Page 59 of Bring me Back

Shit.

I groaned, rubbing my hands on my face.

“What’s wrong?” her voice sliced through my thoughts.

“Thinking about how much work I’ll have.”

“I’m sorry. I can help.”

“Oh, you will.”

She giggled and all the heaviness of my chest left with the simple sound of her laugh. “Are you ready for this?” I teased.

“God no.” She shook her head. “I don’t even know what I packed, Dan.” She paused, chewing her bottom lip. “What if my clothes make no sense?”

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “Do you have something tragic in your wardrobe, Cricket?”

She wrinkled her nose like the cutest thing she was. “Things are a little messy since I’ve moved back home. I left a bunch of clothes when I moved out and Dad kept them. So now it’s a mess. My teenage years might come out this week.”

“It was only five years ago. I don’t think the fashion changed that much.”

She swatted me on my arm, a smile tugged her lips. “Don’t start with the age thing.”

“I never started with the age thing.” I shrugged, pretending I wasn’t bothered. “I prefer to forget I’m ancient.”

“You’re not.” She rolled her eyes, resting her temple on the headrest so she could face me. “Maybe I’m the one too young.”

“We can meet in the middle. What’s the age between ours? Thirty?”

She nodded. “But if I was thirty, I hoped to be a little more put together.”

“Like what?” I pried.

Hallie sighed. “I’d like to know who I am. And I want to figure out this whole career thing, because going to college wasn’t enough to get things going. And I don’t know… I’d imagine thirty-year-old Hallie to be secure and… an adult. You know?”

“God, Cricket, I have bad news for you.” I smirked.

She groaned. “You're going to tell me being thirty won’t guarantee any of those things, right?”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry.”

“You suck.” She pouted.

I wanted to taste that pouty mouth of hers. “You can work toward those things regardless of your age. You can learn about yourself today. You don’t need to wait.”

Hallie thought about it, brushing her hair away from her face, and got just a little annoyed when it returned a second later. Blowing a raspberry, she pulled the hair tie, letting her hair fall over her shoulder. I watched, transfixed, as she gathered all her hair once more, putting it together in a neat ponytail. I could watch her doing that forever, I decided.

“That’s what I’m trying to do,” she told me.

“What?” I asked, pretending I wasn’t hypnotized by her hair.

“I’m trying to understand myself and fix the things I don’t like.”

“I can’t think of a single thing about you that needs fixing.” True. It was the rest of the town who needed ass kicking.

“I let many people get away with many things, Dan. I just let them take things from me. One by one, it slipped through my fingers. I let them mistake my quietness for weakness.”

“That’s on them,” I told her at once. “It says much more about them than about you.”

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