She shook her head. “No, I told you, I’m needed here when school isn’t in session.”
I had to imagine her parents, who were both highly successful people, didn’t need their college-aged daughter to keep their worlds running.
“I bet you like to think that,” I said softly, trying to take the bite out of the words.
“What?”
“You know what I mean. You let the fear of doing the unexpected stop you, but you hide it under the excuse of being needed.” She was glaring at me again. “I mean, I think your family adores you—who wouldn’t—but I don’t think any of their worlds would stop if you took off for a couple of months.
A plan was formulating in my head even as I spoke. A plan that meant I’d get to keep her near me for a little longer. A plan that meant I might just be able to cross that virginity off her list at some point. It still didn’t solve the problem of our worlds being in different places, but it allowed us to be together for longer.
“Come with me. Come with me to Ireland, and we won’t stop there. We’ll take a couple of months and go see all the things in Europe you want to see.”
“That’s crazy. Haha,” she laughed, and when I didn’t laugh with her, her smile fell away. “Wait, you’re serious?”
“I am. Just think of all the things we could cross off your list…together.”
“What about your movie? The casting calls?” she asked, her voice getting quieter and quieter. I understood it. The more I made it real, the scarier it got.
“Grace and Mayson can handle it. It’s not like we have to stop talking. I have a phone and a laptop. There’s WiFi everywhere.” I shrugged, the idea morphing in my head. Ginny and I exploring more than Ireland. Exploring France and Germany and Italy. Swimming in the bright-blue Mediterranean Sea off a Greek isle somewhere. Me writing. Writing my own words not sharpened by Grace’s wit and personality. Writing that meandered and twisted before getting to the point in a way Grace’s words never did.
“You’d give up a piece of your dream to make mine come true?” The words ached as they came out of her, like I was torturing her, and I realized I was torturing myself, because it was a beautiful dream that I wasn’t sure could become a reality. I didn’t think it was enough to make her jump. To do the “something” so unexpected her family would wonder what the heck had gotten into her so she could mark that off her list as well.
“When I go to Ireland, it’s just me. Me and my brain and my words and my ideas. When I talk to people, it’s me they react to. When I write, it’s all mine. Sometimes, with Grace—who I love more than almost anything in this world—I get hidden behind her huge personality. She’s so small and yet so big all at the same time.”
She was nodding at my words.
“It’s like Ty and I. He’s my twin. But he’s the larger twin, and I don’t mean physically.”
I completely understood every word she was saying. I’d joked with her the first day about her relationship with Ty being like Grace and mine, but it had only been a half-joke. I did feel, sometimes, that Grace overshadowed me. Not enough to make me bitter, or sad, or to even stop hanging out with her. It just made me long to be by myself at times. Ireland had been good for me every time I’d gone. It allowed me to get back to myself before I rejoined her.
“New deal,” I said quietly.
She smiled. “We’ve had a lot of deals in the few days we’ve known each other.”
I nodded. “You consider coming with me, and I’ll agree to take you all the way to the edge of third base.”
I smiled at her, my hand already wandering back to her bare skin, caressing.
She closed her eyes. “Every time you touch me, I feel it, deep within me, all over my bones and muscles and nerve endings, and I think I’m dreaming.”
I leaned in and kissed the tip of her nose, her cheek, her eyelids, and down, taking her gorgeous, full bottom lip between my teeth, nipping at it before kissing her. I pulled her tight up against me once more.
“Make the deal, Ginny,” I said, a husky whisper in her ear, a demand in my voice that I’d never felt before.
“All I