The other night, Erica hadn’t seemed too enthused about it. Maybe she was just tired and behind editing footage, but maybe something else was stopping her from crafting the crap out of those blank pages.
I wondered which one it was.
* * *
If Connor was caught off guard when he saw my siblings, he had a master poker face. “Excellent!” he called when we all rallied outside. “A full bus for today’s field trip!”
Bryce grinned, but Maisie extended a small fist to Connor, her pinkie finger raised. “The Candy Bazaar?” she prompted.
He arched a brow. “The Candy Bazaar?”
“Yes,” my sister clarified. “Do you promise you’ll take us to the Candy Bazaar after the Flying Horses?”
Connor smiled, and then before my eyes, locked in a pinkie promise.
“I call shotgun!” Bryce chirped as we loaded into the Jeep, and I wished more than anything that my brothercouldlegally ride in the front seat. But alas, he wasn’t thirteen.
I admit, part of why I wanted my siblings to come with Connor and me was because I didn’t love the idea of being alone with him. Things had ended awkwardly between us last night, and Teddy and Finn weren’t here to buffer; they were spending the day with their grandparents. Apparently, Beth and her husband had a surprise for the boys. Connor claimed he knew nothing.
The fireworks finale might’ve ruined the ambiance for rooftop romance, but Connor hadn’t been deterred. “Tell me I’m not off base, Olivia,” he’d said, blue eyes bright in the flashing light. “Tell me you feel something too.”
“I…” I started, but my tongue thickened before totally lolling in my mouth. It stopped me from mindlessly spouting off thatwhile I liked spending time with him, I knew anything more wouldn’t go well between us. No, my loss of words was forcing me tothink.
But being so close to him made that nearly impossible; we hadn’t kissed, and I knew we weren’tgoingto kiss—the mood had dampened—yet my heart still hammered hard, and I could feel each and every single hair on the back of my neck standing tall. The air around us felt charged with electricity.
Fantastic, I thought.Fan-fucking-tastic.
“Olivia?” Connor prompted.
I closed my eyes to focus on stringing some words together. “You’re not off base,” I barely heard myself say over the blood in my ears. I couldn’t outright lie to him; he didn’t deserve that. “But…”
But?
But what?
What was I trying to say?
I aborted, switched to a half-baked tactic. “You’re so nice, Connor.”
“And let me guess…” He released a deep sigh. “That’s the deal-breaker? You don’t go for nice guys?”
Again, I weighed what to say. Most of the guys I’d hung out withwerenice—well, niceenough. And that was all they needed to be for me. I preferred to keep an arm’s length between us. No guy had ever seemed to have a problem with it.
But Connor will, I knew, my stomach stirring.Forget about an arm’s length.
Because everything I’d learned about Connor McCallister in the last few days signaled that he would want to beclose. Not only physically, but emotionally—especiallyemotionally. I mean, he’d been more than happy to open up about his relationship history during our first true conversation. He also genuinely wanted to know about my life, and when I clammed up, he wasn’t deterred. Instead, he waited. It was like he wanted to someday smile and take my hand and spin me into this shimmering world, one where there was no secrets between us.
That, I thought, imaginingLa La Land’s planetarium scene,is what being more than friends with Connor would be like.
Meanwhile, I didn’t have the courage to show him my favorite hiding spot. It was too good; I was rarely found during hide-and-seek. If Erica had given up searching, I didn’t blame her.
Now, I shook my head, trying to shake away the scene, but Connor kept looking at me. I had to say something, had to sayanything. “Listen, Connor—”
“Olivia!” someone unknowingly swooped in to save me. “Connor!”
We both leaned forward to see Charlie below us, standing on the deck and giving Luke a goofy piggyback ride.
“Sweet spot.” Charlie sounded bemused. “I don’t mean to interrupt—”
