Parking the car next to a copse of trees, I shut off the engine. “What I don’t understand is why Ryder didn’t say anything. Why would he tell Fallon not to tell me? Out of everyone, he knew how much I hated secrets.”
Jayson’s hand covers mine in my lap. “I don’t know. But the one thing I do know with absolute certainty is how much Ry loved you. Don’t be angry with him, or—and I can’t believe I’m saying this—with Fallon for honoring a promise he made to Ry.”
“You’re right. I can’t believe you said that.” He flashes me a dimpled grin, and seeing it makes everything a little less crappy. “I’m really glad you’re here.”
Our fingers thread together. “Me, too.” He looks around, but there’s not much to see other than a few trees and a field overgrown with Broomsedge. “Where is here exactly?” he asks.
“About a half mile from the house. Old pasture that hasn’t been used in a while. The owner lets the kids ride their bikes out here.”
Getting out, I climb onto the hood of the car and use the windshield as a backrest. The metal is still hot, but the heat feels good on the backs of my legs. The car bounces on its shock absorbers when Jayson joins me, our shoulders touching when he lies back.
“Sky is pretty tonight,” I say, gazing up at the stars.
Jayson turns his head, and I can feel his eyes on me. “If you want to talk, I’ve been told by a very reliable source that I’m a good listener.”
“That so?”
“Yep. Smartest woman I know. Blonde hair. Green eyes. Musically gifted and drives a red Hellcat.” He bumps me with his shoulder and tucks his arm under me when I scoot closer.
Resting my head against his chest, I tell him, “I wish we could stay and sleep out under the stars.”
Ryder and I would have date nights under the stars in the backyard. Not wanting to miss a campout, the kids would often join us. We bought a big mesh tent to keep out the mosquitoes and would pile blankets and pillows in a heap inside it. To lull them into sleep, I would tell the kids one of Hailey’s stories, reciting it by memory. Charlotte’s favorite was the one about Princess Elizabeth and her two princes.
Jayson presses a kiss to the crown of my head. “Who says we can’t?”
“The search party that will come looking for us if I don’t come home.” A plane passes overhead, its red light blinking through the summer haze. “Remember when you told me they were UFOs, and I believed you?”
He chuckles. “I remember you throwing acorns at my window that night because you were afraid that if you went to sleep, you’d be abducted.”
“And you came over and stayed up with me until I fell asleep.”
“I also got into trouble the next day at school because I kept nodding off in class.”
I giggle at the memory. “What was our teacher’s name?”
He scratches the stubble on his cheek. “Miss Fitch.”
“That’s right.” I snuggle deeper into his side. Pointing up, I trace a pattern in the sky. “Found your constellation.”
I gave it to him when we were eight years old. The constellation of Boötes that contains the fourth brightest star in the sky, Arcturus. According to a stargazing show Mom took Hailey and me to see at the Morehead Planetarium in ChapelHill, the Boötes constellation is also associated with Arcas, one of Zeus’s human sons. Jayson and Arcas—for some weird reason, my eight-year-old brain decided the two fit.
Our fingers steeple together as we draw imaginary patterns in the sky.
“You were always the brightest star in my world,” he says, stopping on Jupiter.
My body vibrates as I laugh. “That’s a planet. The brightest star is there,” I tell him, moving our fingers to where Polaris shines more brilliantly than anything else, other than the moon. “You aren’t just a star to me; you’re my whole damn sky.”
His hand drops to his stomach, and he rolls to his side. “You remember that?”
Bending my elbow, I rest my cheek in my palm and brush back a wayward strand of his dark-chestnut hair when it falls over his forehead. “Of course, I do.” I sigh when my phone starts ringing. Reluctantly sitting up, I pull it from my back pocket and turn the screen around so Jayson can see it’s Julien. “I guess we should head back.”
The light of the moon enhances the silvery-gray of his eyes. “I think it’s best if I head on out when we get there. It’s okay, Liz. Really,” he says when I open my mouth to argue. Taking the matter out of my hand, he slides off the hood and opens the passenger-side door. “Hey, Liz.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t let anger make your decisions. Hear Fallon out.”
This is such a different side of Jayson I’m seeing. But it had to have been there all along, just like New Elizabeth was always inside me, biding her time to reveal herself.
