Page 21 of The Now in Forever
She laughs. “Stick with me, babe. I’m nothing if not adventurous.”
I smile. “What’s next? Antiquing? Pottery? Knitting club?”
“Those all sound great to me. It can’t all be your wild, perfect day.”
My stomach sinks to my toes along with all the blood in my body, and I nearly drop my wineglass.
Ed puts his phone down, tuning into the conversation.“Perfect day? When was this?”
Nathan raises an eyebrow like an obnoxious older brother.
My throat turns as dry as sand. I take a sip of wine while everyone stares at me waiting for my answer. “I don’t really remember when it was. It was a long time ago.”
Robin is looking to the clouds, searching for the answer. “It must have been…ten years ago. Wow, has it been that long? It was the summer you worked at?—”
I cut her off. Ed and I are getting along. It’s fine that he doesn’t rememberthat day.He certainly doesn’t need to now.
“It was so long ago. We don’t have to talk about it.”
Robin nods, getting the message.
A deep groove appears between Ed’s brows. “I had a day like that once. It was a long time ago.”
My heart stops, but I don’t say anything, waiting if he’ll say more. He has to be talking about us.
He says, “What made yours perfect?”
“It wasn’t about what we did.” My heart rate spikes at the use of the wordwe. I quickly clarify. “I mean the guy I was with and me. None of it was particularly special or even things I would’ve chosen for myself. It was—I don’t know how to describe it. It was the vibe, I guess.”
Ed is nodding like he understands what I’m saying, even though I just said a bunch of incoherent gibberish. The vibe? I’m a writer, and that’s the best I can come up with?
Nathan asks, “Who was the guy?”
Robin shakes her head. “Don’t even try it.”
“What? Is it girl secrets?”
“She won’t even tell Anh and me,” Robin says. “And we’ve tried all our tricks. Letting her come to us. Nope. Margaritas. Nope. She’s taking it to her grave.”
My cheeks are burning. “Come on. We have all summer to swap secrets.”
Can’t we just move on?
Nathan frowns. “Well, until Ed goes to LA. When are you leaving again?”
“In a couple weeks.”
He’s leaving. Again. Fuck. Why didn’t he mention this when we talked about our plans for the summer? The book party. Trading manuscripts.
“But I won’t be gone long. Plenty of time for secret swapping.” Ed raises his glass. “To secrets.”
THE STORM IS YOU
TEN YEARS AGO
Icheck my texts behind the counter. One says:
Grandma: Have fun, Hattie Bear. I hope your first day is going well. Love you. -G
