Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 241
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
We’re in Hell’s Kitchen. Same high-rise as the Cobalt brothers. Not the same floor.
Familiar but different.
I’m very used to that.
Donnelly takes a while, and I wonder if he lost it. Orion woofs up at me, and I busy myself with finding his kibble and pouring water in a bowl.
Be patient. Be patient.
Patience is not within me. I practically race into our new bedroom. Bare mattress on the floor, no sheets—Donnelly is sitting on the edge and digging out clothes from his duffel, a little distraught.
“I’m gonna find it,” he assures and tosses out a pair of jeans.
I sink onto the mattress beside him, crossing my legs under my butt. “It’s okay.”
“It’s in here. I know it’s in here.”
“Maybe this is…” meant to be. I trail off, right as he unearths a crumpled purple slip of paper from the depths of his luggage.
It’s in his hand.
We say nothing.
He’s breathing heavy from the search, but he scrolls on his phone and taps into a music playlist. Filling the quiet with eighties rock.
Donnelly takes my hand in his. “Whatever it says, it might not come true.”
“I know. But it also might come true.” I stare into his sparkling blue eyes. “We don’t have to look.”
“I wanna look.”
“On the count of three?”
“Yeah.” He takes a breath. “One, two…” And he unfurls the paper on three, while I rest my cheek against his arm and peer at the baby prediction.
“Wait…” I breathe, my brows bunching in confusion. Water droplets stained the purple stationary and bled some of the blue ink. “Does it say one or none?”
He tries to smudge the ink, but it’s dried into a partial blobby mess. “I can’t tell. It’s either one or none.”
One or none.
My pulse calms, and I smile at him. “I’d be happy with one or none.” I meant it before. I’d be happy with just me and him and our animals.
Donnelly cups my cheek. “Me too, space babe.” And then he lifts me and tosses me higher up onto the mattress.
I laugh, especially as he plants his feet on either side of me. It’s a wondrous sight to behold, the entirety of my boyfriend. Inside and out.
I never want to stop exploring him and understanding him. Even on the days where we’re both confused, I know we’ll take the time to listen and figure each other out.
“We’ve made land,” I say, propping myself on my elbows.
“Feels sturdy.” He sinks down on his knees. Straddling me.
“Uh-huh. Gravity is good.” My heartbeat accelerates with giddiness at his nearness. “Oxygen levels?”
“Deteriorating.” He leans forward, his palm rooted to the mattress near my cheek “Rapidly.”
“That’s not a problem,” I whisper.
“No?”
“Nope.” Flush warms my body. “We’ll just have to perform mouth-to-mouth.”
His grin lights up the universe. “Knew I loved our planet.” Slowly, gradually, with every bit of anticipation, Donnelly lowers his lips to mine and kisses me.
Soon, we’re a sweaty mess of intertwined limbs and roaming hands. His forehead presses to mine while he unleashes my breathless moans. There are unearthly promises of forever and mine. I feel him discovering and rediscovering all of me. Atmospheric conditions are of bright, unrelenting beauty.
I will go on every voyage with Paul Donnelly. This one, the next one, the last one. It will always, always be known.
SUMMER
Epilogue I
PAUL DONNELLY
It’s been an uplifting, peaceful summer for most of us. One of the greats. Highlighted with a celebration on the rooftop of Superheroes & Scones. What used to be a makeshift putt-putt course has been cleared out to make way for camping chairs, coolers, and a few fold-out tables. Plus, enough open space to dance.
It’s the middle of the day.
Sun is bright. Barely a cloud in the sky.
I lounge on the wide brick ledge, smoking a cigarette as pop music pumps from a nearby rooftop. Mostly it’s just family up here. Kinney has her elbows on the brick near me, watching the parade of rainbow and effervescence and love crowding the Philly streets below.
Gotta admit, it’s the first big smile I’ve seen from her all summer. Especially as Winona, Vada, and Audrey gather around her and hand her a confetti cannon. They pop them over the edge and little pieces of colorful paper take flight in the air.
The girl squad are splitting up. Winona and Vada are finishing their senior year at an all-girls school. Their parents withdrew them from Dalton Academy after what happened with Tate, but it’d been Winona’s idea to change schools. And Vada wanted to go with her.
Audrey didn’t, and Kinney chose to stay with her best friend.
As a fellow ride-or-die, I can definitely understand sticking by your closest friend through the thick of it all.
Now they’re hanging on to each other like it’s the last summer of their whole youth. I wanna tell ‘em it’s hardly the end. There’ll be more triumphs, more unexpected reunions, more paths crossed and many more paths taken. ‘Cause when you really love someone, they’re gonna come back. They can never really fade away.