She was talking to Livia in the back of the bus when she felt his tap on her shoulder. She tried to act as if she hadn’t noticed who it was, as if every nerve hadn’t sparked at his touch. She leaned against the seat behind her, making a space for him. Something in her unraveled, as it always did when he was around.

She knew, of course, that there were a lot of hot guys in school she could’ve dated, anytime. Because they thought she was beautiful and she wasn’t one to refuse the attention.

But she wanted Kit Ashdown.

When she’d told his twin, Livia, her best friend, how she felt about him, Livia’d thought she should tell him. But he’d never seemed to think of Kiara as anything more than a friend, and she’d tried not to make it obvious. But he was opposite her right now and she could feel the heat off his body and she couldn’t help herself. She looked at him.

And he was looking back.

His bright blond hair shone, and his ocean-blue eyes made her feel like she was drowning.

And then she realized she was. She was choking on love and she couldn’t let it out because he didn’t want her.

But suddenly she knew that wasn’t true. How? He was kissing her. Desperately.

So she let herself relax against him and kissed him back with everything she’d felt for him for quite a few years. She could feel his hands in her hair, hear him murmuring her name and knew she’d never let him go. I love you, Kit Ashdown, was all she could think before being swept into a kaleidoscope of memories, all of Kit. Playing cards with him and Livia and letting him win. Breaking her leg falling down a tree when they were ten and him screaming till her mother came running. Playing tic-tac-toe with him in the middle of class when they sat together and swearing when she lost. Sun in her eyes and Kit asleep in a beach chair and her not wanting to wake him, but him waking up anyway and not smiling until his eyes found her. They’d been just friends once, linked by Livia and love neither of them knew the other felt, but they were going to be something more now, something she felt she was only touching the edges of as she leaned into him.

When they finally untangled themselves, there was nothing awkward between them, as there had been with all the other boys who’d kissed her.

Because she hadn’t kissed them back.

Kit was grinning, and there was color in his cheeks, which made a nice contrast with his blond hair.

“You know, if you liked me, you should’ve just said.”she smiled.

“Never thought you’d like me back, and I couldn’t bear the thought of being rejected.”

She laughed at the very idea of her not liking him, and pulled him into one of the seats.

* * *