True North Read online

  Me: I’m coming

  I grab my bag and bounce down the stairs, eager to see his handsome face, which never burns, no matter how much time he spends in the sun. His skin just soaks up the rays and turns a warm shade of bronze.

  Brandon opens the front door before Gabe has a chance to knock and waves him into the foyer. I stop at the bottom step and watch them talk for a minute, fighting the gravitational pull of Gabe’s golden brown eyes. They’re like warm honey and melted chocolate, framed by dark lashes. He runs his hand through his caramel brown hair, pushing it off his forehead, and laughs at something Brandon said. It must have been good, because his cheeks flush beneath his tan skin. He glances over at me and his cupid’s bow lips turn up at the corners, stretching into a full blown, heart-stopping smile.

  “Hey, sunshine.”

  “Hey.”

  He begins to walk over to me, but my mother reaches him first and pulls him into a hug. “Hey there, handsome.”

  “Hey, Ms. Dalton. You look nice tonight. Duke taking you out?”

  “Sweet boy”—she pats his cheek—“flattery will get you everywhere.”

  There’s no hiding my mother’s affection for Gabe, not that she’s ever tried. She’s had a soft spot for him since we were in preschool, which is about how long he’s been friends with Brandon.

  I step up behind him and wind my arms around his lean stomach. “Hi.”

  He turns around and wraps his arms around me. “Hi.”

  I smile and stand on my tiptoes to plant a soft kiss on his lips—one that’s appropriate for my parents’ house. But Brandon just can’t help himself.

  “Get a room,” he teases, and I flush pink.

  I hear my dad choke on whatever he’s drinking in the kitchen, and then he makes a beeline to the foyer where we’re all gathered. He wraps his wide arm around Gabe’s neck and says, “You take care of my little girl tonight.”

  I roll my eyes. “You know I’m an adult, right, Daddy?”

  “Of course, Duke,” Gabe says confidently, “you know I always do.”

  My dad nods and gives Brandon a firm look. “You too. Keep an eye on your sister.”

  “What is this, nineteen-fifty? I’m twenty-one, I can take care of myself,” I exclaim, but nobody seems to be paying any attention to me.

  “Yes, sir,” Brandon answers, cutting his amused eyes at me.

  “Oh, Duke, give it a rest.” My mom pulls him away. “Have fun at the dive-in. Be safe, okay?”

  “Don’t worry, Momma. Nobody wants to get in the ocean at night with Jaws playing on a giant projector over the water.” Brandon laughs and kisses her cheek.

  “Well, be careful around the bonfire then,” she says as we head out the front door.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Brandon answers, closing the door behind us, but she pulls it open and calls down the sidewalk.

  “Drive safe.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “And wear your seatbelts.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “And don’t drink and drive.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Or do drugs.”

  “Oh my God, Mom.” I spin around and look at her. “We get it.”

  She smiles and winks. “Love you.”

  “Love you too. You’re crazy.”

  “Bye,” she sings, and closes the door.

  Brandon climbs into the back of Gabe’s Camaro—a graduation present from his parents before we left for college, and a reward for making the grades in high school to earn a full scholarship. It’s white with shiny black racing stripes along the top, just like he always wanted. I inherited my dad’s old Jetta and Brandon got an even older pickup truck that used to belong to our neighbor. Grades didn’t equate to wheels in our house, especially not when both of us were heading off to college at the same time. Gabe is an only child and his parents liked to dote on him growing up—not entirely because he was part of the IVF baby boom of the nineties, although his mom often refers to him as her miracle baby. Actually, she would say bébé miracle. Jacqueline North was born and raised in France. She moved here when she was a teenager, but she speaks fluent French and still has an accent. She taught Gabe to speak French too, but he usually reserves it for arguments with her, or to whisper sweet nothings in my ear.

  I know the basics.

  Je t’aime is I love you.

  Mon amour is my love.

  Petite amie is girlfriend.

  I’ve completely fallen in love with the language, so last year I chose to minor in French. Hopefully by the time I graduate, I’ll be able to hold a conversation in the North household. Or at least keep up with Gabe’s dad. Danny North is Georgia born and bred, but he knows enough French to weigh in when he wants to.

  Gabe closes the passenger door behind Brandon before I can get in.

  “What are you doing?”

  He spins me around and takes my face in his warm hands. “I just wanted to tell you that you look really beautiful tonight.” He smiles and dips his head to kiss me, softly at first, and then deeply, pressing me against the car until I feel every line of his body against mine.

  They say that the French are one of the most romantic nationalities and I’m pretty sure the genetic trait didn’t skip Gabe. It isn’t uncommon for him to use words like beautiful when he speaks to me or to kiss me like it’s the last time.

  He drops his hands away, leaving my lips tingling as he whispers in my ear, “Je t’aime.”

  I inhale shallow breaths and bite my smiling lip. “I love you too.”

  A loud smack against the inside of the back window reminds me that we’re not alone and a warm rush of blood fills my cheeks. Gabe laughs like it’s the best joke in the world to be kissing his best friend’s sister. He opens the door and I casually slide into the passenger seat.

  “Seriously, Liv, was that really necessary? I mean, it’s bad enough that I had to see, but Mom and Dad could have been watching. Are you trying to make Dad’s head explode?”

  I turn around and smirk at him. “Oh, I’m sorry, does it make you uncomfortable to see your sister making out with your best friend?”

  “As a matter of fact, yes, it does.”

  I laugh and reach for Gabe’s shoulder when he slides into the driver’s seat. Brandon starts in on him as soon as he shuts his door. “Dude, I’m happy you two are together, but she’s still my little sister.”

  “Brandon, you were born two minutes before me.”

  “Yeah, and that makes me older. Leave me with some shred of brotherly naiveté, please.”

  Gabe glances at him in the rearview mirror. “You and those big words.”

  “Hey, don’t hate because I got into Georgetown,” Brandon says smugly.

  I glance at Gabe and smirk. “That was three years ago, B. And tell us again, Mr. Valedictorian, why you chose to go to one of the top party schools in the country instead.” I turn around and wait for his answer.

  “Hey, I may be smart, but even us geniuses like to have a good time. Life’s all about balance, sis. Besides, you know I don’t do cold weather. And FSU is a perfectly respectable university.”

  “It didn’t have anything to do with Audrey Miller going there, did it?”

  “I mean, it doesn’t hurt to see that fine—I mean familiar—face around campus,” he says, grinning.

  “And there it is.” I laugh and shake my head.

  Gabe smiles and rubs my knee. “Well, it may not be Georgetown, but I think NC State is working out just fine for us.”

  I smile softly. “Yeah, I’d say so.”

  “I still can’t believe that you actually went away for college,” Brandon teases. “I never thought I’d see the day.”

  I turn around and say happily, “Ain’t nobody like a homebody.”

  Gabe laughs and his eyes crinkle. “You better believe it, B. We go back to Raleigh in a few weeks. You won’t see us again until Thanksgiving.”

  Brandon rubs his chin and says, “It’s weird, isn’t it? We co
me home and it’s like no time has passed, nothing has really changed between us. But then we go back to our separate lives and that’s kind of normal now too.”

  “Yeah. It’s weird,” I say softly over the hesitation that accompanies the thought of leaving again. I don’t mind Raleigh, exactly, but even after three years of going to school there, it doesn’t feel like home. Not the way the Island does. This is where our history is. Where our families are. Where we grew up. It’s where Gabe and I fell in love. And where we’ve spent every summer, like this one, playing on the beach, fishing in the surf, and combing the sand for shark teeth.

  At low tide, the shore stretches for hundreds of yards and it’s always a contest to see who can collect the most shark teeth. We also convinced our dad to let us take his boat out on our own a few times this summer, so we got to explore some of the smaller barrier islands, like Little St. Simons and Jekyll Island. I’ve made a hobby of taking pictures of the wildlife that live in the flooded wetlands that surround them, and the century-old live oaks that drip with Spanish moss and tangle with the wild palm trees that line their shores.

  It’s never easy to leave, but at least I have my pictures. And Gabe. He feels like home no matter where we are.

  I squeeze his hand and he smiles at me as he pulls into the gravel parking lot by the beach. The engine purrs as he looks for a spot in the crowded lot. When he eventually finds one and parks, I hurry to unbuckle and get my door open before he can circle the car, but he beats me to it, greeting me with a satisfied smile as he pulls the door open.

  “It’s the twenty-first century, Gabe. I can open my own door.”

  “I know.” He winks.

  * * *

  I sit between Gabe’s legs, feeling him breathe in and out against my back as we watch Jaws from our blanket on the sand. He kisses my hair occasionally and nuzzles my neck as Chief Brody and Hooper set out on a boat to kill the giant man-eating shark.

  “Is this the one where they electrocute it?” I ask.

  “No that’s the second one. They blow it up in this one.”

  “So, how does it come back in the second one?”

  “That’s a different shark.”

  “Oh. So there’s a whole bunch of these super realistic animatronic sharks swimming around.”

  He laughs and nods toward Brandon, who’s cozied up with Audrey Miller a few blankets away. “Looks like he’s pretty comfortable.”

  I smile and nod. “He’s liked her for years, but it took him until college to admit it.”

  “Not exactly.”

  I look up at him with curious eyes. “What?”

  “He told me that he had a huge crush on her in high school, but he asked me not to tell you.”

  “What? I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!” I huff. Then I purse my lips over a small smile and say, “You’re a good friend.”

  “Well, I just told you, so...maybe not.”

  I laugh. “I guess it’s not surprising. She’s exactly his type.” Tall and lean with ample curves and long, wavy brown hair. I’d kill to have curves like Audrey. My B-cups and one-hundred-and-twenty pound frame don’t exactly put me in the curvaceous category. “Do you have a type?” I ask, looking up at him.

  “Yeah.” He laughs.

  “Go on,” I say curiously. Please don’t say tall and blond.

  He reaches up and tucks my hair behind my ear. “You,” he says softly, making my heart sprint.

  I kiss him with smiling lips, then I turn back around and my eyes drift to Brandon and Audrey again. She’s pretty, with her blue eyes and full lips, but she doesn’t seem to know it. She’s also very kind, a necessary prerequisite for dating my brother.

  I’m really rooting for you, Audrey.

  Brandon might be a genius, but his common sense is lacking sometimes. It makes me feel a lot better knowing someone like Audrey is looking out for him in college.

  I’m not aware that I’m staring at them, until something obstructs my view.

  Jeremy Black.

  He stops at our blanket and squats down in the sand in front of me. “Hey, Livy.” He smooths his black hair back. “Haven’t seen you all summer. You look good.”

  Gabe leans forward and wraps his fingers around my arms possessively, which I would normally mind, but Jeremy’s sole purpose in life is to remind Gabe that he kissed me in the sixth grade. “Jeremy,” Gabe says sharply, and that’s all he has to say before Jeremy is back on his feet. Gabe is a lot bigger than he is.

  “Hi, Gabe,” Stacey McGillis coos, batting her thickly mascaraed lashes at him.

  Jeremy’s eyes drop to Stacey’s pushed up boobs.

  “Hi, Stacey,” I say, pulling her attention away from Gabe. “You look really...nice tonight.”

  She gives me a condescending smile and a flat, “Thanks.”

  I guess I wasn’t convincing.

  “You and Jeremy should go grab a spot to watch the movie. It looks like there’s still some space way over there,” I say, pointing across the crowd of people.

  She narrows her eyes at me. “See you later, Gabe.” She flutters her fingers at him as Jeremy pulls her away.

  “God, those two are made for each other,” I say, rolling my eyes.

  “I fucking hate when he calls you Livy,” Gabe grumbles.

  “The feeling’s mutual. Nobody’s called me Livy since the third grade.” I pull him close, wrap my arms around his neck, and plant a slow, firm kiss on his lips.

  “Mmmm,” he murmurs against my lips, “what was that for?”

  “I just love you. And I thought you needed a gentle reminder.”

  “Remind me again.”

  I kiss him again and then I stand up and tug him off the blanket onto the soft sand. “Walk with me? I need a break from the crowd.”

  “Okay.”

  “Maybe we can find a more private spot on the beach. Grab the blanket.”

  Gabe gives me a familiar look when he realizes that I’m not merely interested in a walk, and it makes me laugh. He quickly gathers up the blanket and tells Brandon that we’re going to look for a better spot, but Brandon is too wrapped up in Audrey to care.

  “Yeah, yeah, be safe,” he says lazily as we walk away.

  I take Gabe’s hand and let him lead me down the beach away from everyone. “Did my brother just tell us to have safe sex?”

  “I think so.”

  “That is wrong on so many levels.”

  Gabe laughs. “Doesn’t he know I haven’t deflowered you yet?”

  “Oh my God, if you could never say deflower, like ever again, that’d be great.”

  He laughs freely and it echoes down the beach.

  We walk a long way before we settle on a quiet spot between two sand dunes, far enough down the beach that we can’t hear the chatter from the crowd or see the giant movie screen over the water. Gabe spreads the blanket out on the sand and we sit together like before, my back to his chest, his arms over my shoulders, his chin to my cheek, gazing out at the dark ocean.

  A nearly full moon is hanging low over the horizon, casting its pale light on the beach and reflecting off the waves that roll in several yards away. They crash on the shore, one after the other, making a rhythmic hushing sound.

  It’s a warm night, but the cool air coming off the ocean raises goosebumps on my arms. Gabe rubs them when I shiver. I rest my head back against his chest, feeling him breathe in and out against me. I could sit like this forever, listening to the hush of the ocean and the quiet pull of his slow breaths in the dark.

  “I’m going to miss this.”

  “You always do. Maybe this year we can check out some of the beaches in North Carolina. Raleigh isn’t that far from the coast. We can take road trips on the weekends.”

  “Yeah. But they won’t be like this. They won’t be home.”

  “My sweet, sentimental girl.” He hugs me tight. “This year is going to fly by, you’ll see. Before you know it we’ll be graduating, and then we can come home, at least for a while
, until we get jobs like real adults.” He laughs low and soft in my ear.

  “You promise?”

  “I promise. This time next year, we’ll be sitting right here in this very spot.”

  I smile softly. “You know, you can’t break your word. It’s all a man’s got,” I say, reciting a line from a movie, though I can’t recall which one.

  “I would never break a promise to you, Liv.” His tone is suddenly serious and I wonder if we’re still talking about coming home after we graduate.

  I turn around between his knees and his eyes grip mine.

  “If you want to live here after we graduate, we will. Okay? I’ll commute if I have to.”

  “Gabe–”

  “If you want me to build you a house right here with my own two hands, I’ll do it,” he says, and a quiet rush of air leaves my lungs. He wraps his hand behind my neck and rubs his thumb over my cheek. “If you want me to love you every day for the rest of our lives, I will.”

  “Gabriel,” I whisper, curling my fingers around his wrist.

  He presses his mouth to mine and kisses me slow and deep, love pouring out of him and into me. His fingers push into my hair and I snake my arms around his back, pulling him close.

  I break the kiss and whisper into his ear, “Gabe, I want you.”

  He pulls his mouth back to mine and mumbles against my lips, “I know, I want you too.”

  “No, Gabe”—I push his shoulders back and look into his dark eyes—“I want all of you. I don’t want to wait anymore.” I swallow hard, feeling my heart thumping in my throat.

  Gabe’s face fills with intensity. “Are you sure? What about–”

  “My virtue?” I smile softly and say certainly, “I am going to marry you, Gabriel North, but not today. And I don’t want our first time to be in a dorm room. I want it to be here, on our beach. I’m ready.”

  The muscles in his clenched jaw tighten and he swallows hard, making his Adam’s apple bounce up and down. “Liv”— he brings his mouth back to mine—“I love you so much.”

  “I love you too,” I whisper.

  “We’ll go slow, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  His eyes fill with gentle concern. “You’ll tell me if I hurt you?”

  “Yes.”

  He kisses me softly, but urgently, raising my arms above my head. I hold them there while he lifts my tank top and slides it over my arms, exposing my white lace bra. He leans down and kisses the tops of my breasts softly. Those he’s seen a time or two, but I appreciate the special attention he gives them. He lays me back on the blanket and kneels beside me to unbutton my jeans. I lift my bottom so that he can maneuver them over my hips. He tugs them down past my knees and struggles a little to get them off my ankles.