“It used to be Hawke and Kade,” Lucas muses. “Now it’s Hawke and Aro. Who’s Kade with?”
“Everybody.”
He laughs, looking down at me. And his eyes drop to my mouth.
I part my lips as the air leaves my lungs.
One…two…thr—
He clears his throat and glances to the ground beneath me and then back up to my eyes.
I have to turn away a little so he won’t see the corners of my mouth lift in excitement.Okay, Aro.You were right.
“That, um…” he stammers. “That looks like the notebook you left the last time we were here.”
“I dug it out.” I continue drawing my dessert bars. “Wanted to look back on how silly I was.”
The last time I saw him here, I was thirteen. He gave me the hat, and I gave him the compass. I dart my eyes over to it, making sure it still sits on the grass next to me.
I’d left the notebook here that night, and I was heartbroken to find out he’d dropped it off at my house while I’d been asleep. No one woke me up so I could tell him thank you.
I fan the crinkled pages. “I continued making notes over the years. Recipes, lists, questions I wanted answers to.”
This journal kind of grew with me.
He grabs for it. “Can I see?”
I throw my arms over it. “No.”
He grins and déjà vu hits, the teasing feeling like the old us.
The rumble of engines fills the air, horns honk, and the thunder of feet hit the bleachers.
“Everyone’s leaving,” he tells me. “Can I take you home?”
Something swims in my stomach, the idea of being alone with him tonight enticing. We have a pool, couches, showers… So many beds.
And then what? I would fantasize and wait, and as usual, it never happens?
Or worse, it would happen, and he’d just push me away later when whatever he was so scared of grabbed him by the throat again.
I’ve been right where he could find me for years.
“I’m…not going home,” I say quietly.
I can’t believe the words coming out of my mouth. Even if nothing happened, I could have him to myself just this one night, but I’m not taking my shot. Why the fuck now?
But then he surprises me by saying, “I can take you to your new home. In Weston.”
I shoot my head up. How did—
And then I realize. Farrow. He’s the only one who knows so far. Why did he tell him?
“I won’t say anything,” Lucas assures me.
Why? Is he trying to be my friend again?
There was a time when I trusted Lucas wholeheartedly, but since he’s been home, his motives have been hard to gauge.
