She looks at me defensively. “She can’t tell me what to do, Will. I’m an adult.”

I calmly place my hand on her shoulder. “Lake, you’re still in high school. You live under her roof. I shouldn’t have brought you here, I’m sorry. She’s right.” I lean in and kiss her briefly to calm her, then I take her shirt and help her pull it over her head.

“Oh, my God!” Julia yells. “Are you kidding me, Will? Don’t help her put her clothes back on! I’m standing right here!”

What the hell am I thinking?

I release the shirt and hold my palms up in the air, then back away from Lake. She looks at me apologetically and whispers, “I’m sorry,” then heads toward the door.

The door doesn’t even shut before Julia begins yelling at her. “You’ve been dating him for two weeks, Lake! What do you think you’re doing going that far with him that fast?” The door finally closes and I sink back to the couch, feeling incredibly stupid. Incredibly guilty. Incredibly pathetic. Yet . . . somehow still incredibly happy.

I reach down and am picking my own shirt up when the front door swings open again. Julia has a grip on Lake’s arm and marches her straight back into the living room, then positions her on the couch across from me.

“This can’t wait,” Julia says. “I don’t even trust that y’all won’t start this back up tonight as soon as I go to bed.”

Lake is looking at me the same way I’m looking at her. Confused.

Julia turns to Lake. “Are y’all having sex already?”

Lake groans and covers her face with her hands.

“You are?”

“No!” Lake says defensively. “We haven’t had sex yet, okay?”

I’m watching the conversation between them, hoping to hell I don’t get involved in it.

“Yet?” Julia says. “So you’re going to?”

Lake stands and throws her hands up in the air. “What do you want me to say, Mom? I’m eighteen! Do you want me to tell you I’ll be celibate forever? Because that would be a lie.”

Julia rolls her head back and looks up at the ceiling for several seconds. When she looks at me, I dart my eyes to the floor. I’m so embarrassed I can’t even look at her.

“Where’s your car?” she says flatly.

I glance at Lake, then to Julia. “At the end of the street,” I reluctantly admit.

“Why?” she asks accusingly, and rightfully so.

“Mom, stop. This is ridiculous.”

Julia turns her attention to Lake. “Ridiculous? Really, Lake? What I find ridiculous is the fact that you two parked at the end of the street and snuck over here to have sex less than a hundred yards from your mother. You’ve only been dating him for two weeks! What I also find ridiculous is that you’re acting like you did nothing wrong, when it’s obvious you were trying to hide it by parking at the end of the damn street!”

We’re all quiet for a moment. Lake leans her head against the back of the couch and closes her eyes. “What now, then? If you’re going to ground me let’s just get it over with so you can stop embarrassing me.”

Julia sighs an extremely frustrated sigh. She walks over to the couch, taking a seat next to Lake. “I’m not trying to embarrass you, Lake. I just . . .”

Julia sighs again and drops her face into her hands.

Lake rolls her eyes again.

I groan.

Julia lifts her head from her hands and takes a deep breath. “Lake?” she says quietly. “I just . . .” She attempts to get out what she wants to say, but her eyes well up with tears. When Lake realizes Julia is crying, she sits up straight.

“Mom,” Lake says, scooting closer to her. She puts her arms around Julia and hugs her. Seeing her care for her mom despite her frustration with her absolutely melts my heart. It makes me love her even more, somehow.

Julia separates from Lake and wipes at her eyes. “Ugh!” she says. “This is so hard for me. You have to understand that.” She turns to Lake and takes her hands. “I don’t want to play the sick card, but it’s impossible not to. We’re at this transition in our lives where you’re becoming the grown-up. Sometime this year, as much as we don’t want to admit it, you’ll be raising my little boy. It breaks my heart to know that I’m responsible for you being forced to grow up so fast. I’m forcing you to become his guardian. I’m forcing you to become the head of a household at eighteen. It’s not fair to you. All the other areas of your life like falling in love and enjoying high school and new boyfriends and . . . having sex? I just feel like these are the last things you have left before you’re forced to grow up completely. I know I can’t slow down the inevitable, but I’m taking away every other part of your youth by leaving you with all of this responsibility. Until that time comes, I guess I just want you to stop growing up. For my sake. Just stop growing up so fast.”

As soon as she finishes speaking, Lake begins to cry. “I’m sorry,” she says to Julia. “I get it, Mom. I’m sorry.”

I feel like an ass. “I’m sorry, too,” I say to Julia.

Julia smiles at me and wipes at her eyes. “I’m still mad at you, Will.” She stands up and looks at both of us. “Okay. Now that we have that out of the way.” She turns her attention to Lake. “I’m taking you to the doctor tomorrow. You’re getting on the pill.” She turns to face me. “And both of you need to think about this. There’s no rush. You have the rest of your lives to be in a hurry. You both need to set good examples for these boys who look up to you. Sneaking around is not the kind of thing you want to be modeling. You think they don’t notice, but they do. And you two are going to be the ones dealing with them as teenagers, so believe me. You don’t want them throwing your own actions back in your faces.”

She makes a terrifying, but excellent point.

“I want you both to promise me something,” she says.

“Anything,” I say.

“Wait one year. There’s no rush. You’re both still young, so young. You’ve been dating all of two weeks and believe me when I say this, the more you know about each other and the more in love you are, the better it’ll be.”

I do my best to pretend this is not coming out of my girlfriend’s mother’s mouth, but it doesn’t help ease the awkwardness.

“Mom,” Lake groans, sinking back into the couch.

“We promise,” I say, standing up. I immediately regret making the promise to her, knowing what that will entail. An entire year of having to keep myself in check around Lake is like agreeing to infinity. Especially after being on that couch with her tonight.

“I’m sorry, Julia. Really. I respect Lake and I respect you and . . . I’m sorry. We’ll wait. I love Lake and that’s all I need from her right now. Just knowing I can love her is more than enough.”

Lake sighs and I look over at her. She’s smiling at me. She stands up and throws her arms around my neck. “God, I love you,” she says. She pulls away from my neck and kisses me.

“Make sure that kiss is a good one, Lake, because you’re grounded for two weeks.”

Lake and I both snap our heads in Julia’s direction.

“Grounded?” Lake says incredulously.

Julia nods. “Regardless of how much I love your boyfriend . . . you snuck over here knowing I told you I didn’t want you alone at his house. So, yeah. You’re grounded. I’ll give you five minutes to say your good-byes and get home.” Julia walks out and shuts the door behind her.

“Two weeks?” I say to Lake. I press my lips to hers and kiss her crazy for five solid minutes.

I MADE IT twenty-one years without her. After meeting her earlier this year, I somehow made it three months without her. Now, after finally being able to date her, I’ve had to go another two weeks without her. But these past two weeks have been the most unbearable two weeks without her of my entire twenty-one years.

I know it’s not even eight in the morning and it might seem desperate if I show up at her door this early, but we’ve been waiting for these two weeks to pass for what feels like an eternity. I rush across the street and am lifting my hand to knock on the door when it swings open and she jumps into my arms, showering kisses all over my face.

“Way to play hard to get,” I hear Julia say from behind Lake. I put Lake down and shake my head slightly, letting her know we need to tone it down. Lake rolls her eyes and pulls me inside.

“What are we doing today?” she asks.

“Whatever you want. I was thinking maybe we could take the boys somewhere.”

“Really?” Julia says from the kitchen. “That would be great. I need a day of peace after being cooped up in this house with your mopey girlfriend for two weeks.”

Lake laughs and pulls me toward the hallway. “Come to my room while I get ready.” We disappear down the hallway and into her room. She shuts the door and pulls me to her bed. She falls back and I fall on top of her, our lips reconnecting after the torturous time they had to spend apart.

“I missed you so much,” I whisper.

“Not as much as I missed you.”

We kiss some more.

And some more.

And some more.

I wish we didn’t have to leave this bedroom, because I could do this all day. She’s already working her hands up the back of my shirt and I’m groaning into her neck, remembering how close I got to actually being with her two weeks ago. I want to run my hand up her shirt, or touch her waist, or pull her legs around me, but I have no idea what’s safe with her now. Now that we have to wait a whole damn year.

Why did I agree to that? As much as I understand where Julia was coming from, I still don’t know how in the hell we’re going to wait an entire year. Especially considering how much it’s already driving me insane.

“Babe,” I say, pulling my lips away from hers. “We need to talk about this.” I lift up and sit on the bed beside her.

“About what? Our plans today?”

I shake my head. “No.” I lean forward and kiss her again. “This,” I say, waving my hand up and down her body. “We need to talk about what’s okay and what’s not. I really want to respect the promise we made to your mother, but at the same time there’s no way in hell I can keep my hands off you. I just need to know what my boundaries are before I slip up.”

She smiles at me. “So you’re saying we need to set limits to how far we can go?”

I nod. “Exactly. I need you to tell me when I’ve reached the point of retreat.”

She grins mischievously. “Well, there’s only one way to find out what our boundaries are. I guess we need to test them.”

I smile and scoot back down beside her, slowly looking her up and down. “I like that idea.” I brush away a strand of hair from her face and kiss her softly on the mouth. I run my nose across her jawline and kiss my way to her ear. “How’s this? Should I retreat yet?”