Page 32 of Choosing Forever
Poppy scoffs. “I would never.”
I laugh, knowing just as well as Darren that teasing her brother about something like this is absolutely something Poppy would do.
“Let’s do pictures. Your mom keeps asking for some,” Grandma says with a hand on my arm.
Excitement flows through me. “Okay, but no lame poses, okay?”
Grandma ignores me and gets to work. Darren traces the low cut back of my dress, and I shiver while wrapping my arm around his front, my hand tucked beneath his jacket.
“The lame poses age the best,” he murmurs, lips to my ear.
“Fine. But we have to love them enough to hang one up in our new house once you’ve built it.”
“You have a deal, Elle.”
11
PRESENT
DARREN
Abbie snapsthe beaded bracelet on her wrist and leans forward between the seats to snag the bag of licorice I keep in the console. Her hair flies in the wind from the open window when she flops back in her seat. I watch her in the rear-view mirror long enough to witness her chomp the end of a licorice and focus on the empty fields outside of town.
“What if I were saving those?” I ask, brow raised.
“You don’t like them. Why are they always in the car?”
“How do you know that I don’t like them?”
She juts her chin and rips another chunk off the licorice. “’Cause you never eat them.”
“Maybe I do when I’m alone so you can’t steal them like you are right now,” I throw back, turning off the main road.
Gravel crunches beneath the tires as I slow the car to a crawl. Suddenly, the last thing I want to do is joke around about candy. There’s no chance I can let my nonchalant mask slip without spooking my daughter, though.
As far as she knows, the drive-in was just a fun place to hang out when I was a teenager. We’re here today to fulfill the volunteerdemands Caleb placed on all of us at the station. I hadnothingto do with this idea because if Sasha heard a different story . . . that’s simply not a situation I’d like to focus on right now.
“It’s busy here,” Abbie notes.
“Most of the town is taking part in the rebuild.”
“Do we get to come here and watch movies after it’s fixed?”
My stomach tightens, an immediate dismissal on my tongue. I swallow it. “Sure.”
“Cool!”
So easily settled, my daughter pushes up a bit higher in her seat and sticks her head as far out the window as it’ll reach. The rows of vehicles already in the parking lot take me a bit by surprise. Bryce told me there were going to be a lot of people here, but I guess I didn’t fully believe her.
I spot Brody’s pickup beside Johnny’s, and Bryce’s car a few spots down. My palms become slick with sweat as I search for the same silver car that I see in the school parking lot every morning I drop Abbie off, because that’s all I’ve convinced myself I can do for now.
Continue to watch Delaney like a fucking stalker.
Pulling into the closest empty space I can find, I rein in my nerves and tuck them away for now.
“Alright, remember not to run off on me today. The station did a good job of clearing debris, but there could still be anything hanging around,” I say.
“Like a nail?”
