Page 65 of Rewind It Back

“Luke would kill me,” I say.

She nods. “He’d be upset. You guys are at that age where he’d take it personally, but he’d get over it eventually.”

“And we’re so close with their family.”

“We are,” she agrees. “Steph is my best friend, and I love Hallie as if she were my own. But how is that a bad thing?”

“I don’t know. You probably aren’t aware of this, but Hallie and I are really close. Probably closer than me and Luke.”

“Oh, I know.” She waves me off dismissively. “Honey, when are you going to learn that I know everything?”

I roll my eyes. “What I’m trying to say is that I don’t know if Hallie really feels the same way I do and I don’t know that I’m ready to risk what we have to find out. Plus, I don’t think I’m ready to admit that to Luke yet.”

She nods in understanding. “I’m not saying you need to tell either of them about how you’re feeling, but if you ever want to talk tomeabout it, I’ll always be here to listen.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Ma.”

She ruffles my hair as she stands from the couch. “I’m headed to bed. Your dad is waiting for me so we can watch our show. Good night, honey.”

“Night.”

She’s halfway up the stairs when I stop her. “Hey, Ma?”

“Yeah?”

“Am I really that obvious, or are you just saying that?”

She cackles. Wildly. Like a woman who downed two bottles of wine with her husband and best friends. “Rio, if you had ‘I’m in love with Hallie Hart’ tattooed across your forehead, it might be a little more subtle.”

“Okay,” I say with a rising inflection. “It’s clearly past your bedtime, Mother.”

She’s laughing all the way upstairs and into her room.

I finish the last of my homework before going to my own room to brush my teeth and change into sweatpants, a hoodie, and a pair of sneakers.

It’s a bit before midnight—right on time.

I look out my bedroom window to hers, where I can see her brand-new wall color—pink this time—and new furniture configuration. She only changed it up twice this year.

Hallie’s not outside yet, so I grab my warmest blanket before walking to the centerline of the roof between our houses, taking a seat to wait for her. I checked the roof the other night, and it’s only gotten warmer since, so thankfully, there’s currently no snow or ice to stop us.

Yes, Hallie and I sneak out and meet up here quite often, but there’s something about her birthday meetups that are always my favorite. Partly because there are a few winter months that we don’t get to do this. It’s too cold and there’s too much ice on the roof, so we don’t regularly meet up out here until after April. Yet, we’re a little reckless and always risk it for Hallie’s birthday in early March.

I mean, this part of the roof is flat, so it’s not all that risky. We aren’t completely out of our minds. But my other favorite thing about these meetups is that it signifies that soon enough, the sun will begin to melt the snow away for the season and we’ll get to sneak out here whenever we want for the rest of the year until the next winter comes around.

Hallie’s bedroom window slides open. “Have you been waiting long?” she asks as she steps out onto the roof.

“Just got here.”

I lift the other half of my blanket for her to sit beside me. She does, scooting in close, before I cover her with it.

“The moon is so bright tonight,” she says, looking up at it.

She’s right. It’s bright enough I can see the dusting of freckles over her nose and the upturn of her lips as she smiles at the sky.

“How was babysitting?”

“Well...” she sighs. “The oldest had a temper tantrum about bedtime and the youngest was teething. But they tipped me extra for working on my birthday, so I guess it was worth it.”

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