Page 154 of Crazy for this Girl

He stops before me, towering over my frame like he did in his office, and my next breath gives way.

Oh, yeah, I can’t do this. I’m not cut out for it.

“I thought this would be a good place to reconnect.” I blink at him because I don’t know what to say to that. It’s not like linking a Bluetooth to a phone. It’s emotions, feelings, random text messages, and self-doubt. “We have a lot of missing years between us to sort out.”

Yeah, no. This was supposed to be a Cal-free weekend.

“I have to go inside and get lunch started.” I rise, expecting him to step back, but he doesn’t. Sounds so familiar, because instead, we’re mere inches from each other and everything about us collides into me full force.

Except he’s so much taller, fuller, richer, and more mature—sorta.

I’m…a mess.

Maybe Mom was right all along. I threw all my eggs in one bucket, hoping for the best, and got dropped in the process. I relied on him too heavily and it did nothing but pre-destroy every relationship I ever had.

They say you never get over your first love. I think I can annoyingly attest to that.

“I think your dad probably has that,” Cal counters because that’s obviously not a secret. “I was hoping we could take a walk.”

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

I cross my arms over my chest with my Kindle over my heart as a defense barrier. “I already took one.”

“You took a walk?”

My face squints up as if that’s so out of the ordinary. “Yeah.”

“Since when?”

It is.

“Since whenever I took it,” I transmit, cracks of irritation seeping through my tone.

“Are you dodging me, Laynee?” He cocks his head to the side, his lips lifting at the edges. “That’s not very neighborly of you.”

“Did you need sugar or something?”

“Or something.” He deeply inhales, filling his lungs with fresh air and looking around quickly before saying, “I can’t believe this place hasn’t changed. You never changed.”

“I have.” I’m not stupidly hanging on to every word you say anymore. “I have better fashion sense and music.”

“Not sure about the latter but you can definitely fill a dress out.”

“Cal,” I warn, giving him a please don’t do this now look. “We’re not about to get weird, are we?”

“I dunno, are we?” His lips curl into a breathtaking smile, and I practically swoon as I did a trillion years ago.

I roll my eyes to fight back any means of feeling like that self-conscious, wallflower who grew up to love a popular kid from the beach. “What do you want? Why are you here? We don’t hang out anymore. This isn’t a thing.”

“Who decided that?”

“Um…time. Me. You. Especially you.”

“Well, if you wouldn’t believe everything you heard maybe you would’ve taken a few pages out of all your Nancy Drew novels and stealthed your ass to my doorstep. Then maybe we’d be somewhere else.”

“Are you blaming me again? Because I am somewhere else and that’s not Chicago. This was supposed to be a you-free weekend.” His green eyes light up then, as if he likes that I’m thinking of him. I mean, I am, but that also includes work and other stuff too.

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