Poppy’s POV
I settled for a spot under the shade of a tree in the park and leaned against the trunk. Summer was at A Story & A Bite with Katie, who offered to watch over her for a couple of hours and I figured I could use that time to just relax. It was Wednesday, two days after the carnival, the day summer officially ended on the island. Every year, this day meant that all the tourists left the island to go back to their normal lives. To me, for years, this day has meant a day of tears, of heart-wrenching ache, as Chase saw me off at the docks. I closed my eyes, letting the music fill my ears, blocking any thoughts, but my mind had other ideas. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t block out the images of Chase holding me on the docks, my face buried in his chest. This was what happened every time: I’d see something and my mind would always somehow unravel a moment that I shared with Chase, and play it over and over in my head, almost as if masochistically enjoying the pain that I endured. Not anymore, I thought, turning up the volume on my iPod in an attempt to escape the memories. In the battle between my heart’s self-defence and my brain’s masochistic enjoyment of the pain, my brain won.
“If I’d known you were such a cry-baby, I would’ve never dated you in the first place.” We were on the docks, in an embrace so tight it felt like I would never be able to let go. We’d finally said the words the day before at the carnival. I love you. And Chase thought it’d be funny to torture me before I went back to the mainland.
I broke our embrace, pushing him away before thwacking him on his arm, “If I’d known you were such a jerk, I wouldn’t have said the words I said last night.” A smile played on his lips as he put his hands on my waist, trying to draw me back closer to him. I brought all my strength to my feet and remained rooted to the spot.
“I can always come closer,” he said, closing the gap between us, his chest flush with mine. “I can always step back,” I said, doing just that. “I can always still come closer,” he took another step towards me, “and even closer,” he said, his hands clamping down the back of my thighs, “and even closer,” his voice now a mere whisper as he lifted me up and I straddled his waist. I threw my arms around him, resting my head in the crook of his neck, closing my eyes. We stayed like that for a moment, none of us staying anything.
“Baby,” he whispered in my ear.
“Hmm?”
“You’ll come back next summer, right?” he asked, his voice thick with emotion. I lifted my head off his chest, placing my hands on both sides of his face, placing my lips on his forehead, then kissing him on the nose, before coming down to his lips. I stayed an inch away, looking at him in the eyes. “And so with the sunshine and the greatbursts of leavesgrowing on the trees, just as things grow in fastmovies, I had that familiarconviction that life wasbeginning over again with the summer.”
He smiled at me, before whispering, his hot breath over my lips, “The Great Gatsby.”
“My life begun over again two summers ago, Chase. And I want to spend a thousand more summers with you. I love you Chase, I love you.”
“I love you, Poppy.” Chase inched closer, teasingly brushing his lower lip against mine over and over until it became unbearable and he took my lips between his.
--------
Harry’s POV
I walked into A Story & A Bite to find Summer sprawled over the rug in the lounge area on her tummy, eyebrows furrowed in concentration at what seemed to be a drawing. The place was a lot less crowded than the last time I’d been there, as was pretty much everywhere else on the island, and the old men flicking through their newspapers paid no attention to Summer, or to the mess of colouring pencils and papers scattered all over the floor. I made my way to her and plopped down on the rug beside her.
