All Last Summer (Love on Summer Break, #1)

by Stephanie J. Scott

there, still joined at the arms like a united

chicken. I returned to the staff elevator and rode up to the

“Yeah. I think about you a lot.” Internally, I squealed. Not only at what he said, but how he said it, and the way he looked saying it.

Nothing else mattered right now except the way Aidan looked at me. He looked at me. Like he saw me.

I wanted more of those moments.

I’d never experienced attention like this before.

Closing the gap, it all happened at once. Our hands connected as a magnet force drew us closer and our lips made contact. Warm and cool together, his taste melted into me. A lightness that felt bright as Fourth of July...

Aidan and I had parted. Our kiss became our secret. I liked having a secret if it meant sharing it with someone. Sharing it with Aidan.

The weirdness between us had definitely changed over the past weeks. Changed enough that we’d kissed.

Aidan’s reaction would let me know if my idea had any legs, robotic or otherwise, or if this idea would waste my time.

I was about to text Aidan not to bother coming—I had his number now which felt

new and exciting, like kissing him all over again—when the doorbell rang.

Aidan nodded and grinned. He was teasing me with that grin. I loved it. I hated it. I hated that I loved it.

OMG, were we flirting?

he had a dimple. Right there on his left cheek. He had to smile pretty big for it to show up, but there it was. I never cared about dimples before, but his face, the way it transformed from the scowl into something so bright and genuine, he was not the same Aidan I used to know. I hadn’t known him at all.

Awkward flirting aside, this felt almost normal hanging out with Aidan.

“I was hoping you’d like it.” There he went again, with the boyishly charming grin. That blasted

dimple.

I’d been plucked out of some other life.

With Matt, I would have worried I came across as a know-it-all explaining things to him. With Aidan, I wanted to share.

“Earlier, you said you found me. You were talking about finding me with the mini-golf stuff in the basement, but it felt like—” “Like finding you. Finding each other.” “Yeah.”

He skimmed a hand across my cheek and into my hair. Every nerve in my body danced. His lips fell to mine and I caught them. I caught all of him, every piece he was open to sharing. He tasted like mint and sky and summer. A moment I would catch and hold onto, into my being. This was more than any list could capture.

“I’ve been wanting to do that…again, for a while.” “I’ve been wanting that…again, too.”

promptly made out. These kisses were less sweet and more, what was the word? I didn’t know. Words failed. But I really liked the taste.

My lips still tingled from the memory.

I thought of Aidan saying pahp in a nasally voice and smiled to myself.

Maybe I’d been changing since that day, since that decision.

I wasn’t waiting in the boat for a boy who wasn’t coming back.

Aidan gets me. I can be myself. I don’t have to act.”

Aidan smiled the smile that turned my knees to goo. And then he kissed me. Right there in front of Dan and Mason.

“You couldn’t have me, so you had to steal my best friend.”

I deserve better, Matt. I deserve better, and I found it. I found Aidan.”

“Thank you? Goodbye?

That’s what mature people do. They call each other out when they’ve done wrong. They listen to each

other. And then they change.”

“We’re not cool with how you wanted us to lie for you,” Mason said to Matt. “We know you talked crap about us to your swim team friends.”

“He needed to know he hurt

Just us, here, right now. Us, who we were now and whoever we wanted to be.

“You know, I’m cool with my hodge-podge.” I twisted so the layers of my skirt danced around me. “It’s not anything special, but it’s me.”