Aw, crap. Here I thought we were doing well. I shift my footing. “I also told you to come here. I was going to set up camp and be waiting for you and everything...you know, to surprise you. I found out that a bus was leaving Vail for here an hour after I left and—”

Noah’s hands fly up and cup my face, and I snap my mouth shut because if I tried to continue it’d be this weird muted mumble.

His dark eyes flare with unwavering intensity. “You left a note asking me to come here then to be with you when you meet with your mom?”

I nod, but it’s more of a centimeter since he still has control over my head.

“Echo Emerson...” Noah moves into me. His feet brush mine and so do many other amazing parts of him. “I love you.”

Not the reaction I was expecting, but one I’ll definitely take. “So you’ll come?” It comes out garbled, but he seems to understand.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“But your brothers—”

Noah glides his thumb over my lips. “I made a promise to you, Echo. Months ago in that hospital room and the night we made love. I’ve been waiting for you to let me keep it.”

He’s so near that I lick my lips, waiting for him to kiss me. Begging for him to kiss me. Thinking I’m going to combust if he doesn’t kiss me. But with one inhale, Noah steps back and grips my hand. “Ready to get wet?”

“Definitely.”

With my fingers safely locked in his, Noah and I jump.

Noah

It’s midnight, and Echo’s hair is still damp from our swim. Back in Vail, Echo sits beside me on the curb under a streetlight and stares at the broken-down house my mother grew up in. The grass is taller. The windows no less cracked. The house no less decayed.

Echo’s been silent, listening to me download the conversation with my uncle. All the truths that I thought I knew and all the truths I know now.

As I finish recounting every word that was said, Echo reaches over and presses her hand over mine. “I’m sorry, Noah.”

“It’s okay.” It’s not, and the sad softness in her eyes tells me that what happened to my mom isn’t okay, but she believes that I will be. Hell, for the first time in my life I believe I’m going to be okay, too.

The moment Echo and I finished playing in the water, I pulled Echo out and brought her here. Tonight was evidently about spilling our guts. Taking what was the most raw and broken inside us and offering it to the other as a show of what we can’t heal on our own. It’s the most simple and heartbreaking of vulnerabilities...to admit that you need someone else.

I need Echo.

She needs me.

Together we’re in love.

“Are you going to reach out to them, then?” Echo asks quietly. “Your mother’s parents?”

“No. I’m pissed at Mom for not telling me about them, but I understand why she didn’t. In this case no family is definitely better than a bad one.”

“And your uncle?”

I glance over at the church, and a light shines in the rectory. The curtain in the window moves as if someone was there and now doesn’t want to be seen. “Yeah. Him I’ll reach out to. I don’t agree with his choice, but that’s a case of keeping bad family with a shot at redemption.”

“You’re not alone.” Echo scoots closer to me and rests her head on my shoulder. “You have your brothers and you have me, Beth and Isaiah.”

My lips turn up at the thought of Isaiah returning the car to that prick Hunter. I drove Echo’s car back while Isaiah did his best to wear the engine out on Hunter’s. “That’s a damn good family to have.”

“It is,” she agrees. “Makes you realize that home isn’t a place, doesn’t it? That it’s all about the people.”

It’s like Echo flipped on a light in my mind. This building in front of me—it’s not a home. Never was and never will be. I stand and offer my hand to Echo. “Let’s go home.”

Echo’s mouth curves into that sexy siren smile that has owned me since the first day she flashed it in my direction. “I’m assuming you’re referring to the hotel, not Kentucky.”

“As you said, it’s the people, baby, not the place. And where I belong is with you and a lot less clothes.”

Echo accepts my hand with a wicked glint in her eyes. “Then let’s go.”

Echo

Every time Noah and I have entered a hotel room this summer, a cocoon of nerves has formed in my stomach, and the moment his lips touched mine, millions of butterflies have spread their wings and flown in this fast race of nervous adrenaline and lust.

But tonight...it’s different.

Noah’s different.

I’m different.

Together...we’re different.

Noah shuts the door behind him, and the click becomes this familiar sound that causes me to smile. Noah struts past, and the quick sweep of my body tells me he’s already devoured me in eight different ways in his mind. Just guessing his fantasies, my body temperature peaks. Heat gathers in every single delicious right area.

We left Louisville with two high school diplomas, a couple hundred dollars in cash and a lot of faith that we’d survive the summer. I left a girl, and he left a boy in a man’s body. This person in front of me, he’s no longer a boy, he’s fully a man.

It’s what I wanted for the summer...to change. I did change, but not in any of the ways I imagined. I changed in ways far better.

Noah’s phone pings, and he slips it out of his back pocket. He reads a message, and with a smirk he types something in return. “Isaiah and Beth are in for the night.”

“Tell him thanks for me. Beth, too.”

He drops the phone onto the bedside table, pulls his shirt over his head and tosses it to the ground, divulging each and every gorgeous ripped-out ab muscle. “Already have.”

Noah sinks onto the bed, and the expectant look in his eye tells me that he’s ready for me to join him. I’m ready, too. Standing a foot from him, I slide off my shirt, and his eyes darken with the movement. It’s not the first time I’ve done this in front of him, but the rest of it is new.

There’s an undercurrent of excitement in my belly. With a flick of a button, I shimmy off my cutoffs, with a lot less grace than desired, and leave on my bra and underwear. I hope that he enjoys whatever little show I put on, but more important, I love what Noah sees as I strip—the girl he fell in love with...the girl who loves him.