Hudson’s parents put in a really nice patio a couple of summers ago. There’s a stone fire pit, a built-in grill, and a big table with six chairs under a pergola. Henry and I head for a group of loungers away from the house. He chooses one, dropping his wallet and phone onto the adjacent table. I nestle between his knees, letting my back melt into his chest, tipping my head to rest on his shoulder. He presses his cheek to the crown of my head, inhales, then releases a contented breath. He’s in this as deep as I am, I realize, which makes me the very best kind of happy.
I lift my chin and meet him in a kiss.
His phone chimes once, interrupting us, then twice more in quick succession. I pull away, trying to sneak a subtle peek at who’s texting him, but it’s screen down on the table.
Another chime.
He tenses.
“Your dad?” I ask.
“No.”
He dips his head, ready to kiss me again.
“Don’t you want to see who it is?”
He sighs. “I know who it is.”
“Okay…?”
“It’s Whitney. Only Whitney texts compulsively until she gets a reply.”
“Who’s Whitney?”
His frown is deeply miserable. “The girl I broke up with back in March.”
Henry
“Oh,” she says tonelessly.
“It’s not a big deal.”
She inspects her nail polish, which is black and glittery. She disagrees—that’s obvious. And who can blame her? My whole demeanor has changed.
It’s a big fucking deal.
She turns in our chair to face me, crisscrossing her legs. “So, what happens if she doesn’t get a reply?”
I rake a hand through my hair. “She keeps texting. Or she calls my mom, who’s close with her mother. As many times as I’ve asked my mom to stay out of it, she’s got loyalty where Whit’s concerned. And a whole lot of sympathy.”
“Whit,” Piper repeats, making the name sound like an expletive. “Why’d you guys break up?”
“There were a lot of reasons.”
“Okay. Give me a few.”
When I’m quiet, she stretches a hand toward me, pressing her palm to my cheek. The gesture helps me understand her motivation. She’s not asking to be invasive. She’s concerned. I guess that makes me a sinking ship, visible from shore.
I drop my elbows to my knees, dragging my hands down my face. Our pasts were bound to catch up to us eventually. I’ve encountered Damon and met Gabi. Piper’s gonna learn about my breakup. We can’t go on pretending we didn’t have lives before this summer.
Still, I hate talking about Whitney.
Leaning into the chair’s cushioned back, I gesture for Piper to come with me. She does, taking my hand, twining her fingers through mine in a show of support that, mortifyingly, raises a lump in my throat.
I swallow. “Whitney and I are very different people. It was all good at first, but eventually she wanted me to become someone I’m not. It…it wasn’t working. Still, I was too chickenshit to end it. She was the first girl I’d been serious with, you know? I kept putting it off, hoping things between us would get better. And then she ended up pregnant.” I pause, then revise. “Weended up pregnant—it’s not like she managed it on her own.”
Piper goes very still. “Oh. God.”
