The others had gathered around the pool, and we arrived to a chorus of excited greetings. Delaney's was the loudest.
“There you are! We thought you guys were going to blow us off so you could park and make out.”
I stumbled and blushed in embarrassment. That was exactly what we had done. Molly caught my expression and clapped her hands with a peal of wicked laughter.
“You did! You guys are so cute!”
I stuck my tongue out at her. “Like you and Quinn never did it.”
“Yeah, but we're an old, boring couple now. We'd never do anything like that...”
Her voice cut off abruptly as Quinn silenced her with a kiss. We all hooted and laughed as she settled meekly back into her deck chair while Quinn smirked down at her.
Dannika smiled at me past Ashton's shoulder. “We're just glad things worked out for you two. I was beginning to worry that neither of you had the sense to figure it out on your own.”
“But we did,” I said.
Dylan squeezed my hand as we stepped onto the patio. “We were both stubborn and took a little while to get there is all. But we managed.”
Delaney's grin widened. “And now it's like you're superglued together.”
I glanced down at our linked hands. “You didn't know? That was the first thing I did. I wasn't about to take a chance on him getting away.”
We snuggled into an empty deck chair while our friends laughed. It felt so good to finally be a part of this, and the smile in Dylan's eyes said he knew exactly what I was thinking. I was more grateful for him than ever because he understood—better than anyone else ever had. He just got me, apparently without even trying.
We soaked in the sunlight of another glorious day. The universe was no longer out to get me, but seemed to be rejoicing in my newfound good fortune. I half expected to have flocks of birds following me around while bursting into song, and I smothered a laugh at the mental image. Dylan shot me a questioning look.
“Just feeling a bit like a Disney princess who found her Prince Charming.”
His smile turned teasing. “They don't get kissed nearly as much as you do.”
I grinned back. “Their loss.”
Later we gathered around one of the big glass-topped tables to play Uno while devouring chips and fresh guacamole and talking about school and life and our plans for the future.
I noticed that Delaney withdrew a little when our conversation turned to college. Walker was graduating at the end of the school year and going away to Texas A&M, but Laney still had another year of high school. For the first time I really understood how she felt. I couldn't bear to think of being parted from Dylan for a day—how much worse for it to be weeks or months at a time? Plus he was Walker. Girls constantly threw themselves at him. I wished that I could reassure her, because as far as Walker was concerned Laney was the only girl on the planet. Since he'd met her I don't think he'd even looked at anyone else. But only Walker was going to be able to convince her of that.
Molly and Quinn were in the same boat, but she didn't seem as troubled. Being with Quinn over the last few months had steadied her and strengthened the self-confidence she'd never believed that she possessed. It probably helped that she'd spent so much time alone before and she was used to the idea. I wasn't sure, though, whether it would last when the time came for Quinn to actually leave.
Watching them, I was supremely grateful that Dani and I didn't have to worry about that. Our relationships were newer, and there was no way I could have let Dylan go after only a handful of months together. Thank goodness I'd had the sense to fall for a junior and not a senior!
As the evening cooled, we gathered up our things and retreated inside to watch television. Before we could get situated, though, Delaney popped up from her seat.
“Hey, who won the pool?”
“What pool?” Dylan asked.
“The one where we guessed when Allie would get a boyfriend.”
Dylan shot me a questioning glance and I shrugged. “Don't look at me. I didn't rig it. My bet was that I'd still be single when I graduated.”
“Too bad you lost.” He poked me in the ribs and kissed me when I laughed.
“I won the last one, though! About Danni and Ash.”
“So who won this one?” Laney asked again.
Walker smirked as he pulled the sheet with our bets out of the sealed envelope. “Me. I guessed New Year's, and that was closest by over a month. I thought Kylie was going to mess things up, but the matchmaking gods smiled and I won.”
When he riffled the money from the envelope beside his ear I laughed with the others, but I knew he was wrong. Whatever the result of the pool had been, I was the one who had really won.
The End
Thank you for reading The Perfect Match. If you enjoyed it (I hope you did!) would you consider leaving a review? Reviews help out a lot to convince other readers that a book is worth reading, so I’d really appreciate it. Also, if you want to get an email when my next book comes out, sign up for my low calorie 100% spam-free newsletter.
Bayview High
About the Author
I’m a native Texan, and I live in south Texas where I spend as much time as I can at the beach. I’m a recent college grad (journalism with creative writing), and I live with my two rescue kitties in a little apartment just across the street from the beach. When I’m not working or at the beach, I’m usually staying up way too late drinking way too much coffee while scribbling away on my current masterpiece-in-progress.
Did I mention that I like the beach? :-)
I’m a firm believer in True Love. I grew up reading romance and fell in love with falling in love. That’s probably why I decided I wanted to write my own stories. I had filled up a big stack of those giant spiral notebooks before I graduated from high school, and worked my way through several more while I was in college. After I got my degree, I decided that if I was going to do all of this writing I really ought to try publishing some of it. Since I’ve got all of the patience of a fruit fly with ADHD, I decided to self publish instead of spending who knows how long trying to find an agent and mailing manuscripts back and forth. We’ll see how it works out.
You can stalk me on my blog at http://melody-summers.com.
The Perfect Match (Bayview High Book 4) Page 12
