“Shut up, Henry.”
“Um, hi, Coach Woods, thanks for being here.”
She looks up with a smile. “Annie, hi. This is my boyfriend, Sam Henry. Henry, this is Annie, my former student.”
The picture of him on her desk at school doesn’t do him justice: her boyfriend is hot. Way to go, Coach Woods.
“Good luck tomorrow,” he says, grinning.
“I can’t wait to see you run,” Coach Woods says. “I’m so proud of you. Matt says you’re in really good shape to finish.”
“I am,” I say. I’ve never worked so hard in my life.
“Need any pointers?” Henry asks.
“She does not need pointers from you,” Coach Woods says.
“Sure she does. You know where the beer stops are, right?” he asks with a wicked gleam in his eye.
Coach Woods groans again. “You’re gonna get me fired one of these days, Henry.”
“I do know where the beer stops are,” I say. “Miles sixteen and twenty-two.”
“Matt’s got you trained up well, I see,” Henry replies, stretching his arms across the back of the booth. “I wish I could come to the race, but I have to work.”
“What do you do?” I ask.
“I just got on with the Titans as an SEC scout.”
“The best job ever,” Coach Woods says. “Basically he watches college football games all the time.”
“How can I get that job?” I ask, making them laugh.
After I’ve said hi and thank you to everybody, I join Jeremiah over at a big round table with my friends. Jack Goodwin and Savannah are down from Kentucky. Rory drove over from Knoxville and is currently kissing Vanessa’s neck. We all roll our eyes at that and tell them to get a room. Kelsey holds Colton’s hand and he’s so busy staring at her, he keeps missing the straw as he tries to take sips of his drink.
“Now that Colton’s pledging my fraternity, I can ask him to do anything,” Jeremiah whispers in my ear, playing with my braid. “I could make him feed you spaghetti.”
“Oh stop,” I say. “Don’t torture my friend.”
Later in the evening, Jeremiah comes back to my trailer with us. We sit at the kitchen table because he wants to go over the course maps with me for the gazillionth time. But I quickly learn that “go over the course maps” is code for making out, because he won’t stop stealing kisses. It’s fun, but I can’t get something out of my mind.
“I need to do something,” I say quietly.
“Let’s do it then.”
“Alone.”
He stares into my eyes, fiddling with his leather cord necklace. “Okay.”
“I’ll be back in a little while if you want to stay here. You and Nick can see what’s on TV.”
“Cool.”
“Die Hard’s on,” Nick announces.
“You watch that every day—”
“I love that movie,” Jeremiah interrupts me, flopping down on the couch beside my brother.
With a deep breath, I grab Mom’s keys and borrow her car.
It’s time.
I go to the drive-in. Our spot. I sit on the hood of the car and eat popcorn, watching Titanic. I’ll never forget all the moments we shared, good and bad, sad and funny. All the wonderful time we spent together. Every moment means the world.
I’ll never forget you.
•••
A noise jolts me awake. My eyes blink open to find Jeremiah sneaking into my room at home. He crawls onto my bed, laughing, and touches his nose to mine.
“I thought you went home?” I hiss. “You can’t sleep over. My mom’ll kill me.”
“I forgot to give you something before the race.”
He clasps something around my neck. I gaze down to see it’s his lucky leather necklace. Our eyes meet, then he kisses my fingers.
“Love you,” he says. “Sweet dreams.”
“Love you too.”
He scrambles off the bed and tiptoes out into the hallway. Then I hear him getting in trouble.
“I sent you home an hour ago, young man,” Mom says.
“I forgot to give Annie something.”
A loud snort. Nick. “She needs her sleep for the race!”
“Okay, okay, I’m going,” Jeremiah says.
“I better not see you again tonight, Jeremiah Brown,” Mom says.
“You’re as bad as Annie!”
I laugh myself to sleep.
But I don’t sleep well. I keep waking up every hour because I’m scared my alarm clock won’t go off. When it finally rings, Mom and Nick rush into my room.