Page 18 of Our Hearts Knew Better

I was chewing at my smile again, hidden behind my hair.

“I’m almost surprised you didn’t bring me out to do this before,” I blurted out when Adam shoulder bumped me.

“I had to ease you into it,” he said, leaning back onto his palms. “Give you a taste with the sunroof.”

I laughed, apart from rolling my eyes. “That wasn’t like this at all.”

He smirked. “You’re about to find out.”

I held the still empty tracks in my periphery, listening for a whistle that had yet to come. “Am I?” It was a thought I muttered out loud.

Adam nodded. “I think you want to.” There was something in his tone that almost made those words sound like he was really saying,I think youwantedto, that night.

I shifted and hugged my knees, moving us on. “Nadia never did this with you?”

I already knew this was another thing Levi didn’t do.It’s too dangerous,he’d said, his voice still as clear in my head as if I’d heard it today.

It was dangerous. But Adam alsowasstill here.

He paused a response, a pucker in his mouth, before he shook his head. “It isn’t a popular hobby.”

Hobby.“So you do this all the time?”

He shook his head again, staring out toward the tracks. “No,” he said low. “Just when I’m feeling too much.”

My body leaned toward his at those words, knowing the weight of feelings myself, and I shoulder bumped him.

“I came out here after she ended it,” he said, his eyes on the tracks and his voice heavy. “She had perfect timing,” he added with a side smirk before that light flickered again. “Those tracks. That train…” He pushed up to sitting, leaning closer toward those tracks with a mesmerized quality to his gaze, a look I hadn’t seen yet and seemed to transfer to me as I watched him. “You can’t think about anything else. You’re completely in your body. Your heart is racing, not breaking. You can’t be angry. You can’t be sad…”

“You’re just being,” I whispered when he trailed off again, and when our eyes locked now, the smile he gave me was soft, nudging mine.

We jerked at the sound of the whistle—real and here—and as Adam jumped to his feet, my palms slapped the ground, my legs stretched to spring—

But then my body hesitated.

“Let’s go,” Adam said, excitement in the words, before he leveled his face with mine with encouragement and assurance. “You can do it. You’re gonna be fine.”

What’s dangerous about it if I’m still here? It’s fine.

No bothers, Summer.

Nofucks.

He offered his hand and I slipped mine in, then we were running for the tracks.

We stood side by side, his hand still in mine, as the distant lights from the train moved closer by the second.

The whistle sounded again.

Adam tightened his grip on me, probably to keep my hand from sliding away from the sweat collecting on my palms. “You trust me?” he asked me again.

I blinked, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the train. It was accelerating our way, growing louder, my breathing accelerating too.

I managed a squeeze to his hand as my answer, because I knew, from that moment, I did.

I trusted him.

And he was right. I couldn’t think about anything but that train. Its whistling and its chugging and its lights, a drumming throughout my entire body.

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