Last Summer Read Online Free

I’m blowing off our summer together—”
    “We’ll work it out,” Kelsi assured him, cutting him off with kisses. “This is going to be the best summer ever. You’re going to learn so much!”
    “I can’t believe it,” Bennett confessed. “I mean, that’sactually true, I’m not just saying that. I’m incapable of comprehending that I’m going to be spending day after day with my idol. I can’t get my head around it!”
    “You’re an amazing artist yourself,” Kelsi said staunchly. Not only because she loved Bennett, but also because it was true. “Someday someone’s going to say the same thing about you.”
    “I think maybe you’re biased,” Bennett said with a laugh, and they kissed out there under a canopy of summer stars.
    They kissed and kissed, rolling back and forth on the soft blanket, and once again Kelsi thought about how special and safe Bennett always made her feel. She knew that she wanted to stay with him forever. She knew it deep down in the pit of her stomach. She knew it in her fingers and her toes. She knew it with every breath she took and every blink of her eyes.
    Which was why she decided, as she felt love course through her in waves, that she wanted to really be with him. The way they never had been, in all the time they’d been together.
    “Hey,” she whispered, smiling up at him in between kisses. “I want it to be tonight.”
    “You want what to be tonight?” he asked, gazing down at Kelsi with tenderness.
    That was just one more reason to love him, Kelsi thought, her smile widening.
    Unlike every other guy she’d ever dated, sex wasn’t the first, last, and only thing on Bennett’s mind.
    “If you want to,” she went on, feeling suddenly a little bit shy, “I’d really like to…” It was ridiculous that she was going to be a sophomore in college and didn’t know what to call it. “Sex” seemed so scientific. “Making love” was just a weird thing to say and she couldn’t speak it without cracking up. In her head it was just… It.
    The It that she hadn’t done, despite being pressured by every guy before this one.
    The It that she’d thought about so much and worried about so much, and now it just seemed like the obvious thing to do. The right thing, even.
    “Oh,” Bennett said in a hushed voice, getting what she meant. They looked at each other.
    “What do you think?” she asked. Because it wasn’t just her choice. It would be the first time for both of them, if it happened.
    Kelsi suddenly wanted it to happen, so much so that she thought she might be shaking.
    “I think,” Bennett said slowly, carefully, “that it would be perfect.”
    They both laughed again—nervous and excited and hopeful laughter. Kelsi helped him blow out all the candles and then they climbed to their feet and she led him inside, up the stairs to her old bedroom. Once inside, they kissedagain, long and sweet. Again and again, as if they were relearning how to kiss each other. Their bodies pressed together tight. As they kissed, they pulled off each other’s clothes and then they were naked, and then they were in the shelter of Kelsi’s bed.
    “Do you want to change your mind?” Kelsi whispered, when it seemed like Bennett was hesitating.
    “No, no,” he whispered, holding himself above her. His smile was slow and wonderful. “I just want to make sure I remember every second. Every breath.”
    Their warm skin together felt so soft and so natural. Kelsi arched her back and twined her arms around Bennett.
    It was funny how Kelsi had always wondered why something in her didn’t want to take this step. She’d thought something was wrong with her. Maybe she was frigid, or dysfunctional.
    Now she knew better.
    Now she knew that she’d been waiting her whole life for this moment, this boy, this night.
    “I love you, Kelsi Tuttle,” Bennett whispered.
    “I love you, too,” she whispered back.
    They smiled at each other, and then, just like that, they were no longer