“Up front how?”

“No one ever pushed me to be good at anything besides being pretty when I was growing up. All the focus was on Alex and how talented and smart he was. I refused to figure skate, which might have been part of the problem. My mom was crushed when Alex chose hockey as a career. It was crazy. She refused to see that he loved it so much more, and that doing both was making him miserable.”

“How long did he do both?”

“Ten years.”

Well, that definitely explains why he’s such an awesome skater. “That’s a long time.”

“Anyway, she got over it eventually. She didn’t really have a choice. Then she started to see things differently. Alex makes a lot of money. All the good players do—you know that. After a while I think my mom decided I’d end up with one of his hockey friends. That way I’d be taken care of or whatever.”

“What do you mean by taken care of?” I have an idea where this is going, and it’s kind of messed up.

“Financially.”

“Why would you need someone to do that?”

She gives me a small, patronized smile. “Because I’m not Alex-smart or talented. Living in his shadow was hard growing up. It still is sometimes. In high school I started dating Kale because he was the opposite of my brother and all his friends. The only thing he did was smoke weed and pretend to be on the debate team. He had zero ambition, and nothing has changed. I mean, the guy has half a university degree and works part time. He still lives in his parents’ basement and probably always will.”

“But you dated him for four years.”

“We were teenagers. He was consistent, and he liked me for me, not because my brother played professional hockey and he wanted tickets to games or introductions to players. He doesn’t even play sports, unless you count beer pong. Lily was dating Benji, and he and Kale were best friends. My parents thought Kale was harmless, and my mom figured I’d outgrow him. She was right.”

“Daisy still seems to love on him, though.”

“Only because I’m not with him anymore. We’d been friends for a long time. He was easy to be with. When high school ended, I figured it was a good time to move on. It was awkward at first with Lily and Benji still together, but eventually Kale started dating someone else, so it was better.” She sets her glass on the table and runs her hands down her thighs. “I shouldn’t have gone on that camping trip with him. He was on the rebound, and I knew it. But I also want you to know that decision was about more than the pictures of you and the hooker bunnies or making you jealous.”

“What was the point, then?”

“I love my mom. She’s a great person, and she has the best intentions, but I don’t want to become her.” Sunny sighs. “When you started calling, she was all over it working out between us, and not just because you’re a great guy, which you are. My mom likes her lifestyle. She likes not having to go to work every day and going to the spa and lunch dates with her friends. She figured I’d want the same, but I don’t.

“So part of going on the camping trip was me trying to figure out if I could handle this with you, especially having seen how hard it’s been for Violet. I don’t want who I am to be swallowed by who I’m with.”

That makes some sense. I like that Sunny has ambition and drive. She could coast along and sponge off her brother if she wanted—he’d definitely support her—but that’s not her MO. “I would never want that.”

“I know.” She shifts closer and crosses her legs so her knees touch the outside of my thigh. “I’m just explaining why I had such a hard time.”

“And you thought I was gonna fuck and chuck.”

“I know that’s not true.”

I stretch an arm out across the back of the couch. “It took a while for you to believe me.”

“It shouldn’t have. I should listen to my intuition over other people.”

“Three months of daily conversation and me coming to visit, even with parent supervision, should’ve been a dead giveaway.”

“You’d think so.” Sunny leans her head on my arm. “And then there’s the whole Project Sunshine thing.” Her nose brushes my skin, and she presses her lips to my bicep.

I wrap a tendril of her hair around my finger, avoiding eye contact. “There is that.”

“How long have you been putting that together?”

“A while.” I’m definitely not going to be totally honest with her. Not yet. After my first visit to Guelph, I knew I was looking at something more substantial than bunny action. By the time we got to the actual sexing stage, I was trying to figure out how to make the long-distance crap manageable and create a long-term life for us. But we’re not even officially back together, so I’ll keep that to myself until I’ve got some concrete evidence that we’re going to give this a solid shot at being something real.

“How long’s a while?”

“Does it matter? Will it change anything?”

Sunny uncrosses her legs and tucks them under her. “No.”

“So why ask?”

“I’m just curious.” She gets in close and skims my jaw with her fingertips. “You’re an incredible person.”

“Not really.”

“Yes, really.” Her lips hover close to mine.

I’m not sure what’s happening here. We were having a serious conversation and now all of sudden Sunny’s up in my space. At least she’s in jeans and most of her skin is covered, otherwise I’d be screwed.

“Miller.”

“Yeah.”

She settles her palms on either side of my neck. “I missed you.”

“I, uh—”

Her lips touch mine. “I missed talking to you. I missed hearing your voice. I missed knowing you were thinking about me. I missed being with you.”

“I missed all those things, too.”

Sunny slips her tongue into my mouth. I’m guessing this means we’re back together. She straddles my lap and wraps her arms around my shoulders, hands going into my hair.

“Um, Sunny?” I say around her tongue.

“Mmm?”

“Aren’t we supposed to be talking?”

She leans back far enough that her eyes don’t merge into one and she stops looking like a cyclops. “I thought we were done,” she says. “Is there something else you wanted to talk about?”

“Uh . . .”

She rocks her hips, pressing down on the erection forming inside my pants. She moves in to kiss me again.

“What about the distance?”

She skims my cheeks with her fingertips. “We’ll manage.”

“I’ll be traveling a lot after next month,” I say.

“I’ll be done with all my courses at the end of December. I’ll only have my placement left. I can do that anywhere.” Her lips hover over mine. “We don’t have much time before you have to go, Miller. We can talk about that later, can’t we?”

If I’m hearing her correctly, she’s thinking long term, like me. She’s right. We have to leave for the airport soon, so we might as well take advantage of the time we have left.

Her mouth tastes like lemon from the Perrier. She grinds all over me as we kiss and grope and make up for all the time with no words and lots of uncertainty.

As I’m about to pull her shirt over her head, my phone starts beeping. It’s the twenty-minute warning.

“Just ignore it,” Sunny begs.

“I can’t miss my flight.”

“I can be quick.” She pulls her shirt over her head—along with her bra.

I glance at the clock on the wall and then back at her bare chest with faint tan lines and perfect nipples, free of poison ivy. It’s not a lot of time, but it’s enough. I can get her off real fast. We can have frantic makeup sex and next time take it slow.

I yank my shirt over my head. Sunny takes the cue and kicks of her jeans and panties while I shove my pants down to my ankles. This isn’t going to be romantic, but it’s definitely going to feel good. My dick is super fucking excited, along with the rest of me.

As soon as Sunny’s naked, she straddles my lap. We kiss for a minute, rubbing up against each other until my dick is slick and we’re both making sex noises. I need to give her a quick primer before I get in there, so I break the kiss and run a finger over her lips. She parts them and I slip it inside, watching it disappear almost all the way to the third knuckle. I have big fingers. It reminds me of what Sunny looks like with my cock in her mouth.