Lucky Girl
Page 25
“There’s snow on the ground,” I mutter to no one. It’s really just a frost. And I don’t actually care; I’d follow him anywhere.
Alex is starting to climb the ladder with one hand, holding the big basket in the other.
I sort of walk-jump over to the shed, then bounce there while he finishes climbing and turns back to look at me.
“Sorry, will you be okay climbing in that outfit? It’s worth it, I promise,” he says.
I don’t doubt it.
It’s not easy negotiating heels and a tight dress on the cold, slippery ladder. But as soon as I clamber onto the roof, I forget everything else.
There’s a big wool blanket spread out on the tiles, and Alex is unpacking things from the basket that look a lot like bread and cheese and maybe even cake. There’s a Thermos full of something that smells like hot chocolate when he uncaps it. There are three of those candles that run on batteries.
“It’s nice up here,” he says, holding the Thermos closer so I can smell that it’s definitely cocoa. “You’ll see.”
I do my awkward crawl over to him and sit back, speechless.
“We don’t have to stay long,” Alex promises. “I just brought a few snacks and—oh!” He reaches back in the basket and shows me a small speaker plugged into his phone. “Music.”
Clear, shimmering notes float into the air a minute later, and it’s beautiful and romantic, but it also makes me laugh.
“What?” Alex says. “Do you not like this? I can change it—”
“No,” I say, grabbing his hand. “It’s just—this is the Flaming Lips, right?”
He nods. “I know it’s kind of old, but I really like this album.”
“Yeah, me too. It’s just funny because my parents got married to this song. I mean, when my mom married Dave. It’s kind of a family song at our house.”
“Oh,” he says. He stares at me for a minute, his eyes dark but his face clearly visible under the low clouds. “So would it be weird if I kissed you right now?”
“No,” I say. “It would be weird if you didn’t.”
We kiss for a long time, so long that the song ends, and another one plays, and another.
I try to hang on to every second, appreciate every note and every kiss and every minute that led to this one. It’s impossible, of course, but I have to try. Finally Alex pulls back and says, “The cheese is going to get cold.”
“The cheese?”
“I mean, the hot chocolate. Did I say cheese?”
I nod. “It’s probably all a little bit cold. Considering that it’s freezing out here.” I give him one last, quick kiss, and then I let him hand me the hot chocolate. It’s still warm.
We look out over the fields to the city lights in the distance, and we don’t shiver at all. Not even when it starts to snow, tiny specks of white filling the world around us, hanging in the air like they’re in no hurry to fall. Like a million tiny, perfect stars.
Acknowledgments
A REALLY GIGANTIC, everlasting thank-you is owed to my editor, Donna Bray, for patiently guiding this book from a random assemblage of words to an actual story; I could not (and let’s face it, probably would not) have done it without your wise counsel and inexplicable faith in me. Also instrumental to my sanity and productivity: Holly Root, Alison Cherry, Kayla Olson, Erica Jensen, Abigail McAden Rubin, and Rebecca Mazur. Endless gratitude as well to everyone at HarperCollins Children’s Books/Balzer + Bray, particularly the gracious Viana Siniscalchi and genius Erin Fitzsimmons. And to Andy, Calvin, and Virginia: I’m so grateful to be on your team. Thank you.
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About the Author
Photo by Abby McAden
AMANDA MACIEL has worked in book publishing since graduating from Mount Holyoke College and is currently an executive editor of children’s books. She spends her free time writing, running, and helping raise her young son with her husband and their cat in Brooklyn, New York. Tease was her first novel.
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Books by Amanda Maciel
Tease
Lucky Girl
Credits
Cover photography © 2017 by Jessica Neuwerth Photography / Getty Images
Copyright
Balzer + Bray is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
LUCKY GIRL. Copyright © 2017 by Amanda Maciel. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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ISBN 978-0-06-230533-6
EPub Edition © April 2017 ISBN 9780062305350
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FIRST EDITION
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