At last mine.