Last Kiss (2023-2025)

chapter 74- Somewhere That Feels Like Us;Before She Knew&quot/ indifferent

Jeremiah's POV

The morning after our dance-in-the-living-room moment, I woke up to the smell of coffee and the soft hum of Belly's voice singing something by The 1975 from the kitchen.

It was one of those mornings that felt like a movie. The kind where nothing dramatic happens—but everything matters.

She handed me a mug with sleepy eyes and a soft smile. "You said we should build something."

I took the coffee, kissed the top of her head, and grinned. "You ready to build?"

She nodded. "Let's look at places today."

And just like that, it began.

We started simple—pulling up listings on Belly's laptop. She sat cross-legged on the couch with her glasses on, one hand on the trackpad, the other curled around her mug. Every so often, she'd glance up at me with that cute furrow in her brow, like she was deep in the kind of focus only she had.

"This one has three bedrooms," she said, clicking on a sunny beach cottage. "It's a little big for us now, but I was thinking... maybe down the line, when we have people over. Or a family. Or a dog."

"A dog first," I grinned, scooting closer. "And I call naming rights."

She rolled her eyes. "Only if you don't name it after a band."

I didn't answer. I was too busy imagining our future German Shepherd named "Vibes."

The first place we saw in person smelled like paint and disappointment. Too sterile. Too... not us.

"This place feels like a staged breakup," I muttered.

Belly laughed so hard she choked on her iced chai. "A staged breakup?!"

"You know what I mean," I said. "This place screams, 'We used to be happy but now we just say good morning with fake smiles and silence.'"

We scratched that one off the list.

The second place was better. A little beach bungalow with chipped floors and a porch that creaked when you stepped on it. But it felt alive. Like it had a soul.

Belly stood in the middle of the small living room and spun around once, like she could already see where the couch would go. Her eyes lit up the way they always did when she imagined something fully.

"I could write by the window," she whispered. "You could come home after your shifts and take naps in the sunroom."

I watched her turn it into a home in real time. And I swear something in me clicked.

"I could love you here," I said.

She stopped spinning. Looked at me. Smiled.

"You already do."

We didn't sign anything that day.

But we didn't need to—not yet. Because we were building something long before walls and windows. We were building in conversations and quiet forgiveness and late-night dancing and early-morning coffee.

And when we finally found the place—our place—I knew it wouldn't be perfect.

But it would be ours.

And that's more than enough.

Before She Knew"

Jeremiah's POV – Flashback

I think I loved her long before I realized it.

But the moment I knew—like, really knew—it was a Tuesday.

Random, I know. But that's how it always happens with her. Big feelings on small days.

We were sixteen. Belly had just gotten back from visiting her dad and was mad because he made her go to some lame art exhibit when all she wanted to do was swim. I remember she burst through the front door of the Cousins house, still in travel clothes, hair in a braid that was starting to fall apart.

She looked like summer and chaos and home.

I was lying upside down on the couch, bored out of my mind, and she launched into a rant before I could even sit up.

"Jeremiah, I swear, if I had to look at one more painting of a sad woman holding a bowl of fruit—"

"I missed you too," I said.

She stopped talking, blinked, and rolled her eyes. But I saw her smile.

She always smiled like that around me. Not the one she gave Conrad when he said something intense or the way she smiled at her mom when she was proud. This was different. This one was real and crooked and just for me.

We went to the beach that night—me, Belly, Steven, and Con. The boys were being annoying, as usual. I think Conrad was sulking about something he wouldn't talk about, and Steven was trying to prove he could surf better than me (spoiler: he couldn't).

But Belly?

She was laughing so hard at something I said, she fell backwards into the sand and just laid there, arms spread wide, hair tangled, cheeks pink from sun and salt.

I looked at her, and it hit me like a riptide.

I loved her.

Not the way I loved other girls. Not in that "she's cute, I'll text her for a week" kind of way. I loved Belly like... like she was woven into everything I'd ever known. Like summer wouldn't feel like summer without her.

It was stupid and terrifying, because I knew she wasn't looking at me like that yet.

She still looked for him.

But I didn't care.

I laid down next to her, close but not too close. Our arms touched. She didn't pull away.

"You ever think about leaving this place?" she asked suddenly, still staring up at the stars.

"All the time," I said.

"Really?"

"Yeah," I said, turning my head to look at her. "But only if you were coming with me."

She didn't answer.

Just smiled that crooked smile.

And I swear, for a second, I thought maybe she felt it too.