Page 1 of When You Had Me Adapting

PROLOGUE

LACEY- 10 YEARS AGO

“Ithought I’d find you up there,” Jace calls from my parents’ backyard. He carefully begins to climb up the side of the house to meet me. I’m sitting on the flat part of the roof above the screened-in porch—right outside my bedroom window. He pauses once he’s safely on top to pull his camera to his eye and a flash lights up the night surrounding us. Lowering it, his face drops when he sees mine is streaked with tears. “What’s on your mind, pixie?”

I shake my head and swipe my fingers under my eyes a few times. “I can’t believe you leave tomorrow,” I sniffle. My hands move against the soft, flannel blanket I’m sitting on drying my fingertips. The heaviness in my chest that I’ve been feeling for the past few days returns.

He carefully balances along the roof until he gets to where I am and takes a seat. “I’ll be back in a year,” he reassures me, gently wiping away any remaining tears. Taking my chin between his thumb and forefinger, he slightly tilts my face toward his. Our lips meet and butterflies fill my stomach. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to kissing him. His kiss erases all of thesadness and all of the fear threatening to break my heart. It instantly puts me at ease and I allow myself to melt into him.

When he pulls away, the heartache returns so quickly that it knocks all the oxygen right out of my lungs.

I nod my head and try to hold back the tears threatening to break free again. “I know, I know, I’m so proud of you.” I pause and attempt a small smile. Laying down on my back, I cover my face with my hands and inhale deeply.

“Talk to me,” he says, lying down so we are shoulder to shoulder, our backs flat against the thick blanket. Both of us are looking up at the stars spread across the summer sky.

“It’s nothing,” I lie.

“Yes it is. I want to know what’s going on in that mind of yours.” His fingers interlace with mine and he squeezes my hand.

“I got in a fight with my mom earlier. She thinks the long distance plan is a bad idea. Told me I needed to stop thinking about this with my heart and use my head.” I take a deep breath. “God, she was so annoying, J. Apparently she had lunch with your mom and Poppy’s mom today. They must have talked about you the whole time because when she got back she wouldn’t let up. And then when I started crying, she told me tostop being so dramatic.”

He scoffs. “You aren’t dramatic.”

“Try convincing my parents of that.” I shake my head.

“So, what is your heart telling you?”

“That I’ve had you next door since before I was born and now you won’t be here.” I blink and a tear escapes from the corner of my eye. I wipe it away quickly. “I don’t want to lose you.” The words are no more than a whisper on my lips.

“Lose me? You’ll never lose me,” he assures me.

“And how do you know that?” I roll onto my side to face him.

“Because I’ve loved you since I was eight years old.” He turns towards me. Our faces are so close they’re almost touching. His features are illuminated by the glow of the moonlight. “I’m scared, too, you know. I don’t want to lose you either,” he says.

“Lose me? Yeah right. I hate to break it to you, but you’re stuck with me until the end of time.”

“I hope you’re right. I don’t want Lori to get in your head and scare you into the arms of one of those meathead bozos from school.” He tucks the loose strands of my hair behind my ear. “Especially Alex. I’m leaving and what if?—”

“She won’t. It’s just her way of mothering me.”

“I don’t like that she has you doubting us, and I haven’t even left yet.” I blink and a few tears fall free. I don’t know why my mom says the things she does. My dad tells me it’s her way of protecting me, but I’m not so sure. I lean toward him and place my lips on his.

“I love you. Don’t worry about my mom. I’m sure after a few weeks, she’ll move on to something else to bother me about. She always does.”

“And Alex?”

“You know I can’t stand Alex. Beau and him are literally the jock versions of Tweedledee and Tweedledum.” I laugh, trying to ease the tension. “Gosh, don’t tell Poppy I said that. She would kill me if she knew I was making fun of Beau.”

He smiles. “Your secret is safe with me.”

“What secret?” I hear from my window.

We both sit up and turn to see Poppy attempting to crawl onto the roof with a bag thrown over her shoulder.

“Look, you two, I know you’re in love and all, and it’s like super cute, but I swear to God.” She pauses to fix her footing and then continues, “I swear to God, if you are now keeping secrets from me, I’ll never forgive either of you.” She lets out a squeak asshe lands on the shingles with a thud. Cautiously, she scoots over to where we are and sits to my right.

“I’m sure there are certain parts of our relationship you want us to keep secret,” I tease and throw her a wink.

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