Page 7 of Our Hearts Knew Better

Wanna Bet On That?

“Are you my distraction?”

My brows lifted at the question, as another cute boy climbed onto the boat, appearing and acting the opposite to Levi, but how I had expected.

He was a bit bulkier—I’d find out later he played baseball—and taller. His shorts were a similar style, just that kind that guys wore, but darker, and so was his shirt. His hair too. His flirting was heavy in his voice and in his smile as he took the few steps toward us, eyes on me, waiting for my answer.

My head knew that smile. The one that spelled trouble. And like the other girls who had been on the receiving end of such a look, I felt a buzz beneath my skin. But I also learned from them not to give him the satisfaction of knowing.

He had the energy of being at the top of the high school hierarchy. The type of guy who was popular and hung out with all the other popular people. I guessed Levi was, too, after finding out the two were best friends, but he wasn’t as obvious.

Really, they were both the type of guys who wouldn’t have looked twice at me if we had met in a classroom or a crowded hallway, instead of in private, under the stars.

But—we were here. And I’d been looked at twice. So I decided to give myself some brownie points.

I kept quiet and still, my brows still lifted. And Levi must’ve been giving Adam a look, too, because after a quick glance to where Levi stood beside me, he held up his hands and said, “I’m joking. Ha. Ha.” He dragged out thehahas in a lighthearted way, with a softer smile, nudging at my own.

Levi had given me the first introduction to Adam, a kind of warning, having already told me he could come on strong. He’d just gone through a breakup, and he’d been calling Levi some sleepless nights to get his mind off of it.

That was the perfect opening for me to find out Levi was single, too, without giving away how much I wanted to know that he was.

“You’re new,” Adam observed as half a blurt, observing me. He said that and my head replayed,I would’ve remembered seeing you.“You’re the one who just moved into the old Freeman house.”

“Was that their name?” I asked with a laugh, less actually seeking an answer, as I fingered my hair and tugged the hem of my pajama shorts at the two pairs of eyes steady on me, feeling like a freak of nature that not only was I the only one who had to sneak out, for sure, I was also still the only one wearing what I rolled out of bed in every morning.

Levi mumbled something that sounded likeyou look greatat the same time Adam joked, “It was when they were here.”

My amusement was a secret shake in my chest, staying locked inside with my gaze locked with Levi’s, as I mentally bet this entire night on those three words being what he said.

“Myname is Adam.” The stress was subtle for my attention as he moved in close to me. He didn’t offer his hand, but he offered another smile that made my heart hammer a single beat under his nearer stare.

Hazel. His eyes were hazel.

“Summer,” I told him. “My name,” I added quickly to avoid—

“My favorite season,” he said, without blinking, his face stilled in his focus on me, his flirting there but more calmed.

There was always someone with the season cracks, and I hadn’t had that feeling one was coming with Levi, but I did with Adam.

If my mom were still alive, I would’ve demanded she change my name by now. But besides my life, my name was really all she was able to give to me. So in her death, I cherished it.

“I like spring,” I said, to disagree and divert. My voice was touchy, as a new thought came into my head that I didn’t want to be seen as just a season. Here one moment and gone the next. Or left alone when I wasn’t needed anymore. I didn’t want to be treated like or seen as any of that. I was steady. I just needed the same. Somewhere, with someone, safe and stable to explore my restless soul.

Adam made a face and a noise, then moved us on. “So what’s going on? What are we getting into?” He glanced between me and Levi, his face animated in his expectancy, both the sight and the question reenergizing me for this night.

I met Levi’s gaze and he gave me his half smile, with a quick raise of his brows to give me the floor for what came next, and something inside me tugged toward him a bit more.

I caught Adam up with what Levi knew, and when I divulged I was up for adventure, on the path of discovery, Adam practically jumped up and down.

“This summer just got a lot better,” he cheered out, sounding like a strange kind of compliment with my name inside the line, and remembering his heartbreak, and knowing how those breaks felt in my own way, I was fine enough to be hisdistraction.

I was getting what I needed too.

“You did good,” he teased to Levi, with a slap to his chest, then spun around to climb off the boat. “Let’s go.”

Levi and I exchanged a look, a reflection of what I felt in my own, a blink of something weighty, a similar passing thought, before we were stepping forward at the same time to follow Adam out, his steps pausing to let me go first.

Adam thought that Levi had a good find in me, when really, Levi and I both knew I found him.

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