Rolling over the next morning the smile on Sara's face faded as she realized she was alone. Things had been so perfect, the night before. Why would Leonard leave before she woke up?

She would not cry. She was stronger than that. This was just another thing that didn't work out. Maybe after last night Leonard had decided he didn't like her. Maybe his words had just been words. Maybe she had come on too strong.

Thankful that she didn't have a hangover, Sara pulled herself out of bed and changed into her running clothes. She headed down the stairs and out the back door to the beach. The fact that she ran the opposite way to normal, as to not run past where Leonard was staying, was just because she wanted a change of scenery, or at least that's what she told herself.

Her morning run usually cleared her head, and she was just able to start the day fresh, but today her mind was nothing but a jumbled mess. Sara was lost. It was a strange feeling, one she hadn't had since her sophomore year. That feeling of falling in love, yet doing it completely on your own.

Sara moved away from the shoreline, stopped running, and dropped to her knees. This couldn't be happening again, it just couldn't, her heart couldn't take it. As she sat on the sand and looked out at the ocean, her mind drifted back to the guy it would never have worked out with.

Josh had been a senior, from the wrong side of the tracks and she had been the sophomore, rebelling against her father. He had shown an interest, and Sara was sick of being compared to her perfect sister.

Sara had fallen hard, but as time went on, it proved her friends had been right, Josh had only wanted one thing from her, and once he got it, he was gone.

For the next few months after Sara had fallen into a deep depression. She wouldn't have even passed her sophomore year if it hadn't of been for Caitlin and Kara. Sara vowed to herself she wouldn't do that again. She wouldn't fall for anyone who didn't fall for her first. Sara sighed and wiped a stray tear from her cheek. She had broken that vow with Leonard. To her, it seemed like he was in the same place she was, but now she was left wondering if it was all a game to him.

Looking out at the ocean, she found herself angry at the situation. Having sex or a one night stand was one thing, yes, it was cold and hurtful but playing with someone's heart was just cruel. Sara wondered how anyone could do it. To make someone feel something and then rip it away, it just didn't seem right.

Letting out a sigh, she stood up, brushed off the sand and started back for the house. The run wasn't clearing her head, the beach wasn't calming, and the ocean just seemed vast and open, and like the perfect place to get lost, but no guy was worth that.

Reaching the house, she made her way up the stairs to the deck, and through the back door. She found Mick and Caitlin on the couch, both drinking coffee and both looking a little worse for wear.

"Mick made coffee," Caitlin mumbled, pointing her hand toward the kitchen, "I swear I have no idea how you went for your run this morning."

Sara smiled and thanked Mick, before shrugging at her friend and then letting them know she was going to shower. She wasn't in the mood for small talk about coffee, especially with one of Leonard's best friends.

The hot water of the shower soothed the muscles in her back, and Sara closed her eyes, and finally let the tears fall. Why did she let herself become so stupid over a guy?

Once she calmed herself down, she stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself. Squeezing the excess water from her hair, she walked back into the room to get changed. The bedroom door opened, and she held her towel to her body, looking up as, to her surprise, Leonard walked in.

"Oh you're up?" he said closing the door. "I was hoping you'd still be in bed."

"You were gone," she said, directly. "So I went for a run."

"I woke early and headed out to get croissants and coffee from that place you like. I wasn't sure what you normally have when you have a hangover, but I figured this wouldn't hurt."

Sara felt stupid all over again, but for entirely different reasons. She had completely overreacted and had she stayed in bed she would have woken to him bringing her breakfast. Yes, she was definitely falling for him.

"I didn't have a hangover," she told him.

"You're not like the two downstairs then?"

Sara shook her head and gave him a small smile. "Nope, not like them."

"I'm glad to hear it."

"I thought you left," Sara said sadly.

She watched as Leonard placed the coffee and croissants on the dresser and then move across to where she was standing. Sara looked up at him, as he pulled her closer and then leaned down and kissed her softly.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled against her lips before he rested his forehead on hers.

"I'm in a towel," Sara said.

Leonard let out a laugh and stepped back.

"Why don't you get dressed, and then we can eat?" he suggested.

Sara smiled before moving away from him. She slipped on a bikini, and some clothes, and then joined him on the bed. He was sitting against the headboard, and she couldn't help but think about how she loved the look of him there.

She sat, cross-legged, facing him and accepted the coffee from him with a smile. Sipping it, she let out a soft moan.

"I do love this coffee," she said, before eating some of the croissant.

"I know."

Looking over at him she noticed him smiling at her, and she suddenly felt nervous.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing, I just like seeing you like this," he replied.

"Like what?" she questioned, taking a bite of her croissant.

"Happy, not the look you had when I first walked in." She watched him lean toward her. "You've got something," he said brushing a flake from the croissant off her lip with his thumb.

Sara felt him remove the coffee from her hand, and watched as he placed it with his own, on the side table. Then he was cupping her face with his hands, and his lips were pressed against hers. Sara returned the kiss, moaning against his mouth, as she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck, and lay down on the bed pulling him on top of her.

She scraped her nails down his back, and then slipped her hand under the shirt he was wearing. Sara pushed his shirt up his back as far as she could until Leonard sat up, pulled it off, and threw it to the ground.

Sitting back up, Sara ran her hands up his chest and bit her lip. She looked up at him before pulling off her top and throwing it to the floor with his. Before she had time to react he was kissing her again, and running his hands up her body. Sara moaned as one of his thumbs moved under her bikini, and across her already hardened nipple. She let out another moan, as he did it again, before copying the move on the other side.

She broke the kiss, and tugged on his lower lip with her teeth, causing him to groan out her name. Sara ran her hands down his back again, kissing along his jaw, as she felt him undoing the strings of her bikini. As her bikini top came off and was thrown to the floor with their shirts, Sara pulled Leonard back on top of her and kissed him. She was about to deepen the kiss when her bedroom door opened, and someone let out a scream.

"I'm sorry. Oh my gosh, I didn't-"

"Knock?" Sara yelled, cutting Kara off.

"I'm sorry. I'm going," Kara said, turning to leave, "Wait is that Len?"

"KARA, OUT!" Sara exclaimed, throwing a pillow off the bed, the best she could with Leonard still on top of her.

The door closed, and Sara let out a laugh shaking her head as Leonard joined her, resting his head on her shoulder.

"I guess we aren't keeping this from her and Barry any longer," Leonard mumbled.

"Guess not, and I suppose we aren't continuing this. Kara is kinda a buzzkill," Sara replied.

"I heard that!" a voice came from the other side of the door.

"Kara, go away!" Sara yelled.

"But I need to talk to my best friend!" Kara yelled back.

Sara pouted as Leonard got off the bed and picked up her bikini and threw it back to her to put on. They got dressed, and Sara walked over to Leonard and wrapped her arms around his neck. He pulled her close and kissed her softly.

"To be continued," he whispered

"You can count on it," she replied, before moving over to the door and opening it.

Kara was standing there waiting for her friend and Leonard shook his head and laughed. Sara pulled him into another kiss and then watched as he headed into the hall and down the stairs. When she turned back around Kara was sitting on her bed and eating the rest of her croissant. Sara rolled her eyes and went and sat next to her friend.

"Okay, tell me everything!" She exclaimed.

It's as if the summer was laughing at her. Since Kara had walked in on her and Leonard, three weeks earlier, they had never had longer than ten minutes alone. They had tried so hard to ditch their friends for a night, but it just hadn't happened for them.

Sara was sitting on the sofa in the living room, watching a movie and painting her toenails. Caitlin was out with Ronnie, Kara and Barry had headed into town, and Leonard and Mick had headed down the coast a little further to spend the morning surfing.

Leonard had asked Sara to join them but she told him to spend the day with Mick, and they would meet up later. It was the last night of the summer carnival, so the group had all decided to meet up there later that night.

The movie playing was a predictable romantic comedy, but she wasn't paying a lot of attention to it. It was the type of movie she could see Kara and Barry watching on a date night or something. Sara wasn't interested in movies where the girl needed a guy or needed to be saved by one. In her films, the girl saved herself, and that's all she needed.

Stretching her legs out onto the coffee table in front of her, she studied the blue color she had just painted toes. Calming, she thought, just like the ocean. Finally having enough of the movie, she flicked through the stations and found Captain America: The Winter Soldier just starting. She smiled to herself and got up and made her way to the fridge and pulled out a beer.

"Grab me one too, Blondie!" Mick shouted over to her walking through the back door with Leonard.

"I thought you guys were going surfing?" she questioned.

"Surf was crap," Mick supplied as an answer, as she gave him a beer.

She watched Mick drop into the armchair and settle in to watch the movie, before handing Leonard a beer too and leaning up to give him a kiss. Sara moved past him to sit on the couch and stretched her feet out in front of her again as Leonard came and sat beside her. She leaned into his shoulder and sipped her beer; this had kind of turned out perfect she thought.

As the movie finished, Sara looked across at Mick and laughed at the guy asleep on the armchair before looking up at Leonard.

"Sorry the surf was crap," she whispered.

"It's fine; I mean sure I would have loved one more day out there, but this way I got to watch a movie with my girl instead."

Sara smiled and leaned up to kiss him. "I am you know, your girl, I mean."

Leonard pressed his lips to hers again, and she sighed a content sigh against them, before pulling back and resting her head against his shoulder.

"If you are already falling asleep, I don't know how you are going to go at the carnival tonight," Leonard said.

"I'll be all right," Sara replied.

"Why don't you go have a rest now? I'll clean up and join you upstairs in a bit."

"You are kinda perfect," Sara said with a smile, before standing and heading upstairs.

Once upstairs, Sara crawled onto her bed and lay down. She could hear Leonard downstairs stacking the dishwasher and putting things away. She had sworn to Caitlin that she would do it, but what Sara had wanted more than anything was just a lazy morning.

She yawned and closed her eyes, hugging the pillow under her head. Sara only just registered the door closing and Leonard climbing into the bed next to her. She felt his arms come around her from behind, and she laced her fingers with his. As she was drifting off to sleep, she swore that she heard him say something, but it didn't register enough for her to understand the actual words.

When she woke up, Sara could tell it was early evening. She rolled over and came face to face with a sleeping Leonard. Smiling to herself, Sara watched him sleep for a moment before climbing off the bed and heading downstairs.

Mick was awake, and watching a rerun of some sitcom, with Barry and Kara who had arrived home. Sara poured herself some water and sipped it from the glass as she watched from the kitchen, leaning against the counter.

After about 20 minutes or so Leonard appeared in the kitchen, with what Sara could only describe as a pout. He stole her water, and Sara shook her head at him.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I woke up alone," he said.

"Not fun is it."

Leonard gave her a look that said 'too soon', and she laughed as she moved across to him and pressed her lips to his softly.

"Let's not do that to each other again," Leonard said, as he pulled back.

The Carnival proved to be an excellent idea, although Mick had said at one point that he did feel like a seventh wheel, and Sara briefly wondered if she should introduce him to her sister, once they were all back home.

Bright lights were flashing everywhere, and there was a smell in the air that could only be found at a carnival. It was one of cotton candy, and popcorn, and fried food. Sara had to admit, cotton candy was one of her favorite things, she was sharing a stick of it with Leonard waiting in line for the Ferris Wheel.

The group had spent most of the night together until Mick had finally given in and headed for a bar. After that, the rest of the group split into couples and Sara was sure she had seen Barry and Kara already head down the beach toward Barry's place.

The view from the top of the Ferris wheel was gorgeous. Sara could see out over the whole carnival and right down the beach, but when she turned to look at Leonard, he was only staring at her.

She smiled at him, and kissed him quickly, before pulling back to look at him. He cupped her cheek with his hand and leaned in, to pull her back into another kiss. After finally breaking it Sara rested her head on his shoulder and laced her fingers with his until the ride was done.

They left the carnival, walked back along the beach, hand in hand, toward Caitlin's place. When they reached the gate to the property, Leonard paused, and Sara turned to look at him.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing's wrong," he replied, "I just, I thought that I was falling in love with you."

Sara froze at his words and took a breath. "Oh, I get it," she whispered.

"No, you don't," he said, knowing Sara would be jumping to the wrong conclusion. "I'm not falling; I'm in love with you Sara."

She was officially speechless. Sara looked down at the sand beneath her feet, and then back up at Leonard and smiled. Standing on her toes, she leaned up and kissed him softly before pulling back.

"We should get inside," she told him, before leading him up onto the deck, inside, and up the stairs to her room. Sara shut the door behind them and bit her lip as he looked at her.

This wasn't like before. His confession had shifted everything about their relationship. This was now something that wasn't just a summer fling, it was something that would leave Coast City with them, and start college with them in the fall.

"Say something," Leonard said, from his spot next to the bed.

Sara realized that she hadn't actually acknowledged his words and she knew if it were her, she would be dying inside. She moved toward him and took his hand in hers.

"I love you, Leonard, of course, I love you," she said, before wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her lips to his again.

She felt him wrap his arms around her waist for a moment, before sliding lower and picking her up. Sara wrapped her legs around his waist, and he turned, and lay her down on the bed, hovering over her.

Sara closed her eyes as he broke the kiss and ran his hands up her body, pulling off her tank top as he did. She lay beneath him in a black satin bra, and Sara knew if he were to remove her denim shorts he would find a matching thong.

The bedroom was dark, the only light coming through the window from the other houses and the street lamps, but as she opened her eyes, she could see him pulling off his shirt and throwing it across to join hers on the chair in the corner. Sara pulled his head back down to hers and kissed him slow and deliberate as she ran a hand down his chest to flick open the button of his shorts.

He ran his hands over her skin and Sara felt as if her whole body was on fire. As he moved off the bed, he dragged down not only his shorts but hers too, before climbing back onto the bed. Sara used her strength to flip them over so she straddled his thighs.

She leaned down and kissed him again, as she rolled her hips against him. He groaned, and she deepened the kiss, as she ran her fingers down his chest, to toy with the waistband of his boxers before slipping her hand inside and wrapping it around him.

"Sara," Leonard groaned, tearing his mouth away from hers and reaching up to unclasp her bra.

She removed her hand from his boxers and threw her bra across the room. Before being flipped onto her back again by Leonard. He had pulled off his boxers and dragged her thong down her legs before kissing his way up the inside of her thighs.

Sara let out a moan as he moved his lips up her body, slowly followed by his hands. She couldn't help but arch herself off the bed toward him as his thumbs brushed over her nipples.

He tangled a hand into her hair, and as she felt him against her, she knew that he could feel just how wet she was. Sara breathed out his name in another moan and mumbled something about a condom.

She felt the weight of his body leave hers and then the sound of the packet being ripped open and then he was hovering over her again.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

Sara nodded. "Always," she said, before leaning up, and kissing him, as he slid inside her.

Her head fell back against the bed, and she let out a moan. It almost sounded like his name, but she couldn't be sure that's exactly what she said. As they found a rhythm, she wrapped a leg around him, and Sara urged him deeper inside her.

She didn't have a huge amount of sexual partners to compare this to, but none of them were worth remembering when it came to the man inside her. Sara felt herself building to the point of no return, and as she scraped her nails up his back and Leonard groaned out her name, she came undone, his name leaving her lips in a breathless moan. With a final thrust Leonard, followed Sara, chanting her name as he let go, before collapsing on top of her.

Waking up, Sara smiled at the man beside her. She moved closer to him and kissed along his jawline, waking him up.

"Hey, beautiful," Leonard said.

"Hey, yourself," Sara replied.

"So we are heading home today," he said

Sara pouted. "Why are you bringing this up?'

"We need to work out, what we are going to do when we get home, I'll be heading back to college in a couple of weeks."

Sara smiled at him and kissed him. She realized that she never told him about her plans.

"Well, I got accepted to Star City, so I'll be there too," Sara told him.

"For real?"

"Yep, I guess that slipped my mind," she said, as he pinned her to the bed kissing her.

Sara let out a squeal as Leonard tickled her, she heard him say that she could have told him earlier and then she heard a pounding on the door.

"Would you two cut it out!" Barry exclaimed!

"They must have come here last night," Leonard said.

"We did, and we heard everything, thanks for that!" Kara yelled through the door, as Sara burst out laughing.

Summer might have been coming to an end, but Sara was heading to college in the fall, with great friends and a guy who loved her as much as she loved him, her life couldn't have been better if she had planned it herself.