Page 11 of Our Hearts Knew Better

“Well…maybe I’m giving you an adventure too.” I moved again with the tease, and he observed me the same way he did on the boat, his lips in a curve.

“Give me your number.”

I froze, my throat going dry, our whispering out the window literally out the window as I blurted out, “You want my number?”

He snickered again as he pulled his phone from a pocket of his shorts. “You’re cute.”

And that was all he said, still speaking low, but it didn’t sound like a reason for wanting my number; it sounded like his ownwhy wouldn’t I?

Adam stared at me, with his phone now in his hand, waiting, his eyes kind of roaming like he expected me to pull my own phone from pockets I didn’t have, and I blurted again, this time my number.

“You know your number from memory?” he asked after thumbing it in.

“You don’t?” I knew people just put numbers into their phones and forgot about them—even my dad was like that, but even he remembered his own. And mine, as I had to remember his.

“You’re cute,” Adam repeated, still tapping on his phone, the screen shining on his amusement over me.

“You said that twice,” I murmured, and he peeked at me through his lashes, a gaze longer than a blink, and I looked for a dimple to hint at any stretch of a smile, but he didn’t have one.

“Could you give it to Levi too?” I told him from the thought, then flushed, biting down on my lips as he nodded.

“Sure.”

As Adam finished up on his phone, I wondered what he had put me as in his contacts. Something likeCute Girl.OrCutie.

But it was probably justSummer. He didn’t have to use code names in case his dad looked at his phone while he was using it.

My dad wouldn’t expect me to lie. I didn’t want to be a liar. I risked the consequences of things, tried to prove myself so he’d trust me, so he’d loosen his collar around my neck. But any time I dared to step outside of his perimeters, he pulled.

“There. You have mine too.” Adam said as he pocketed his phone. “Now I can be your sneak out buddy,” he added in a walk backward to leave me to my climb, and I gave him a small wave.

“Distract you later,” I joked, and he grinned, then spun around, a bounce in his hurrying off.

Then there was just me again.

But not how I was when I first made this climb.

It was more difficult going up with these flip flops onandgetting through the window, but I couldn’t take the shoes off because I needed the work of all my limbs and appendages to hoist myself back inside. I almost landed on my face, swaying on my feet and then finding my balance before eyeing my closed door and stilling every muscle to listen.

My pulse pounded to no other sounds.Nothing.

I closed my window exactly how I opened it, one inch at a time, kicked off my shoes, then dove onto my bed like I was a kid in a bounce house, with that innocent-like excitement, my body vibrating from the rush and the nerves and the relief of the night.

With two attractive and interesting and nice boys.

Boys who were interested in me.

And I couldn’t stop thinking about both of them—one a bit more than the other—replaying every moment.My main character moments.

And all I had to do was climb down from my tower.

The covers were all the way to my chin before I could finally release a breath. Then one more jolt of adrenaline had me reaching for my phone on my bedside table.

Adam had sent me two texts.

You’re cute.

Did the third time charm you?

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