“You know what? I’m not.” She lifts my chin up with her finger, leaning into me again. “It just means I get to make you fall in love with me all over again.”
“You sound pretty confident,” I say, pulling my head back just enough to tease her.
“I know.” She smiles into my lips as I melt into her.
Something tells me she isn’t going to have much trouble with that.
CHAPTER 29
AFEW DAYS OF STOLENmoments later, Nora and I make plans to go on a date on my day off. Like arealdate, not just an afternoon of sitting on a blanket in the middle of the woods or walking the back road that cuts through the property where nobody can see us. She wants to take me somewhere that we’ve been before, someplace where we can get away from the prying eyes of Wyatt for an evening and just feel normal.
As I drive around the last bend of I-279, the city appears out of the rolling hills. Following the directions on my phone resting in the cup holder, I pull off onto our exit and peer past Nora, out the passenger window. The yellow bridges are all lit up and reflecting off the rivers below with the rest of the tall buildings downtown. I’ve been to Pittsburgh, but I’ve never driven there and I’ve never seen it at night like this. I’ve also never been here without my mom. Every once in a blue moon, we’d venture down to go to the mall or shop around the Strip District with all its crowded specialty grocery stores and street vendors lining the uneven sidewalks. It feels good, though, being here without her. Almost like I’m out by myself for the very first time, like I’m actually eighteen. A little scary, butmostly just… freeing. Everything feels so bright and beautiful, too. Perfect.
But maybe that has something to do with the girl sitting next to me.
My eyes fall onto her hand, resting on her thigh. It feels like the opposite of when I was in the car with Ryan. There’s no having to convince myself that I like her. And there’s no question in my mind about what I want to do. I want to reach across and take her hand, more than anything… but my nerves get the better of me. So instead, I focus on the road and try to ignore the way my stomach jumps up into my throat every time I look at her.
We drive through Oakland, into Schenley Park and out the other side, passing rows of houses that only seem to get bigger until finally we come up on a barricade blocking off the road at the intersection. A white banner hanging over it readsSQUIRREL HILL NIGHT MARKETin big black letters.
After trying to parallel park for about two minutes straight with cars lining up behind me, I finally give in to Nora, who has been whispering, “Usually I park for you. Do you want me to do it?” since my third attempt. I hop out and hurry over to the sidewalk as she climbs over the center console into the driver’s seat.Of course,she executes a perfect parallel on her first try.
She gets out and drops my keys back into my hand, a cocky grin spread across her face.
“Just come on,” I reply, rolling my eyes and knocking my shoulder into hers.
We walk side by side into the river of people flowing up and down Murray Avenue, where lines of tents are set up on either side of the street, each one displaying something different forsale. Handmade pottery, intricate pop-up greeting cards, jam, watercolor paintings, jewelry, and even mounted animal heads made of paper. It’s like the Wyatt farmers’ market on crack.
“My mom would love this,” I say as we pass a fresh-cut-flowers stand.
“Does she know you’re here?” Nora asks over the sound of laughter coming from a group of girls tucked into the nook of a closed storefront. One of them sounds so much like Rory that a layer of sweat covers the back of my neck as I turn to look, but of course… it’s not her.
“I guess I could’ve just told her I was coming here with you… as friends, but it felt too risky. So I told her I went to Rory’s house with Savannah,” I say. In reality I haven’t spoken to either of them since Truck Night, despite their best efforts, but not a single message they’ve sent has contained any type of apology. I can already feel my blood begin to boil at just the thought of it all. “They actually did text me this morning, asking me to go shopping with them, but I didn’t even reply.”
“Did you want to? I mean, if we didn’t have this planned.”
“No. I’m done with them. They freaking lied to me. They took advantage of me and my accident, and it didn’t just hurt me, it hurt Ryan, too.Andyou. They’re not my friends.” I shake my head, curling my hand into a fist. “And you know the worst part? I can’t even call them out for it without having to tell them how I know, without telling them about us.”
Nora nods. “The Ryan thing is a whole other level, but I remember when the middle of junior year hit, and they started hanging out with a different group of people after Savannah got that new boyfriend. You felt like you guys were drifting apart.And then Jake said some racist shit to you that made me want to beat his ass, and they just laughed, so… you really didn’t want anything to do with them after that.” She pauses to take a deep breath, calm down. Honestly, though, seeing her all protective is kind of hot. It’s kind of eerie the way almost the same thing has happened again. Like the cracks are too deep for any second chance to fix.
“Anyway, you were just kinda hanging out with them enough to get through to the end of summer without raising suspicion. What do you think you’re going to do now, though?” she asks.
“Honestly, I don’t even want to think about it anymore.” I look over at her. “I just want to be here with you.”
Nora slides closer to me, her hand beginning to tangle around mine.
I take in a sharp breath of air and reflexively shake her off as if she’s a wasp that just landed on me. She snaps her head up, and her eyebrows knit together.
“Sorry,”I say immediately, tucking my hand safely into the front pocket of my jeans. “I just… what if someone sees?”
“That’s why we—” She stops when she sees the panic in my eyes. “Okay. Yeah, you’re right. I’m uh… I’m going to grab us some food. Stay here, okay?” she asks, already stepping down off the curb toward a group of food trucks parked at the intersection.
I scan the people around me again but simultaneously kick myself for reacting like that. We just drove all the way into the city for this exact reason, to be able to be together in public. So I can see what it’s like for real.
Nobody from Wyatt is here. Nobody knows who we are. Nobody is going to find out.
I remind myself to take a breath and chill, hoping I didn’t already ruin the night.
Luckily, when Nora returns, the look on her face tells me that everything is fine. She’s got a paper boat of tacos in one hand and some kind of dessert in the other, an excited smile on her face in between the two.
