Page 60 of The Last Thing You Said

I nod. He stands and pulls me to my feet, into him, his chin on the top of my head.

“You’re amazing, Lucy. You’ve made this such an awesome summer for me. I don’t want to go home.”

I can feel his heartbeat against my cheek, his T-shirt damp with sweat. “There’s still a lot of summer left.”

“Not enough,” he murmurs.

The rumble of his voice, the thick air around us, the warmth of his arms—it all wraps around me, holds me tight.

This boy wants to be with me.

Simon kisses me and I kiss him back. He leads me into the tent. He guides me down to the sleeping bag, his weight heavy on top of me.

“Is this okay?” he asks. “I mean, we don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

He’s nervous.

Strangely, I’m not.

He asks again, “Is this okay?”

It is. I nod.

He says, “I love you, Lucy.”

When I don’t say anything, he continues. “No matter what, I love you. I had no idea what was in store for me this summer when my mom said we’d be renting some house up north. But now I know that I’m the luckiest guy on earth.”

He kisses me, and it’s sweet and gentle and I believe that he loves me.

I close my eyes. I tell myself that I’m moving on. I’m letting Ben go.

Simon holds my hand across the space between our two camp chairs outside the tent. The sky is deep bluish-black, the bright spotlights from the rodeo grounds visible in the distance. The cheering has died down, though, so Hannah and Dustin should be on their way back.

“Lucy, are you okay?” Simon sounds anxious, almost uncomfortable, asking me this. We weren’t in the tent long, and I was grateful when he gave me privacy after, to clean up and get dressed.

“Yes.” I feel strange, thinned out. But it’s okay.

“Okay.” He lets out a long breath. “Good.”

When I don’t respond, he changes the subject. “I’ve always wanted to see the Corn Palace. You think we’ll have time tomorrow?”

The World’s Only Corn Palace is a big tourist attraction in town, decorated each year in a design made of more than a quarter of a million ears of corn.

“Maybe.”

“Don’t you think it’s fascinating? I mean, for one, think of the effort it must take to grow all that corn—all those different colors—and then to actually nail it to the wall. It’s a work of art.” He smiles. “You want to go?”

A loud whoop comes from a couple sites down, and I look up to see Hannah and Dustin. Dustin carries a bundle of firewood.

“You missed the big finale!” Hannah winks at me. “How are you two lovebirds?”

The heat rushes over my face.

“Never better.” Simon’s voice cracks and he reaches for a bottle of water.

“Let’s make a fire,” Dustin says. “I’ll teach you how, city boy.”

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