Page 63 of Years in the Making

“No.” Marley snorts. “Before Marley.”

“Oh.” I laugh too. “Yes, in the times before you, before everything went from blissful young something-or-other to shit, I was happier than I’d ever been.”

“And then poof?”

“Then poof.”

We stay silent for a few minutes. Marley, I assume stretched out in an empty bathtub, and me, staring at the near-empty highway in front of me.

“Once upon a time, I was the one who poofed,” she says quietly.

“Yes, I remember. It wasn’t that long ago, you know.”

“Feels like years now.” I can practically hear her smiling. “In a good way. But sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I’d come back and Bennett hadn’t been receptive.”

“Marley, you had a good reason for leaving. You two also weren’t actually in a relationship.”

“So youwerein a relationship with Teddy?” Marley’s voice manages to sit up and take notice.

Shit, I knew I’d have to reveal all this one day, but I thought I’d maybe do it in person.

“For a couple of months when I was twenty.”

“Wait…” She squeals. “Is he the summer fling? How did I not put this together? You just said twelve years of history. Oh my god okay, hold on. No, wait, I’m shutting up, go on.”

“I don’t know what else to say. We just worked, and things were so good, Marley. Obviously too good. He was the quintessential good guy, and I remember thinking, wow, they do exist. Remember, I had just finished my second year at school, and most of the guys I encountered were hoping to sleep with more girls than the guy down the hall. Anyway…” I take a deep breath. “One day he just disappeared. The day after he had taken care of me while I was sick, might I add. He brought me soup and watchedDowntonwith me.”

That’s the part that always gets me the hardest. We’d just spent all those hours together, and yet it was so easy for him to just cut me out.

“He watched that boring show with you? That’s love. Did he tell you where he went?”

“No. He did tell me—” The telltale sound of a dropped call fills the car. “Dammit.” I try to call back, but I seem to have entered a dead zone. I’m thankful it’s Marley I was on the phone with, though, and not Izzy or my mother who would immediately think something horrible had happened and would already be googling a disaster in the general area.

Teddy is walking towards the truck when I pull into the driveway, and I have to wonder what trip number he’s on. I’m almost shocked not to see a path worn into the grass.

“Hey,” I say as casually as possible when I get out and walk toward him.

“Hey.” He smiles easily at me, although his thumb is spinning the ring on his forefinger like he’s trying to power the sun.

“Come to walk me to the house so I don’t crash again?” I joke, pulling out my backpack from the backseat.

“Actually I was just double-checking that everything was in the truck.”

“Double-checking?”

“Double times ten. No clue what that would be called.”

“Paranoid, probably.” I give his arm a playful, friendly little push as I pass him. “Come on, let’s give Marley something else to do besides watch you walk back and forth.”

I watch as his head tips back and he releases a deep sigh. “I knew she was watching me.”

He’s probably watched more than he realizes,I think to myself.“Teddy, everything is in the truck, and if it’s not, itwasn’t meant to be. Let’s go.” I turn and lead the way to the house where Marley comes bursting out the porch door.

“I knew you hadn’t been eaten by some giant lizard.”

“There was a close call with a porcupine, but it thought twice.”

“If only they crossed at their designated signs,” Teddy says from behind me.

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