Page 65 of Wrecked

Emma leans her head on her hand. “How are you able to do that? Bounce back so fast when you feel bad?”

“Years of practice, I guess,” I say with a small laugh.

“You know what you’re doing, right? He broke your heart once. He can do it again.”

“Adam did not…” I want to say, break my heart, but you can’t bullshit the only person who knows you better than you know yourself. “It’s cool. We’re cool now. It’s just community service. We hang out for a few hours on Sundays, and that’s it. And, get this, he took Jessica on a date. They went bowling,” I say that last word dreamily.

She makes a face. “He took Jessica bowling?”

“I’ll be throwing her bridal shower at McConaughey’s this time next year. It’ll be great. Local cop and school teacher get married. They’ll have lots of babies, retire young, and live off their awesome pension plans.”

“Does he know?”

“That they’re getting married?” I laugh. “Not yet, but if you leave it up to Jessica and her pillowlike breasts—”

“That you’re in love with him,” she says.

I stop the word vomit that is pouring out of my mouth.

In love with Adam?

If I were in love, then all I would do is think about him nonstop. I’d wonder if he was safe while he worked and if he was getting sleep when he was off. I’d think about him as I made spaghetti and how he said he always wanted to go to Italy. I would daydream I was the one taking him there. We’d eat gelato and swim naked in the ocean. We’d live like locals and stay up until sunrise. I would think of nothing more than what it would be like to lie in bed and hold him after a long day of work. I’d dream of our children—one with pale blue eyes, the other with dark like his dad.

I open my lips to lie to her. To tell her that, even though we’re friends now, my feelings have not returned to those of a sixteen-year-old girl who lusted after her boyfriend’s best friend. That I haven’t fallen completely head over heels with the guy over the course of two weeks.

I try to lie to her, but I can’t.

Instead, I slowly nod my head. “Am I always that obvious?”

She grabs my hand and gives it a squeeze. “Only to me. There’s only one reason my boy-crazy little sister would stay away from every good-looking guy in town.”

“I date,” I say.

She gives me this look that makes her resemble our mom.

“I go out. I mess around. I sleep with guys.”

“That’s disgusting,” Luke says from my doorway.

Emma and I roll over and bury our heads into the blanket.

Turning around, I lean up on my arm and carry on. “You should see this thing I do with cowboy boots and a lasso. The guys go crazy. In fact, I had a guy tied to that dresser last week.”

Luke jumps away from the dresser even though he wasn’t even touching it. He covers his ears and shouts, “I don’t want to hear about your sex life!”

I ignore him and add, “Dad keeps this bottle of molasses in the cupboard downstairs…”

Luke is making clicking noises with his tongue and humming in order to avoid hearing me.

Emma practically kicks her feet in the air as she’s laughing so hard. “I know you’re lying, and you’re still freaking me out. Where do you come up with this stuff?”

“Strangers love to talk about sex with their bartenders. I should add that to my LinkedIn page. Excellent advice giver to those interested in trying anal.”

“People use molasses for anal?” she asks in disbelief.

“You don’t want to know.” I get up from the bed and walk over to Luke. Pulling his hands away from his ears, I say, “I was just kidding.”

Luke’s face is beet red. He drops his hands to his sides.