This time when he pressed his lips to mine, he didn’t pull away. Instead, they lingered on mine, and then, achingly slowly, he moved his lips against mine. I wasn’t sure which one of us was shaking more—I could only assume we were on equal measures of nervousness because, when he cupped my face with his hand, deepening our kiss, I felt like I had been electrocuted directly from the power grid.
No, scratch that. It felt like he had hooked me directly up to it and I was powerless to stop it.
Hugh kissed carefully, like he knew exactly the kind of way I liked it, which was surprising because I didn’t even know how I liked it until he put his mouth on mine. It was thebestfirst kiss ever.
PART 11
Limbo
INKLINGS OF DOUBT
Lizzie
JULY 31, 1999
“IHEARD HE’S SOME HOTSHOT FROMDUBLIN.”
“His dad’s one of the Kavanaghs from town.”
“And he’s joining our class after summer?”
“Yeah, he joined sixth class for a couple of weeks before we broke up for the holidays.”
“He did?”
“Yeah, and apparently, he was supposed to be starting first year but has to repeat sixth class because of the move.”
“What’s his name?”
“Jonathan, I think? At least that’s what I think Cormac said.”
“He’s meant to be unreal at rugby.”
“Where does he play?”
“Outside center, I think.”
“What part of Dublin is he from?”
“The rich part.”
“No shit?”
“For real. My father used to go to school with his father, so I know for a fact his parents bought Wild Rose Manor over on upper west, so the lad has to be minted.”
“How minted are we talking?”
Sprawled out on the sidelines of the pitch at the rugby club, surrounded by a few of my classmates at Sacred Heart, the boys from Scoil Eoin, and a few girls from St. Bernadette’s Convent, I listened to the conversation happening around me and sighed.
Danny Call and Patrick had come to blows yesterday, while Pierce O’Neill and Hugh had come close. Yet here they were, laughing and tossing a rugby ball back and forth like they didn’t have a care in the world.
Boys were so strange.
When they had an issue with each other, they resolved it by kicking the living daylights out of one another and then went right back to being friends.
I wasn’t nearly as forgiving and still harbored a Gibsie-sized chip on my shoulder when it came to some of those boys. Thankfully, he and Claire had scampered off behind the clubhouse, so I didn’t have to worry about holding my tongue if they decided to pick on him today.
“We should play spin the bottle.” One of the convent girls giggled, sidling up to Patrick. “With two-minute kisses.”
