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The worst part was all the damn goodbyes. Fall break…then Thanksgiving. Christmas and New Year. Spring break. At least she spent her whole summer break with me last year, but saying goodbye after three solid months together stung for fucking days.
“I’m so proud of you, Bee,” I mumble into her curled hair.
I never want to let go now.
She lifts her face off my shoulder. Her face is blissful, finally relaxed following a tough final semester. Her graduation-robe-clad arms stay around my waist. “I love you.”
“I love you more.”
After our celebratory dinner with her mom and Rick, Tilly and I settle in the hotel room I booked for tonight. We found out the first time I visited her apartment that her bed wasn’t big enough for us. So, paying for a king-size bed? Worth every penny. And her place was already empty. We already loaded her boxes into the SUV, so in the morning, after dropping her family off at the airport, we can start driving to Napa.
“Un-zip me?” Tilly asks, twirling around to show me her back.
“Of course.”
“You’ve been quiet today,” she says as I pull down the dress’s zipper.
“It was a big day for you. Ready to go home tomorrow?”
“Hmm, deflecting. You’re hiding something, aren’t you?” she muses.
I smirk at her, but she doesn’t see it. “I guess you’ll have to find out.”
She turns and steps out of the dress. She drapes it over her arm, and I gently push her hair back off her shoulder to uncover her heart tattoo.
“Alright, whatever. Uh, I couldn’t be more ready, but I’ll miss Adri and being so close to the beach.”
“We’ll visit. You know Adri will go all out for her baby shower in a couple of months,” I say. Tilly darts her eyes away. “You’re the one being weird now.”
Seeing Adri get married and announce a pregnancy in just two years was shocking, but Appa was more surprised that I didn’t pop the question with each holiday and birthday that passed.
“You’re not the only one hiding things, but you’ll have to wait until we’re home,” Tilly replies. She laughs lightly and steps toward the wardrobe to hang up the dress. I watch her walk away, but I don’t run the possibilities through my mind. After being apart for so long, I’ll take the surprise.
“Hmm, cryptic for you. I wanted to give you this,” I say, lifting a small velvet gift box out of my overnight bag. “A little something for graduation.” Tilly bites her lip as she takes the box from me, gently sliding the satin ribbon from the velvet exterior. The lid snaps open, revealing the minimalistic gold bangle made of hexagons inside. “Honeycomb for the bee.”
“E, I love it.” She drapes her arm around my neck and presses her lips to mine. “Thank you.”
The next morning, we’re halfway to Napa by the time I muster up the courage to share one secret I’ve kept from her. “I should tell you something.”
She lifts her head off the passenger-side window. “What’s that?”
Don’t kill me over this.
“I saw your dad a couple of weeks ago when I went to that event with the silent auction.”
She gasps and sits up straighter in her seat. “I almost went to that…” It chapped my ass that she couldn’t fly up and be my date, but she was too busy with the semester wrapping up. And that became a blessing in disguise. “Why was he in Napa? He moved after the divorce.”
Keeping my hands firmly on the steering wheel, I shrug. “A friend invited him or something.”
“Well, how was he? Did he talk to you?”
I stare out of the windshield. “Yeah.”
“Hey, Valenti,” I heard a man’s voice say behind me. I turned around and was face to face with Tilly’s father. “Thought that was you. You’re…distinctive.” I was never formally introduced to him, but I saw him in a few of Tilly’s childhood pictures when I met her mom for the first time in Sacramento.
“Charlie, I presume.”
“How’s my daughter?” he asked. “I know you’re still dating her.”
