“Who are you calling?” I ask.
“My mom.”
“Your mom?” I ask. “But she’s—”
He holds a finger to his lips, motioning for me to be quiet. “Mom,” he says. “It’s me.” I hear her start to yell at him on the other line, and then she must catch herself, because she lowers her voice. “Yeah, I know,” Jace says. “We can talk about it when I get home. But Mom, can Peyton come to graduation with me? And if we get home in time, can she stay with us for a few days?” He rolls his eyes. “Of course separate rooms, Mom, geez.”
A second later, he’s off the phone. “It’s all set,” he says. “We’ll fly back to Florida tonight, and worry about my car later. You can go to graduation with me.”
I shake my head. “I want to,” I say. “I do. But . . . ”
“But what?”
“But what about all the stuff you said, about me running away from things?”
He tilts his head, thinking about it. “When we get to Florida,” he says, “we’ll call your dad. We’ll tell him everything that happened, and we’ll come up with a plan.”
The thought twists my stomach into a ball of anxiety. But Jace reaches out and squeezes my hand, and I immediately feel better. I nod slowly. “What about Kari?”
He shakes his head. “Kari and I broke up.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “When?”
“Last night. When you took off, I called her and ended it.” He shrugs. “It’s always been you, Peyton. Always.”
I feel my eyes fill with tears, and I look down at the ground. We just sit like that for a few moments, in the middle of the Savannah summer, him holding my hand, me thinking about what all of this means.
“So I go to Florida with you now,” I say slowly, “and stay for a few days. And then what?”
“And then we’ll figure it out,” he says. “You can talk to Courtney, talk to your parents.” He squeezes my hand. “It’ll all work out.”
I’m not sure if he’s talking about me and him, or about the whole situation. I raise my eyes to his, and he reaches out and wipes away the tear that’s sliding down my cheek.
“Peyton,” he says. “It’s going to be okay. I’m going to take care of it, okay? And I’m never going to let you go again.”
And for the first time in a really long time, I believe it.
All of it.
That everything’s going to be okay.
That he’s going to take care of me.
That we’re going to be together.
And then he kisses me.
And it just might be the best feeling ever.
LAUREN BARNHOLDT is also the author of Watch Me, Two-way Street, One Night That Changes Everything, Sometimes It Happens, and The Thing About the Truth for teens, as well as many books for tweens. She lives in Stow, Massachusetts. Visit her at laurenbarnholdt.com, follow her at twitter.com/laurenbarnholdt, and friend her at facebook.com/laurenbarnholdt.
Simon Pulse
SIMON & SCHUSTER, NEW YORK
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Also by Lauren Barnholdt
Watch Me
Two-way Street
One Night That Changes Everything
Sometimes It Happens
The Thing About the Truth
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Contents
Acknowledgments
Peyton the Trip
The Trip Jace
Peyton Before
Jace Before
Peyton the Trip
The Trip Jace
Before Peyton
Jace Before
Jace The Trip
The Trip Peyton
Before Peyton
Jace Before
The Trip Peyton
Peyton Before
The Trip Jace
Before Jace
Peyton Before
Jace Before
The Trip Peyton
Jace The Trip
The Trip Peyton
Before Jace
Peyton Before
Jace The Trip
The Trip Peyton
The Trip Jace
Jace Before
Peyton Before
Before Jace
Before Peyton
Jace Before
Peyton the Trip
Jace The Trip
The Trip Peyton
The Trip Jace
The Trip Peyton
About Lauren Barnholdt
Lauren Barnholdt, Right of Way
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