Page 21 of Our Hearts Knew Better

He blew out a gust of air and I smiled again, relaxing on the bars and under his warm and firm hold.

“We got it,” I announced as a cheer to our success and an assurance. Levi released another breathed laugh through my hair that moved the tingles up my neck. “Now you pedal,” I said, the tease a murmur at his closeness.

“I think I can do that,” he teased back as he positioned himself, then a squeal shook my throat as we took off.

“Where to?” he asked after a moment, and I immediately pictured the spot not too far from here.

“I saw a bridge I’d like to go to.”When I was out on a trip with Adam.

There was a small bridge that looked like a barn from a distance. It had a closed-in walkway attached to the side, and tonight, I wanted to be near the water while feeling the boards beneath my feet.

Levi sped up once I told him our destination and so did my heart and the wind through my hair and the sway of my dangling legs. I beamed as I held on tight to the handlebars and his hands held on tight to mine.

Thiswas the magical ride. I felt it everywhere. No part of me wasn’t being touched by the breeze and the buzz.

And I felt Levi. We were skin on skin, our arms grazing together with each pump of the pedals.

He slowed down when the barn-like cover of the bridge was upon us, and after I hopped off the bike, everything else slowed down too. My heart hushed as the world quietened, the wind a barely there softness against my cheeks.

My focus was lifted toward the sky, at the arched roof as I moved forward, only dropping ahead again when I reached the walkway. I ran my hand along the wall boards that separated the walkers from the drivers and scuffed my feet along the floorboards.

“My mom loved bridges,” I breathed out as I heard Levi’s footfalls coming closer behind me. “So I love them too. I think it’s in our DNA,” I added with a laugh.

I told him about the few bridge figurines I swiped from my mom’s things. She was a collector, with shelves of them. Those shelves were always shut away in Dad’s room. That was my next sneak after my first out my window. So many bridges, I didn’t think Dad would miss any, and so far, he hadn’t. Swipe, rearrange to fill in the gaps.

Levi and I leaned beside each other on the railing, looking down at the glow on the water from a lone light as I told him this, and then dumped out more. He gave me a sense he genuinely liked listening to me. If there was anything I needed, it was to be listened to.

He told me about his mom, too, more about his dad. He lived one of those simple andnormallives, but he did know how goodhe had it. He wasn’t braggy, just aware. Happy in a way that rubbed off on me, in a similar way my sadness rubbed off on him, like when I first told him about my life when we were on the boat. It was like we were both living each other’s experiences as we talked about them.

With him though, he expressed himself like it was more than that. Like he really wanted tosharehis life. To give me something I couldn’t physically touch…yet.

“I think our moms would’ve liked each other,” he said with a fondness in his voice I could feel too.

The sting in my nose was sudden as I smiled down at the water, my next breath a lift in my entire body that moved me closer to him.

Levi’s scent was subtle. Like he just used the soap he showered with. Clean.Not obvious.

Adam’s scent was stronger, but still nice too.

Our arms brushed as he told me about the sea figurines his mom had. His family practically lived in a boat, that life not keeping to just the water. His house was decked out with anything related to sailing, including keepsakes his dad would bring back from his trips. He and his mom called them histrophies.

Levi’s dad was a sailor and his mom was a chef, Levi himself getting part of both those worlds.

“You’re seventeen,” he said after I told him I can’t cook, angling a look at me that was both teasing and relieving. “I think you get a pass for that one.”

“So what are you gonna make me?” I said back, copying his look, but lower to meet the lift in my shoulder. The awkwardness was gone from what I now knew was my flirty tone, but my smile felt a bit goofy.

He was smiling back, though, not appearing like he thought I was being goofy, warming my face with his gaze. “How about you pick and I’ll show you how to make it.”

My chest felt deflating with my exhale. That was another daylight plan and I still couldn’t make those. But Levi sounded so sure that I blew the feeling away with my inhale. “Banana nut bread.”

He chuckled. “That was fast.”

“It was my mom’s favorite.”

His gaze softened with his nod. “And you haven’t had any since then.” A realization statement, as he was catching on to my life’s details now without me having to supply the footnotes.

Dad didn’t want to make Mom’s specialties, even though he had all her recipes. He only wanted the physical things she’d owned, the things he could touch and hear and see, but nothing he could taste or smell.Theysay those two senses can be the strongest for memories.

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