Page 232 of Wrath

“Can you guess?” he asks. “You know me, right?” I think he’s teasing.

“Shit. You were good at physics. And kissing. You used to be a lifeguard. You loved sitting on the roof and looking at the stars. And books. You love books.” He laughs, and my pulse picks up a little. “Something with books?”

“Would that be weird?” he murmurs. “To go to college just to do something with books?”

“Fuck no. Books are awesome, dude. What do you wanna do with books?”

“My major’s English right now. Also business. But I sort of want to drop the business and just be an English major. I know you can’t do much with only English. It might be morepragmatic to be a book editor or like an agent. But if I added education as a major…”

I grin. “Then you would be an English teacher.”

“Yeah. An English teacher. And maybe a coach.”

“You’d be great at both of those things.”

“Do you think so?”

“Yeah, for sure, dude. You were always reading back in Fairplay. At the kitchen table. Physics; I’d come in and you’d be reading.”

“It’s an escape. As they say.” He sounds hoarse.

“You’d be the sexiest English teacher. When you get old, you could wear some spectacles.”

He laughs. “Some spectacles. Is that your fantasy, Mills? Me in old man glasses?”

“Any glasses,” I tell him. “Or no glasses. Maybe just you.”

“Thank you,” he whispers.

“For what, angel?”

“I don’t know. You make me feel good.”

I think about the way he used to cling to me when I would wake him up from nightmares, and about how comfortable he’d finally gotten with me, right before he left. And I feel a little spark of loss—that we both lost that. But I also feel a huge amount of gratitude that I still have him. It’s still good. Maybe in some ways, even better.

We talk for as long as we can—which turns out to be about twenty-five minutes. He says he’ll call me right after practice.

“I can come back with your car whenever you want,” I tell him. “I can take the bus back to Auburn after. I feel bad you don’t have your Jeep to get around in.”

“I love that you have my ride, Miller. I would also love to see you. I can take you back home almost any day but Wednesday. We have longer practice that day. And my Wednesday is more full because I have a long lab.”

“Shoot me down if this is too much. But what about tomorrow?Could you take me home tomorrow, if I come back up there say…today?”

“Fuck yeah.” I can hear the grin in his voice. “I could take you back tomorrow. If that would work?”

“It might.” I’m grinning, too.

Almost six hours later, I’m rolling into the athletic dorm parking lot, and Ezra’s smiling from the sidewalk beside it. He’s wearing royal blue running shorts, a white hoodie, and the backwards Georgia peach cap, which makes my heart squeeze.

As soon as I turn the car off, he’s opening the driver’s side door. Then I’m out, and he’s hugging me tight.

“Hey, Miller.” His low voice vibrates with affection.

“Hey, you.” I kiss his cheek. “Was that okay?” I rasp after I kiss him.

“A lot better than okay.” He kisses my temple. “I’m doing something,” he says, looking wide-eyed.

“What kind of something is it?” I laugh at his funny face.

---