Page 56 of Promise Me This

If I focus hard enough, I can still feel the soft warmth of her hand underneath mine as I guided her to first gear, then second. Out of the corner of my eye, I see her hand flex, and I know that she’s there in the memory with me.

When she glances up at me, I’m already staring, and she looks away quickly, but a suppressed smile forms all the same.

“Leona, come watch! See how far I can throw them?”

“I see!” she calls; then she lowers her voice for only me to hear. “It’s a miracle she still calls me by my name, despite your terrible influence.”

My hand covers my heart. “I call you by your name!”

Her eyes roll so hard in my direction, I’m concerned that it might hurt. I balk in mock innocence, but then I lean in close, invading her space, as we come to a stop at the shoreline. I can smell her shampoo. I can see the rings of gold in her irises. It’s all too much but not enough.

“Selfishly, I’d like to keep your nickname to myself.”

“Wouldn’t want it to catch on,” she murmurs, glancing at my lips. “I hate it anyway.”

“No”—I take her hand in mine, featherlight yet anchoring—“you don’t.”

She shakes her head. “You cocky bast—”

“Your turn!” Niamh interjects, shoving a flattened pebble into Leo’s other hand. If she sees the ones we’ve joined together, she doesn’t comment. “You know how, right, Leona?”

Leona crouches down to her level, removing her hand from mine, and I miss it instantly. It’s dangerous, this need for her. I know it, and yet I can’t find it in me to hit the brakes.

“You know what? It’s been a really long time. Why don’t you teach me how?”

Niamh practically glistens with joy as she takes Leo’s outstretched palm and folds it around the rock just so, angling her pointer finger along the smooth ridge and anchoring her thumb on the flat top. Then she hurls an example throw, which skips an impressive five times before sinking into the center of the lake.

“Now you go,” Niamh says, smiling at her protégée.

“Here goes nothing.” With that, Leo lets the little rock loose, and it plops dramatically into the water and never resurfaces.

I bite my lower lip to suppress my laughter, and Leo plants her hands on her hips, glaring at the water.

Niamh stares at the spot where the rock disappeared, and then gives a world-weary sigh too big for her tiny body. “This is going to take more work than I thought.”

Between her drama and Leo’s disappointment, I can’t hold back the laughter anymore. It rolls out of me in waves, and both ladies glare at me for different reasons.

“Hey, no one’s born an expert,” Leo groans, shoving my shoulder. It surprises me and promptly knocks me off-balance. Before I can catch myself, I go tipping into the frigid water, landing on my knees.

“Oh, now you’ve done it,” I growl. Niamh screams, and Leo joins in. Both of them run toward the car, but I’m faster than my sedentary job gives me credit for. I hook an arm around Leo’s waist in a matter of seconds and then I’m dragging her back toward the water kicking and screaming while Niamh doubles over in a fit of giggles.

“Please! No! It’s too cold!” she pleads.

“Shoulda thought about that before you pushed me.” I splash into the water, already wet up to my hips from the fall, and then she really starts to squirm. “Better plug your nose.”

“Don’t you dar—”

But I dare.

I let go of her, determined to drop her into the water, but she’s cunning when she wants to be. She clings to my arm, dragging me down with her. The cold zings up my spine, electrifying me, and I shoot to my feet, sputtering water just as Leo does the same.

“Bastard,” she says, finally finishing her insult from earlier. She wipes the water from her eyes before fixing me with a glare, but a light has come on in their depths. A flame that I’m determined to feed kindling.

Her clothes, that knitted sweater and slim-fitting jeans, are slick to her body, and I’m suddenly not cold anymore.

Giving her my best shit-eating grin, I say, “This look suits you.”

With a warning splash, she replies, “Don’t push it.”

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