It takes a second for his arms to come up around her and cradle her head with one of them.
“I’m sorry I scared you.”
I linger back, trying to remain unseen, but Tate spots me. Unlike Eryn, he wasn’t in a hurry to embrace his missing friend. And now that he sees me, it’s almost like he’s not surprised as his head drops forward.
“I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“Eryn—”
“I was so worried when Tate texted.”
“Eryn—”
“And then we couldn’t find you, and—”
“Eryn!” It’s the third time Wren has had to say her name, and there’s finally enough force behind it for her to listen. “I’m fine, but I need to explain.”
“Explain what—?” But then she stills and her eyes find me.
She slides off his lap.
Wren reaches a hand out for her but she steps out of his reach. “I want to explain. I just need you to stop for a second.”
She looks like she’d rather have the mermaid skeleton come to life and chase after her.
Unlike when we were waiting in line for the pizza and she was mostly embarrassed to bring up a wholly unsubstantiated doubt she had, this time it’s right in front of her with rumpled clothes and uncombed hair. And a scent that she’ll probably never enjoy again.
The eye contact Wren makes with me is so brief that I almost miss it, but I understand it immediately.
He’s not going to play this off as a series of innocent but unfortunate events. He’s not going to make what happened sound reasonable or even understandable. He’s going to tell her the truth.
We weren’t working the whole time, not even most of the time. We were playing with fire last night. And unintentionally or not, I woke up in his arms.
It’s not that I want him to lie to her, but the whole truth is only going to hurt her. And him.
So when I see him take that deep breath before it all spills out, I make a choice.
“It’s my fault.”
Everyone turns to look at me. Even Tate lifts his head. “After we dropped you guys off, I got it in my head that we could still get some research in since it wasn’t that late. Wren wanted to come here.” Not a lie, since he was the one who mentioned the museum. “Only Tate had the keys, so I thought we could just work in his truck.” I look everywhere except at Wren, but I can feel his gaze boring into me as I dig my own hole deeper and deeper, all while trying to keep him as far from it as possible. “I don’t think he thought he had a choice; I certainly didn’t offer him one. The next thing we knew, it was morning.” Now, I look at him, meeting his stare head-on with what I can only hope is an apologetic expression. “I’m really sorry, Wren.” I should never have put him in this position.
“I’m sorry to you guys too.” I glance between Eryn and Tate. “But nothing happened, please believe that.” Wren’s eyes narrow when I turn to him. “And I know you wanted to take me home first and explain everything on your own, but I couldn’t let you dothat. This was all my fault, start to finish. You shouldn’t have to take the blame I deserve.”
I hold my breath after that, waiting for Eryn to say something. It feels like a full minute goes by before she speaks.
“It sounds like it wasn’t anybody’s fault. And I believe that nothing happened, of course I do.” Then she’s moving toward me, and she doesn’t stop until she’s hugging me, maybe a little more stiffly than she did yesterday, but she doesn’t pull away. Instead, she says something beyond mind-boggling. “Thank you for coming with him and explaining everything.”
My throat is too thick to speak, so I just nod.
“I’m just relieved that everyone’s okay. We didn’t even know we were supposed to be worried about you too.” Her expression falters for a moment. “Oh no, your mom. Is she freaking out? Does she even know you’re okay?”
I’m finding it incredibly hard to talk when faced with this much unreasonable kindness, so I’m grateful when Wren answers for me.
“Her mom fell asleep early and now she thinks Lili just slipped out before she woke up.”
Eryn looks relieved. For me.
“Well, at least that’s something. I wasn’t sure if we were just the first stop on the whole apology/explanation tour.”
