Golden Boys (Golden Boys, #1)(81)

“Then let me have it,” Jeanie says. She fishes in her pocket and pulls out a twenty. “Go get you and Heath some pizza for dinner and leave the good stuff to me. I can’t believe I went twenty years without eating these.”

I don’t admit that the smell of cabbage is really starting to make me nauseous too, but I’m so grateful for the pizza money. We start to head out the door, but Jeanie wraps me in a hug first. “Thank you for making these. I know I’ve said it a hundred times, but it means the world to me. I called your mom yesterday as I was eating some and made her so jealous. It was perfect.”

She laughs, and I feel like whatever rift they had before I came here might be healing. Even slightly. I might never know what happened between them, but I also don’t care, as long as I can start to bring them together with my (admittedly shoddy) cooking.

Diana and I grab a few slices of pizza on the boardwalk along with sodas the size of my forearm. We snag a bench that faces the water, and the sounds of the boardwalk, the beach, and the ocean all settle into my core and make me feel like I’m home.

I may not have come here looking for family, but I think I came here needing to find it, and I did.

“So, the timeline for tomorrow,” I say. “We head out around eight, get there by nine, then meet up with your friends around nine thirty?”

She chokes a bit on her pizza. “Yep, that works for me. And my friends.”

“Great. Should be fun.”

I notice that she avoids my eye contact, so I ask her if she’s okay. She sighs.

“Okay, so. You know how I like to meddle in people’s love lives?”

I roll my eyes. “I’m aware of that, yeah.”

“We’re not meeting friends tomorrow. Well, I guess you are. There’s … someone special who will be there. For you.”

I pull back, suspicious. One thing I’m not ready to do, weeks after I told Reese I loved him and didn’t hear it back, is meet some other person.

“Oh god. Are you trying to set me up with one of your friends or something? I really appreciate the thought, but—”

“No. Heath, come on. I’m a better meddler than that,” she says, and I look at her in pure confusion. “Reese will be there. He’s coming to Orlando with his family. To see you.” She pauses. “And Mickey Mouse, presumably.”

I take a deep breath as her words hit me. It almost seems unreal that I might be seeing Reese tomorrow morning. And Reese wants to see me, which means …

“What does this mean?” I ask.

“It means he likes you, dummy. So much that he convinced his parents to take him to Disney World. I’ve been talking to him over the past few weeks. He really wanted it to be a surprise. Or maybe I convinced him that it would be more romantic as a surprise. Can’t remember, doesn’t matter. But he knew he couldn’t wait for you two to get back to Ohio.”

I stand up and drop the rest of my pizza into the trash can.

“I’ve got to go back,” I say in a panic.

“What, why?”

“I need to do laundry.” I start walking off. “What am I going to wear? This has to be perfect. Oh my god. Should I bring him his souvenirs now? Oh god, all my good tank tops are dirty, I need to do laundry …”

“Your good tank tops? Can you hear yourself right now?”

“Diana! I love him!”

“I know!”

“Then start freaking out with me!”

She laughs, then stands up in an exaggeratedly tense fashion, trying to mock my intensity. “Okay! Lead the way!”

REESE

“This is really happening, isn’t it?” I ask my mom as our bus pulls into the park.

I try to ignore the fact that it is incredibly awkward to have your parents come along for something like this, especially when they know why we’re here to see Heath. But he’s family. My parents love him; my whole family does. And they know how special he is to me. So maybe it actually feels right that they’re along for the ride.

Though by the cheeky jokes Mamma keeps throwing out, I’m wondering if this was a good idea at all.

We walk into the park, and its hugeness overwhelms me. This is someplace I’ve always wanted to go, that part wasn’t a lie, and seeing the Cinderella Castle in the flesh is an awesome experience. But right now I don’t have room for any emotion that’s not sheer panic.

We get settled at a bench in the park, and I convince my parents to give us some alone time once Heath gets here. There’s so much I want to say to Heath, but I can’t say it if we’re in a group.

But I’m here. I’m close to him—I can really feel it. Mom offers to grab me some food or soda, but I can’t stomach anything right now. I just need to see him, and I need this to be real. Together, we count down the minutes.

“I love you,” Mom says, and she pulls me into a hug. “And I’m excited for you.”

“Don’t be excited for me yet,” I say, but even as I say it, I feel the falseness of what I’m saying. With Heath, I don’t have to be cynical. I can trust him. But there’s still this weird self-preservation instinct that kicks in every time I get my hopes up.

“He’s here,” I say, standing up. Heath and Diana walk through the gates and start panning the crowd to look for me. I wonder if he even knows what’s happening—I should have never let Diana force me into this surprise.