Prologue
Ten Years Ago
It was the kind of July night that you wished you could bottle. Everything smelled like cut grass and gasoline. The air humid, buzzing with crickets, the sky smeared in purple and gold like it couldn't decide whether to give up the sun or hold onto it for one more breath.
Nick's beat up Ford pickup rattled into the old field behind the high school, the one everyone swore security guards patrolled but somehow never did. He parked crooked, tires crunching over dry weeds, and shot me that grin.
That grin.
The one that meant trouble, the one that always loosened something in my ribcage.
"Come on," he said, hopping out and jogging around to my door like a gentleman disguised in grease-stained jeans. "Got somethin' to show you."
"You always have something to show me," I teased, sliding out, eyes bright. "Half the time it's illegal."
"Not illegal." He took my hand in his, warm, calloused and familiar. "Just... frowned upon."
I laughed, the one he called a soft bell sound that he swore he could pick out of a crowd of thousands. "Nick, if we get arrested, my parents are going to ground me until college."
"Your parents love me."
"My parents tolerate you."
He winked. "Close enough."
He tugged me toward the bed of his truck, where he'd tossed an old blanket over the metal, dented toolbox pushed aside. A box of gas station snacks sat in the corner; gummy worms, two Dr Peppers, and a bag of kettle corn.
"Romantic," I said, climbing in.
"You don't even know the half of it." He hopped up beside me, breathless from excitement. "Lie back."
"Nick..."
"Aves. Trust me."
I did. Every time. Without hesitation.
We stretched out beside each other, shoulders brushing, staring up at the sky. And then I saw it...streaks of light cutting across the dark like someone had scratched silver into black velvet.
"You brought me meteor showers," I whispered.
He turned his head toward me. "Thought you deserved somethin' pretty."
My heart tripped. I hoped it didn't show.
"They're beautiful," I said.
He didn't look away.
"Yeah," he murmured. "They are."
My cheeks warmed. "Nick...”
But he wasn't finished.
"You know what my dad always says?" he asked softly. "That you get maybe three perfect nights in your whole life. Real ones. Ones you remember when you're old and pissed off at the world."
"What does that have to do with meteor showers?"
Nick exhaled slowly, eyes drifting from the sky back to me. "This feels like one of 'em."
I swallowed. Hard.
"Nick," I said again, breath catching this time.
He lifted my hand, threading our fingers together. "I'm gonna do something someday," he said quietly. "I don't know what exactly. But I'm gonna make a life bigger than this town."
"I know," I whispered. "I've always known."
"Aves?" His voice dropped, rougher now.
"Yeah?"
He swallowed. I saw the movement in his throat.
"I..." He broke off, laughed once, short and nervous. "God, I'm terrible at this."
"At what?" My voice came out softer than I meant it to.
"Words," he said. "Feelings. Whatever this is supposed to be. I can tell you every adjustment we made last weekend, every lap time, but this..."
His hand found mine on the blanket, fingers hesitating before curling around.
Suddenly I couldn't feel my toes.
"Nick," I whispered.
He exhaled like he'd just made a split second decision on a restart.
"I love you," he blurted.
The world went very, very quiet.
He kept going, like if he stopped he'd never start again. "Like, not just 'you're my best friend' love. Not 'we've known each other since we were kids' love. Although that too. It's just..." He shook his head, frustrated. "When I picture my life, you're in it. When I picture winning anything, you're there. Every big thing in my head has you there and I don't... I don't know how to separate it anymore. I don't want to."
I stared at him.
He stared at me.
"You're supposed to say something," he said, voice cracking. "Preferably not 'thank you,' because that would be really..."
"I love you too," I said.
"Oh," he said. "Okay. Cool. Yeah. That's... good. That's..."
I leaned in and kissed him.
It wasn't our first kiss by any means. We'd stumbled through that ages ago behind the bleachers after a football game, all nerves and noses bumping.
This one was different.
Slow, sure. An all consuming kiss that I felt way down in my toes. His hand came up to my face, thumb brushing my cheekbone. The other squeezed my fingers like he needed to make sure I was really here.
By the time we broke apart, my lungs were burning.
"Wow," he breathed. "That meteor wish worked fast."
I laughed into his shoulder, dizzy and light and so full I thought I might actually float straight off the truck bed.
"Hey, Aves?" he murmured.
"Hmm?"
"When I do get my shot..."
"Confident," I teased.
"And when you get your fancy degree and your city coffee," he continued, ignoring me, "can we still do this? Can we still be...this? Even if we're not in the same place for a while?"
I hesitated.
College applications. Him talking about moving to North Carolina next year after graduation. The way every adult in my life kept using phrases like backup plan and job security.
None of it fit on this truck bed with the boy I loved and the sky throwing glitter just for us.
"Yes," I said, even though I wasn't sure how the logistics would work. "We'll figure it out."
His shoulders dropped in relief, like that was the answer the universe had been waiting on.
"Good," he said. "Because I don't really have a Plan B that doesn't involve you."
I poked his chest. "That's terrible risk management."
"I thought you liked dangerous," he shot back.
"I like you," I corrected.
He grinned, wide and open and happy in a way that would be burned into my brain for years.
We lay there until our backs ached and the blanket dug into our elbows, counting shooting stars and stacking impossible promises on top of each other like they were nothing.
He kissed me again; slow and soft, the kind of kiss that felt like making a promise we were too young to understand but too in love to doubt.
And when we pulled apart, foreheads touching, breaths mingling, Nick whispered the nickname that only he ever used.
"Aves... you're my favorite part of this whole damn world."
I closed my eyes and let myself believe him....fully, wildly, naively.
Because at seventeen?
Forever still felt easy and all we knew was this: A boy with grease under his nails and stars in his eyes loved a girl who wanted more than their little town could hold, and for one perfect night under a sky on fire, it felt like that would be enough.
