Page 109 of The Light We Lost

I shook my head, seeing red just thinking about it. “Who cares what they think,” I told him, doubting that helped. “Besides, you weren’t lost . . . you were just taking a break. Oh!” I snapped my fingers. “We’ll just tell everyone you wanted to play a big game of hide-and-seek. I bet your dad would like that.”

He blinked, looking at me like I’d sprouted a third eye. “No one’s going to believe I was playing a little kid’s game.”

I gasped. “Hide-and-seek is not a little kid’s game—it’s one of my favorites! And since I’m the one who found you, I’m clearly better at it than everyone else.”

He shook his head, a tiny smirk on his lips. “Maybe we could play together sometime.” Before I could tell him I’d annihilate him, he asked, “You really don’t care what people think of you, do you?”

I did care. I’d never admit it, but in fifth grade, when some of the boys in our class called me a soulless ginger, I cried in the bathroom. Dad had picked me up from school that day. Red-eyed and stuffy nosed, I’d begged him to let me color my hair. He’d agreed to it—but only if I colored it lime green. Told me if I was going to let someone else dictate how I felt, then I wasn’t going to be happy with myself no matter what color I chose.

So instead of coloring my hair green, I’d shoved a grasshopper down Sam Peterson’s shirt.

I shrugged. “Everyone’s going to think what they want regardless. I might as well be happy.”

Nolan shook his head, disbelief in his tone. “You make it sound easy.”

I set my hands on my hips. “It’s less exhausting than caring what everyone thinks.”

He made a scoffing noise, but if he was bothered by my bluntness, he didn’t let it show. “I don’t know how not to care what they think of me. I know not everyone in this town is great, but a lot of them stepped up to help when Mom left. I don’t want their help to go to waste. I want them to be proud of me.”

I understood what he meant, wanting to make them proud. Maybe it was cheesy of me, but I thought he could make them proud while still being himself. I’d known Nolan my entire life, and this was the most real he’d ever felt to me.

Greedy for more, I asked, “Is that why you work so hard at baseball? You want to make the town proud?”

“No. I work hard because I love baseball. It came into my life when I needed something to look forward to. And I’m not just saying that because I’m good—I’d love it even if I sucked.”

“But you don’t.”

He raised a brow, a cocky smirk on his lips. “You been watching me play, peaches?”

I rolled my eyes, fighting my own smile. Okay, maybe Nolan being a flirty son of a gun wasn’t an act. “No,” I fibbed. “But the town never shuts up about you. I hear them talking in my parents’ diner all the time, arguing about what major league team you’ll play with.”

He lifted his shoulders as though it was no big deal, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he felt some sort of pressure. “I’ve got to make it out of this town first.”

I perked up at that. “I’m leaving Wallowpine too.”

“You got some big dream you’re chasing?”

“Nope. I don’t have any plans at all.” I didn’t care if he thought it was strange I had no aspirations for my future. “But it’s easy to get sucked into a town like this forever, so I’m getting out as soon as I can.”

“You won’t miss your folks?”

“Maybe. But Mom’s always telling me my personality’s too big for this place, so I doubt she’ll mind.”

He watched me quietly, giving me a look I didn’t understand. “You feel just right to me, Indy.”

My chest burned in a way it never had before. “It’ll sort of be like we’re running away together.”

I internally winced—what was that? Before I could insist I hadn’t meant it as creepy as it sounded, Nolan murmured, “Yeah.” He smiled softly. “Maybe we will get to do it together.”

It was quiet after that, and Nolan’s eyes began to flutter closed. He sank deeper against the chair, his breaths growing heavier with every passing moment. Just as I was considering making him a bed on the floor, he sat up. “I should go.”

“You can stay,” I offered before I could stop myself. “If you want, you can go home in the morning and tell your dad you and I snuck off together and that’s why he couldn’t find you.”

He cocked a brow. “You’d get in trouble.”

I shrugged. My parents would be furious if he spent the night, even more so that I’d gone along with the ruse of him being lost when he’d been with me the whole time. But I didn’t care. Nolan and I would know the truth, and that was worth it.

“I’ll just tell him I was screwing around, maybe with a girl or some friends. But I won’t mention you.”

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