Page 39 of Her Pretty Words

Warmth creeps into my cheeks and I hope he thinks it’s from running. I clear my throat. “Anyway, I came here to say thank you. So, thank you. I’m going now.” I toss my thumb over my shoulder.

He grins. “See you around, Mace.”

I remember how to move my feet and begin walking the way I came. Once I get a good distance away, I look over my shoulder to see him still standing there, watching me.

“Creep!” I call, but when I turn around, I can’t control the smile stretching across my face.

Chapter 14

Macy

After hours of sitting to work, walking to The BARnacle makes my legs feel warm and fluid again before sitting for dinner with Sarah. It’s amazing how much stronger my muscles are now that I’ve started running daily.

I spot Sarah instantly, sitting at the bar and flirting with her husband. I immediately recognize the back of the person sitting beside her. As if he can feel my stare, he turns and meets my gaze.

When I approach them, Grayson’s eyes sweep over me. I decided to wear something out of my comfort zone. A tight black mini skirt, black high-top Converse, and a fitted black top. I’m wearing the color he always wears.

I pull out the barstool beside Sarah and she wraps her arm around me in greeting. “You look hot,” she says.

“I second that,” Grayson says from the other side of her.

I lean forward so I can see him. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”

“Don’t look too excited.”

I grin at him, and the three of us make light conversation for a while. When Elliot returns to Grayson for the seventh time to talk and joke around, I realize that he probably invited him here.When Sarah saw Grayson sitting at the bar, she naturally sat beside him.

We place our orders and eat our greasy food. Once we finish, Sarah says to me, “Do you remember the boy you were in love with?”

I tilt my head.

“What was his name?” she says, snapping her fingers. “The one who lived next door to you? Remember?”

“Daniel.” He was my best friend when I was five or six, but he moved away before I returned one summer.

Grayson sits up straighter, his eyes set on the TV.

Sarah laughs. “I remember one night after dinner at Tammy’s, I found you outside all by yourself. You were focused on the sky, and when I asked what you were doing, you said you were waiting for a shooting star so you could wish to be his girlfriend.”

We both laugh so hard, tears well up in the corners of my eyes. “He was probably my soulmate.” I shake my head dramatically. “No wonder I have such shit luck with men.”

Sarah pulls out her phone. “What was his last name?”

“I can’t remember. Why?”

“I’m looking him up.”

“He’s probably married with kids.” I think of my old best friend, how his hair would spill across his forehead after swimming. I never got a chance to say goodbye, and every night for weeks I wept in my bed.

I wonder where he ended up. I hope life has been kind to him. “I really did love that boy, though,” I say quietly. “In the way a six-year-old can.” I wonder what it would be like if he hadn’t left.

Graysons eyes flash to mine, a divot between his brows.

“Maybe you can help us,” Sarah says to him. “You live in Daniel’s old house. Do you remember the family’s last name you bought it from?”

“The previous owner was a single guy.” He shrugs.

Sarah sighs. “Sorry, Macy. We’ll never know where your soulmate ended up.”

---