No Place Like Homecoming, Dallen, Maggie [beach read book .TXT] 📗

girl at my side and with my friends around me. I groaned as I leaned forward, my forehead resting against hers. “My family—”

“Will be fine,” she finished with a whisper. “I told you yesterday I was scheduled to have a meeting with my parents, right?”

I frowned at that. Who had to schedule meetings with their parents? My arms wrapped around her tighter. I wanted to look out for her the way she was looking out for me. I wanted to be her person.

I wanted her to be my person.

Never in my life had I wanted to let someone in like this, and I’d never thought it was possible for me. But here we were. Together. And it was perfect.

Well, it was perfectly imperfect. We were two flawed, broken, and injured people—but together we fit.

“What do your parents have to do with this?” I asked.

She wet her lips and wariness stole into her eyes. “We cleared the air about some things and I sort of...led negotiations.”

I arched my brows. “You negotiated with your parents?”

She shrugged. “Contracts are pretty much their love language.”

I frowned. “What’s a love language?”

She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. What matters is that we worked out a deal that involves me staying here, Aunt Lucy getting a new car—”

My eyes widened and she laughed. “Yeah, that came as a surprise to her too. But I explained to her and my parents that a reliable car was essential to my safety.”

I laughed in disbelief. “Okay, and what else was essential?”

Her arms wrapped around my neck. “You. Your family.”

“My family? You’ve never even met my family.”

“No, but they’re important to you which means they’re important to me.” She shrugged. “Which means they had to be important to my dad. He’s going to give your mom an interest free loan to help her get on her feet, and he’s already reached out to her with some connections he has who can give her some part-time work for now.”

I opened my mouth and shut it. Finally I gave my head a hard shake. “It wasn’t your place to do this, Isla.” But as much as I wanted to cling to my anger, I couldn’t help the swell of emotions that made it hard to talk.

She went up on tiptoe and kissed me instead. “I have a proposition for you, too.”

I arched a brow. “Does it entail me buying you a car?”

“No,” she said with a grin. “It’s a trade. I’ll help you learn how to be less selfless if you teach me how to be less selfish.”

I laughed. “I think I could do that.”

She nodded, her eyes suspiciously misty as she bit her lip. “And maybe we can both figure out how to be better about letting people in.”

I leaned down to kiss her, a touch that was soft and so achingly tender. “I think we’re making progress.”

She smiled against my lips. “We are, aren’t we?” She leaned back to meet my eyes. “So? What do you say? Will you stay?”

I thought over all she’d said, all my friends and this girl had offered to help. “No. I have to go.”

Her eyes widened and I hurried to explain as tears filled her eyes.

“But I’ll be back.”

She blinked rapidly. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I need to see my family. I need to bring them their stuff and check in to make sure they’re okay. There are some things I need to work out on my own.”

She nodded. “And if they are? Okay, I mean.”

“Then I’ll be back.”

She narrowed her eyes in faux suspicion. “When? I mean, how long are you going to leave me here to eat lunch on my own?”

I smiled, a lightness in my chest spreading and swelling until I thought I might burst. I’d never had anyone waiting on me before. I’d never thought I’d love it so very much. “I’ll be back in time for homecoming.”

Her lips spread into a smile that stole my breath right along with my heart. “Promise?”

“I’ll come back home,” I said, leaning down to seal the vow with a kiss. “Because this is my home.”

You are my home.

I kissed her before those words could escape. I would be back, assuming Isla’s plans worked out the way she hoped. And when I came back home, she and I had all the time in the world to figure this out.

Together.

Epilogue

Isla

One Month Later…

Callie stood on one side of me. Willow was on the other. Savannah likely would have been hovering too if she wasn’t on stage at the moment getting ready to accept her crown as homecoming queen.

But Flynn?

He was nowhere to be found.

“He’ll be here,” Callie said for the tenth time.

I nodded. He would. I knew he would. It was just… “Where is he?”

Willow winced as she shrugged. “He didn’t get home before I left.”

Willow’s home was now Flynn’s new home. For the time being, at least. It seemed Willow’s parents were more than happy to host Flynn once Willow made it clear that she was tired of being on her own so often.

She may have hinted that she was afraid for her safety and having Flynn around made her feel safer.

This was not technically the truth, Willow had admitted. But it was close enough. These days, with Willow’s new boyfriend hanging around, I guessed she wasn’t all that lonely. But everyone seemed to be happy with the new living situation so no one was about to complain.

Still… He’d started his long drive back from the East Coast the day before and I’d heard little from him since he’d left. Just that he’d be here in time for tonight.

I told him that I wasn’t nearly as obsessed with homecoming anymore, but he didn’t seem to believe me. But then again, he hadn’t believed that I was willing to skip school and even this dance to make the drive out east with him.

I might have, too, if Aunt Lucy hadn’t threatened to skin me alive if I even thought about spending a night alone in a motel with Flynn.

So,