“You just looked like you had a moment, like you were remembering something. Is there some guy rearranging your guts that you haven’t told me about?”
“Jesus, Mads.” Cole shakes his head and drags a hand down his face in embarrassment.
She shrugs. “You don’t need to hang out with us, you know. Run along. This is girl talk.” She shoves another bite of lasagna in her mouth before quickly moving on to gossiping about people from high school.
Cole slides into the chair across from me, lips twitching like he knows exactly what memory just hijacked my nervous system.
I try to focus on Maddie’s story about her disastrous date with the hardware store guy, but my pulse keeps time with every shift of his jaw, every brush of his thumb against his beer bottle.He looks normal, totally calm and collected, but I can tell he’s watching me just as carefully.
After dinner, when his mom insists we take leftovers and Maddie runs to grab my coat, he leans in close, voice pitched low enough for only me. “You okay?”
It’s two words, nothing more, but they melt me anyway.
“Yeah,” I whisper back. “Just… feels weird being back.”
He nods once, eyes lingering on my face. “Yeah. I know.”
Maddie reappears before I can say anything else, waving her phone and declaring she needs an updated picture of “her favorite two people in the world.” Cole groans, but he doesn’t move away when she squeezes between us, arm around each of our shoulders.
The camera flashes, and I swear his hand brushes the small of my back before falling away. Maybe it’s my imagination. Or maybe it’s him reminding me he’s still there. Even when we can’t touch.
The cold hits me the second we step outside. It’s sharp, bitter cold, different than back in Denver. Maddie’s waving from the porch, half-drunk on holiday cheer and too much sugar, yelling something about brunch tomorrow before disappearing back inside.
Cole shoves his hands in his coat pockets. “You don’t have to walk me,” I tell him, falling into step beside him anyway.
“I’m not letting you walk home alone this late.”
Snow crunches beneath our boots as we cut down Maple Street, past houses lit up like Hallmark movie sets. I should feel comforted by it, by being home, but there’s this heavy ache under my ribs instead.
“So…” I say after a beat. “You were quiet tonight.”
He glances down at me. “Just thinking.”
“Dangerous.” I nudge his arm with my elbow, trying for playful, but it lands closer to uncertain. “About what?”
He hesitates, eyes scanning the dark street ahead. “About how weird it is being back. About you.”
That last part is quiet. Nearly swallowed by the night.
“Me?”
“Yeah.” He kicks at the snow, jaw flexing. “About us. About what happens now.”
Us?My breath catches. “So… whatdoeshappen now?”
He exhales, long and heavy, like the answer hurts. “We keep it quiet. For now.”
The words hit like a snowball to the chest.
“Right,” I say, forcing a laugh. “Because that always ends well in the movies.”
He stops walking, turning to face me. His breath curls between us in small white clouds. “Hailey, it’s not that I don’t—” He shakes his head, then starts again. “Maddie means everything to me. You know that. I just need to figure out how to tell her without it blowing up.”
I nod, but the lump in my throat makes it hard to swallow. “Yeah. I get it.”
His gaze drops to my mouth, then back up. “You sure?”
“Yeah.”
