Page 21 of Sparrow

“You won’t know unless you ask. I’m not suggesting you run off, marry, and have babies with the man, Amelia. I’m just saying that you went back to Savannah for a fresh start, right? To have fun and be free? What better way to be free than to rebound with your ex?” She says it as if it’s just that easy. “Tell me you felt nothing when you saw him.”

“It felt—right. It felt easy. He was always an easy person to be around and talk to. That’s just his personality.”

Gray was the guy everyone wanted to be friends with in high school. He was kind, funny, caring, and obviously the hottest boy in school. Everyone felt at ease around him because he made it so. He was a friend to everyone, and he was mine, until he wasn’t.

“Sounds to me like you’re trying to convince yourself that you didn’t immediately think about jumping his bones.”

“Nora...I…well...I mean I did, but I’m only human and he looks sooooo good. And if I’m being honest, I made him something to drink in one of my to-go tumblers, so he’d have an excuse to definitely drop back by. I don’t even think it was a conscious effort. My brain and my body made that choice.”

“See! Jesus, Amelia, you spent four years being suffocated in life. Haven’t you earned the chance to just do what feels good? Regardless of what it is?”

I let her words flit around in my brain for a minute, and at the end of it all, I know she’s right.

***

(Grayson)

I peek in on Cadence, just to make sure she’s sleeping soundly before coming back down into the kitchen where Case is waiting for me.

“She’s going to be pissed you got here after she went to bed,” I inform him.

Cadence loves her Uncle Case. He may not be her uncle by blood, but he adores her just as much as she adores him.

“Stacks of paperwork kept me way longer than I intended. I’ll make it up to her.” He cracks open a bottle of beer.

“Question. Do you keep your uniform on when you come over here when you’ve finish your shift because it makes you feel superior to me?” I smirk, sipping my beer.

Case is a police officer, and every time he drops by the house to see Cadence, he’s in his uniform. Like he’s trying to show me up.

“Just like making you nervous,” he replies.

“Typical.” I clear my throat. “So, guess who I ran into today.”

“Who?”

“Amelia Haven.” I can’t even say her name without smiling like a fool.

“No fucking shit? Really?”

“Really. She bought the Tybee house on Sandlewood. I came out to start her alarm system.”

“The big one you always stare longingly at when we drive by? Small world. How does she look? The girl, not the house.”

I whistle. “Looks wise, fuck me, bro. She was a solid ten for me when I was eighteen. Grown-up Mills is easily a fifty-out-of-ten. Time has been kind to her.” I don’t specify like I would with most other women. Normally, I’d give him body details, but Mills feels like mine. As ridiculous as that sounds. And I don’t want to share.

“And not looks wise?” Case asks.

“She seems like she’s running from something. Like she moved here in haste. She doesn’t really have things in her house and her last name is Allen, apparently. She was clearly married, yet she’s here alone. There’s a fucked-up story there, I can feel it.”

“How did she react to you?”

“It was odd at first. Shocking too. But by the end, she seemed to be more comfortable with me. I’m seeing her again tomorrow. I couldn’t finish her job today.”

“Was that on purpose?”

“You’re fuckin’ A right it was.”

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