I Kissed Her First: A BOUND TOGETHER NOVEL Read online

  Her eyes fly to me from where she sits on the center of her bed, books spread out around her. Probably from studying for finals, which are this week, before the start of summer.

  She’s a vision, bathed in the soft glow of her bedside lamp, sitting in the middle of her fluffy bedding, wearing what appears to be nothing but my shirt. Her surprised, wide eyes soften when she sees me, and a sexy little smile spreads on her luscious lips.

  “What are you doing here?”

  My face stays stoic as I try to come up with the right words to say to her. “I love you.”

  Her brows crease as she stares at me. “I love you too,” she says through a nervous smile. “Jett, are you okay?”

  I shake my head as I feel my body begin to tremble. “I’m leaving.”

  “What?”

  I dive for her, covering her body with mine, needing to feel every part of her. I kiss her neck and keep going, peppering every inch of her jaw with kisses. I flick my tongue over her bottom lip before kissing her with everything I’m feeling inside.

  She shoves at my shoulders after a few minutes. “Jett. Stop. What’s going on?” she asks between my kisses, an assault on her lips. I never want to forget what kissing her feels like, so I don’t stop, only kissing her harder. “Jett!” she yells again, this time making me stop.

  Dropping my head to her shoulder, I feel the emotions I was trying to keep in begin to overflow. “We’re moving back to California.” Lifting my head, I look at her, feeling tears sting in my eyes and threatening to fall, but I hold them back.

  “What?” she asks so quietly I almost miss it. She swallows. “When?”

  “A couple of weeks. A month at most.” I drop my head to her chest, pressing a kiss to her collarbone. “I don’t want to leave you.”

  “You can’t leave me,” she says, and I lift my pained eyes back to hers. “You’re already living in me. In my heart, in my memories. Because you and me, Jett?” She cups my face in her hands. “We’re it,” she whispers before kissing me again.

  We kiss and hold each other until we both fall asleep. When I wake up, we’re tangled up with each other on her bed with her books all around us.

  Looking up, feeling eyes on us, I see Harper’s mom in the doorway. I’m nervous that she’s going to freak out and yell at me to leave, but when I pause and actually look at her, I see a hint of sadness on her face, and I know she isn’t mad.

  “I’ll go,” I whisper and begin to slide my arm out from under Harper.

  “No,” her mom says, stopping me. I look back up at her in question. “Your mom was worried about you. She told me,” she adds, looking to a sleeping Harper. “I’ll let your mom know you’re here…sleeping in the guest room,” Mrs. McCarthy says with a lifted brow. A grin tugs at my mouth, and I nod slightly at her before she walks into the room to turn off the lamp. “Take care of our girl,” she whispers as she leaves the room, closing the door behind her.

  Hugging Harper to me tighter, I kiss her temple before nuzzling into her neck. Closing my eyes, I let coconuts and sunshine fill my senses as a tear falls down my face.

  * * *

  “You’re still here,” Harper says when I open my eyes the next morning.

  I grin down at her lying on my chest. “Yeah, but—” I turn to look at the time—“we need to get up for school. How many exams do you have today?”

  “Ugh, don’t remind me,” she groans, snuggling into me. “I’m not going to be able to concentrate.”

  “I’m sorry,” I tell her, kissing the top of her fuzzy bed-head hair.

  She’s quiet for a minute. “It’s not your fault.”

  We stay in bed too long, making us late to school, which isn’t good since we both have history exams first thing in Mr. Denton’s class. Sliding into our seats just as the tardy bell rings, he gives us each a look that says he’s not happy. I smile and wave at him, knowing soon it won’t matter anyway.

  We have a week left of school, then it’s summer break and I’m moving back across the country, never to step foot in this school again.

  I barely manage to get through my classes. All I can think about is Harper and wanting to spend all the time I can with her. Fuck school, fuck my dad, and fuck anyone else who gets in my way.

  The second the bell rings, I’m out of my seat and running out the door. Seeing Harper ahead of me in the hall, I get a wolfish grin on my face. Stalking up behind her as she talks to some girl named Winter, she jumps when I wrap my arms around her middle, pulling back against me.

  “Jett, shit, you scared me,” she laughs.

  “I need you, baby,” I say into her ear, rubbing my hard cock against her back.

  We don’t school PDA like this, ever. We hold hands and give quick kisses here and there, but we’ve never been that couple at school in the two years we’ve been together.

  But now that I know I’m losing everything, I’m not holding back anymore.

  “Jett,” she gasps, turning around to face me.

  “Please.” I grin.

  Sucking her bottom lip into her mouth, she nods. I waste no time. We rush out of the building and to her new car that we rode to school in together. Snatching the keys from her hand, I open the passenger side for her. Shaking her head, she laughs and gets inside.

  Tires squealing, I leave the school lot, taking off down the road. “Where are we going, crazy?”

  “I don’t even know, Harp. I just need to be with you. I need to not waste a second without you.”

  “Jett,” she says my name with so much emotion. Reaching for her hand, I bring it to my lips.

  I drive down the coast. Most of the time we ride in comfortable silence, holding hands and stealing heated glances at each other as the salty air filters through the open windows. I pull up to Kure Beach's boardwalk and look over at her relaxed face.

  “Let’s go. I want to kiss you at the top of the Ferris wheel.” I smile at her.

  We both stay quiet as we stroll the boardwalk to the Ferris wheel. I pay our admission, and we take a seat in our swinging bucket.

  “Are you okay?” Harper asks, breaking our silence when the wheels start to spin.

  I shake my head. “No. Not even a little bit.” I look at her, showing her how much I’m dying inside.

  She brings a hand to the side of my face and I close my eyes, needing her touch to help me feel grounded even though we’re in the air.

  “We’re going to be okay. It’s only a couple of years until we graduate. We’ll visit each other when we can and go to the same college. We’ll be fine.”

  I’m not sure if she’s saying it to convince me or herself as she speaks in hushed tones.

  We reach the top of the wheel, and I make good on my promise and kiss the shit out of her. By the time we exit, we’re both lust-drunk on each other.

  We decide to stay longer, enjoying the fun and time away from everything back at home. When the sun begins to set, we find an empty beach swing. I sit, pulling her onto my lap. We swing back and forth, watching the sun turn colors as it makes its descent on the horizon.

  “You are a sweet creature I wasn’t expecting when I moved here,” I tell her as she leans back against me.

  “I wasn’t exactly expecting you either.” She smirks.

  “Are we crazy?” I ask. “I want to ask you to wait for me, Harper, but that seems so unfair.”

  She turns in my lap, looking deep into my eyes. “There will never be anyone I will love as much as I love you. I’ll wait as long as you need me to.”

  My chest swells with so much love and emotion from the truth dripping from her. Questions swirl inside my head, but all I see is her at the end as the answer to them all.

  “Let’s go,” I say, taking her hand in mine again, not wanting to ever let it go.

  When I drive her home, I kiss her, feeling the weight of a thousand pounds lifted from me. On the drive home, we made a plan of not just our last weeks and days together, but for our life after.

  Walking into m
y house minutes later, I’m greeted with a furious father and a sad mother. Neither of which I’m excited about facing.

  “Where the hell have you been?” my father yells.

  “I was at Harper’s last night, went to school, then we went down the coast,” I tick off. “Now, I need a shower.” I push past him, but he stops me, gripping my arm.

  “You think she is everything, but she is only the first, son.” He means well, but it pisses me off.

  Ripping my arm from his grip, I turn to him. “She is my future. I love her.”

  “Make a deal with me, son,” he says, and I look at him, anger radiating off of me. “Don’t fight me on leaving, and you can come back each summer. Your mother likes it here and wants to keep the house. Both of you can come here for the summers.”

  “And then what? You just let me stay here once I turn eighteen? I know there’s more to this deal than that.”

  He gives me a small grin because I’m right. “You get the next two summers here, then you go to the school I choose and work for me after.”

  Two summers with Harper to do as I want. Then I have to do what I’ve fought him on for my entire life: become a corporate douche.

  “Fine,” I grit out, knowing that he’d make my life miserable if I didn’t agree.

  Turning back to leave, he lets me this time. And all the weight that was lifted just minutes ago is back. All the questions and insecurities.

  The hot water from the shower pounds on my back. Closing my eyes, I think about Harper, seeing her. Only her.

  Chapter Nine

  Harper

  Ever since Jett told me about moving, I haven’t been able to concentrate on anything. I’m sure I barely passed my exams this week with how my thoughts kept going back to him, questioning how we’re going to make this work living across the country from each other.

  I don’t know what I’m going to do without him.

  I know I’ll still have Teddy here. And Gabby when she’s up visiting her dad. But Jett and I are not only on a different level; he’s like the air in my lungs. The oxygen that fuels the flames licking at my ankles, sparking excitement in me at every turn. Now, it’s about to be snuffed out.

  “Hey,” Teddy says, nudging my shoulder where I’m standing at my locker. “You alright? You don’t seem excited like you usually do on the last day of school.”

  Giving him a weak smile, I turn. “I’m good. Ready to go?”

  He gives a curt nod. “Yep. Jett’s getting his board from his Jeep.”

  I hit my palm on my head. “I forgot mine at home.”

  “Harper, what’s going on with you?” my friend asks with concern written all over his face. “You never miss the chance to skate. And especially not on the last day of school. Everything okay?”

  “He’s leaving,” I say before I crumble into Teddy’s chest. “He’s moving back to California.”

  “What?” he asks, sounding as shocked as I was when Jett told me. Resting his cheek on my head, he says, “I didn’t know.”

  Looking up at Teddy, I sniff, wiping my nose with the back of my hand. “He wanted to wait to tell you and Gabby together.”

  He pulls me into his chest and hugs me tight, kissing the top of my head. “You’ll be alright, Harps. You still have me.”

  “Don’t ever leave me, Teddy.”

  “Never,” he whispers. “Come on, he’s waiting outside for us.”

  Cleaning the tears off my cheeks, I stand tall and walk out of the school building. Another year down, another year closer to adulthood.

  As soon as my eyes meet Jett’s, I run to him. He catches me just as more tears begin to fall. Jumping into his arms, I wrap my legs around his waist, holding on to him as tight as I can.

  “Baby, it’s okay,” he soothes, his hand on the back of my head as I cry into his neck.

  “I’m sorry,” I hiccup. “Teddy found me at a weak moment. I told him.”

  “It’s fine, babe.”

  “I forgot my board too.” I look up at him with a sad grin.

  He gives me my favorite lopsided smile. “You’re just a mess today, aren’t you?” He kisses me. “You can ride with me. We haven’t done that in a while.”

  I smile at him, the first real one I’ve felt all week. “Okay.”

  Setting me on my feet, he takes my hand as he reaches for his skateboard. Looking to Teddy, he asks, “You still want to do this with weepy?”

  “Hey!” I yell, smacking him on the chest with a sniff and a laugh.

  “I don’t have much choice,” Teddy says with a smirk. “Tradition and all that.” He winks at me and I return it with a grin, happy to have both my boys with me today. Even if I am a mess of emotions right now.

  The three of us take off toward The Loop, skating the two-and-a-half-mile path around this part of the island.

  I hug on to Jett, my face on his chest, as he skates for a while, enjoying the silence between all of us as the salty air mixes with the smell of everyone firing up their barbeques to celebrate the arrival of summer. I want to sear this feeling into my mind forever.

  When he glides to a stop, I look up at him. He runs a finger down my jaw, his eyes staying on mine, telling me so much about how he feels without saying a word. I see that he’s drowning too, lost in his emotions.

  Bending, he kisses me. It’s a kiss like no other. Everything we’ve kept inside this week flows from one to the other, all of our love pouring out at our feet.

  When our lips part, we stand staring at one another; we don’t have to say anything. We just know.

  “Hey, lovebirds, you going to finish The Loop or stay there sucking face for the rest of the night?” Teddy calls from behind me.

  Jett smiles, eyes still locked on mine, shaking his head. I feel his hand leave me, and I know he’s probably flipping off Teddy behind me. With a laugh, I step off his board to turn around, Jett’s front now to my back.

  As he pushes off the ground, I put my arms out to my sides like I’m flying and close my eyes. A smile tugs on my lips as I start to sing “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” Before long, I hear Teddy join me in singing, both of us completely off-tune as we belt out the lyrics, changing them to fit us.

  Before long, Jett starts to laugh, relaxing behind me and singing with us.

  * * *

  A week later, Gabby finally arrives back at her dad’s, and I’ve never been happier to have her here for the summer. I know if I’m going to survive, I’ll need her just as much as Teddy.

  She was as shocked as Teddy and me when I told her about Jett moving. She hugged me tight and told me she was always just a phone call or a short plane ride away. Then she turned and punched Jett in the arm like it was his fault he was moving.

  We had two weeks with the four of us until he left. We all decided that there would be no rules, no holding back. We were going to fill these two weeks with the most fun and memories we could. No regrets. No overthinking. Very few good decisions.

  It was basically Teddy’s nightmare, but he reluctantly gave in and agreed to try not to be the voice of reason and responsibility for these last days we all had together. I loved him a little more for it.

  We spent those two weeks surfing, playing chicken in the ocean, and volleyball on the beach, and then when the sun began to set, we got into all kinds of trouble. From shopping cart racing in the store parking lot to pouring slushies straight into our mouths from the machine at the gas station to driving up and down the coast in Jett’s Jeep while standing up on the back seat. I’ve never laughed so hard and hurt so bad all at the same time.

  I bawled my eyes out when Jett left. Truth? So did he. We made love and held each other the whole night before he left, making promises and plans for the next summer when he’d be back. Knowing that it would never be enough but it was all we would get.

  For now.

  Gabby and Teddy kept me busy the rest of the summer. Surfing, shopping at the farmers’ market and drinking too much for our young age, but I didn’t care. The lov
e of my life had moved across the country and wasn’t here to watch the sunrise with me anymore.

  When Gabby left and school started again, I wasn’t sure how I was going to walk the halls without Jett. I didn’t know high school without him. But I still had Teddy. He drove me to school that first day and every day after. He was still my best friend, after all. We fell back into our comfortable friendship with only the two of us.

  We went to school dances together, joined the Ocean Rescue team together, celebrated holidays together, went to Saturday dinners with our families together, and when it was my birthday, we celebrated at midnight with sparklers together.

  But it was those early morning hours just before the sun rose, when the shades of yellows and oranges began to break through the darkness of night, that I held close. Those minutes when I remembered every morning that Jett and I sat together kissing and holding each other as a new day dawned. They both filled me with life and drowned me in sadness all at once.

  Jett and I video-chatted a minimum of once a week but talked in some form every day for the next two years as we navigated our way through the long-distance that was between us.

  When the summers came between, so did our other friends. Then it felt like everything was right in the world. The weeks of summer fanned the embers that cooled during the year to catch them ablaze all over again.

  Until they left again. Much like the last year, it all repeats again. I begged my parents to let me go to California to visit Jett, but they weren’t convinced that it was a good idea since I was ‘so young.’

  When senior year began, it became my year of reflection. I decided to take hold of myself and quit letting everyone telling me ‘no’ bring me down.

  I still woke up every morning to watch the sunrise like I used to with Jett, except now I watched it while I did yoga and thought of him. It became my favorite part of any day, and if I missed a morning, I was pissy the whole rest of the day.

  Now, I’m on my way to visit Jett in California for a long weekend. After begging my parents, I finally wore them down enough to agree to let me spend this four-day weekend in February with him. I need this. Time with Jett to make the long months between summers not seem as bad.