“Halloween. You?”
“Same. Candy and costumes for the win.” We went back and forth until we both shook off the unwelcome heaviness of my earlier confession. A pair of squirrels with fluffy gray tails darted right in front of us, chasing each other up a spindly birch tree. We laughed, and it was okay again.
“More serious questions. What’s your favorite song?”
“Of all time? ‘Classical Gas.’”
I smacked him in the chest. “That’s mine, too!”
He grinned. “Really?”
“No. Who puts the wordgasin a song title?”
“Mason Williams. And seriously, don’t knock the song.”
I held my hands up in surrender. “It’s pretty, okay. But the title...” I shook my head.
“What’s your favorite song?”
“‘Jolene’ by Dolly Parton.” I lifted a shoulder when he side-eyed me. “What can I say? I’m a narcissist.” Plus nobody puts pain to lyrics like Dolly Parton. “Book?”
“Lord of the Rings.”
I made a face.
“What?”
“It’s just so long. And all the songs?” I made a gagging sound in my throat. “I gave up.”
Adam came to an abrupt halt. “Wait, you haven’t readLord of the Rings?”
“Istartedto readLord of the Ringsand decided I would rather do literally anything else. Okay, you look like I just kicked you in the nuts.” He was pale, even for him. “Oh, come on. I saw the movies, okay? Apart from Peter Jackson’s penchant for endless close-ups, I liked them.”
“The movies are great, but they’re nothing compared to the books.”
“Well, I didn’t like them.”
“You said you started and gave up. When did you stop? Was it beforeReturn of the King?”
I gave him a blank expression, in response to which he growled a little.
“The third book.”
I would have laughed if he wasn’t being so serious. “More like the third chapter of the first book.”
That kicked-in-the-nuts expression was back on his face. To his credit, he recovered quickly and started walking again. “I’m bringing you my copy ofThe Fellowship of the Ringnext weekend. We’ll find somewhere quiet and I willreadmore than the opening chapters to you.”
There was so much determination in his voice that I didn’t argue with him. I liked the idea of listening to his voice for a few hours. Even if he was going to be talking about elves and wizards. “You know, I’m afraid to ask you what your favorite movie is. We almost just killed our friendship over a book about trolls.”
“I know you know they’re called hobbits. But yeah, I’m never telling you my favorite movie.”
I bit back a smile.
We walked for a little while after that, frowning at passing cars that weren’t ours. “Oh, I got one. Do you have a girlfriend?” As I predicted, the question made Adam blush. But his answer shocked me.
“Yeah.”
My entire body flash froze in place, even my heart stopped beating. “You do?”
