Page 35 of Rewrite Our Story

Cade reaches between us, his knuckles brushing against my inner thigh as he reaches into his pocket. He brings out the same lighter from a few years ago. “It’s not a proper birthday unless you make a wish and blow out the candles.”

“I made a wish earlier. You were there. The cupcakes, remember?”

He’d been busy sulking in a corner, pinning me with an angry glare as I’d made a wish for my heart to get over him. What a silly thought. My heart has always been Cade’s. One simple little birthday wish wasn’t going to change that.

“It doesn’t count.”

“And why’s that?”

“Because it wasn’t just us when you made it.”

I’d always wondered what my birthday celebrations meant to Cade. Since my sixteenth birthday, they’d meant everything to me, but I couldn’t help but wonder if they meant anything to him. Part of me wondered if he was just doing it to be nice.

Now, I know theydidmean something to him.

“Do you have your wish?”

I nod. It’s the same thing I’ve wished before on the flame of his lighter. I’ll wish for him, to keep whatever has started tonight. Even after I go off to college in a few months, I want to find a way to keep this up.

Maybe I just won’t leave at all. Maybe I should wish to find something to do here. Books can be written from anywhere, right?

A flame lights between us, the reflection of it dancing against his amber colored eyes. “Make sure you make it a good one.”

I smile, closing my eyes right before I make my wish.

I wish that Cade and I can figure this out together. I wish for this to be the best summer of my life. My biggest wish is that I get to keep him once this summer ends.

19

CADE - PRESENT

“Can’t we change the song?”Pippa begs from the passenger seat of my truck. “This music isn’t getting me in the mood. Right, Mare?”

She turns in her seat to look at Mare in the backseat. Mare looks out the window, clearly lost in her thoughts and not as worried about getting in the mood to party like my sister. “I like the song,” she answers, shrugging.

Of course she does. It’s a song we used to listen to all the time. I still use the same CDs she burnt for me when we were teenagers.

Pippa frowns in disappointment. “Traitor,” she tells Mare. “We need party music, Cade. It’s our first night out in forever. We need to get in the mood.”

I switch the setting over in the truck so she can connect her phone to the speakers. I’m not sure she’ll deem any of the CDs I have in the glove box worthy to pregame for a night out.

Truthfully, I didn’t want to go out tonight to begin with. It’s almost been a month since Mom passed. I don’t know how much time needs to pass before I’ll feel like hanging out at Slopes and drinking with the guys again. The only reason I’m here is because Pippa begged me to and I couldn’t say no. If she needs a night out after the month we’ve had, then that’s what I’ll give her.

It doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it. I’m going to try my best to just forget the hell the last few weeks have been. I’ve buried myself in work, barely coming up for air unless I had to eat or sleep. Even though sleep doesn’t come as well as it should.

I slept great the night of Mom’s funeral because I spent it with Mare. Since then, not so much. If she had showed up at my door, I would’ve let her in. I can’t say no when it comes to Mare. But she never showed up.

Last week, I moved back to the cabin and out of the main house. Dad was doing better, and he was insistent that he spent enough time with me during the day, he was done with me hovering over him at night. I couldn’t help it. I needed to know he was okay.

Maybe part of me wanted to be in Mare’s presence, even if I didn’t want to admit it. I’ve been a dick to her because if I don’t put up some kind of wall between us, I’m going to end up the same way I was when she left this town, and I can’t do that again. Not without Mom here to pull me out of it.

Even though I’m not sleeping in the main house anymore, most nights I still opened the cabin door to check and see if she was on the other side. If we did have the sixth sense to feel each other, it seemed to be broken. She couldn’t feel how broken I was. She didn’t know how much I begged her to be on the other side of my door when I pulled it open in the middle of each night, how much I needed her and how much I hated it.

Pippa sings along to a Nash Pierce song that’s been severely overplayed. I don’t know how she likes anything he releases, but she and Mare have been obsessed with him since they were teenagers, and he was still part of some silly boy band.

“You’re about to go to a country bar andthisis what you listen to?” I sneak a glance over at Pip, giving her a look of disapproval.

Pippa belts out the lyrics even louder, having no shame. “We’ll get all the country in the world when we show up to Slopes.”

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