Page 73 of Our Hearts Knew Better

I grip the trunk lid. “I thoughtthiswas gonna be good for us.”

He halts, some seconds passing, then he drops his bags, thuds at his feet, and steps in close to me. “It will be,” he promises, tugging at the hope. “But this is gonna take a while,” he complains over our stuff. “And we still have to meet up with Levi and his mom.”

My throat squeezes at the reminder of Levi and Isolde…without Elliot, who was a dad to me, just like he was a dad to Adam when we both needed one. At everything that’s been lost, everyone who’s been taken away.

Adam holds my stare, studying me, a crinkle in his eyes that softens as he takes my hand, lifting my fingers to graze a kiss along my knuckles. I still love when he does that little gesture, now rarely.

But still happening.

My lips want to stretch, and they start the pull into a smile, when the bend returns to Adam’s brows.

“Oh, there’s something—” He cuts himself off as he studies me some more, not appearing like he’s just remembered thissomething, but that whatever it is has been on his mind a while.

“What?” I prompt, feeling almost numb to anything he could tell me right now, knowing nothing could be worse than everything that’s already happened.

He sighs, then proves me wrong. “Levi’s been taking care of your dad.”

I suck in a breath, sharp but slow as it settles heavy in my lungs, the rest of my insides so unsettled, I can’t place a feeling. So many feelings that I can only stand here, not speaking as Adam waits for words.

“I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d hate it,” he says next, filling in the silence, his tone half defensive.

“So you’re telling me now?” I manage to get out after his naming of an emotion brings that one to the front.

He shrugs. “You’d find out now.”

An ache spreads through my gums and I relax my jaw. “How long have you known?”

Movement behind Adam’s head catches in my periphery and Griffin calls out, “My boy!”

I blink, then I’m staring at Adam’s father, waving big from the open doorway with a grin, being showy because he’s outside with a potential audience.

The ache returns as I watch him, Adam the one now caught in my periphery as he abandons our conversation for his bags and his dad, who pats him on the back—for being hisboyand making therightchoice—before giving him a push inside.

I eye my bags, my body still processing more than my mind as my hands rifle through one for a towel and a hair tie, wanting to forget this more than ever.

Adam can get my bags too. He probably won’t even notice I’m gone.

The Dragon

Summer

I wear my towel like a hood while I walk through town on my second sightseeing adventure, as if we have paparazzi and they’re after me. But I don’t know who I might run into, and I’d like to deal with my emotions incognito, especially when they’re seesawing and trying to tip me over.

I can’t separate anything here. My feelings, my memories, the good and the bad, all my wild worlds colliding into one, right where roots were planted and life bloomed.

I can’t separatethem. Adam, from theotherboy. The air is thick with our connection. Everywhere I look I’m followed by the younger version of ourselves.

Linda’s Diner is the next beat in our story I’m passing now, my focus fixing right to the window with the booth where Adam kissed me. From across the table. Baskets of burgers and fries and condiment bottles, and thankfully, empty glasses, shifting between us.

We had company, several pairs of eyes on our first liplock.

Including Levi’s.

I locked my gaze with his instead of his best friend’s after Adam sat back, searching for something,anythingto show me he was thinking aboutourkiss, like I was.

And besides having the knowledge that he was watching us, and the smallest freeze in his movements as he did, he only blinked and shoved a fry into his mouth.

I wanted him to choke on it.

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