Page 103 of Into the Mountains
“Please, just peel out of here. Do donuts. Drift. Whatever you need to do to make the fastest escape you can.”
Eli laughs like I’m not being serious. “Go on, honey. You’re in denial that you miss them just as much as they miss you.”
I glare at him.
“Okay, maybe you don’t miss them that much, but I know you care for them. And you’ve been busy with me and the project and this trip. You deserve to have fun with your friends.”
“I’d rather have fun in your bed.”
He moves closer until I can smell the bittersweet smell of the latte he drank on the way here on his breath. His thumb brushes a trail across my cheek like the wind carrying a leaf through a meadow.
After another beat of letting myself be self-pitying, I straighten my shoulders. “This is what I get for being so nosey in their lives. And for being so blunt all the time. I mean we all practically had half our bodies outside Jacob’s window when him and Sky were going at it on the porch.” Elias’ eyebrows rise up to his hairline, questioning. I figured Sky would have told him what had happened. The point is, this is karma making its full ass circle.
Eli leans forward and presses his lips against my forehead, cupping the back of my neck as he does. I breathe him in once more before I finally let him send me off to my fate.
“You can’t leave anything out,” Avery pushes. I know what the ocean creatures at the aquarium must feel like now with all the humans pushing their faces closer to the glass to get abetter look. With all three girls looking in my direction, each pair of eyes are begging for details of my excursion with Elias last weekend.
“Well, it wasn’t all steamy sex and fun times.”
“So there was steamy sex?” Sky raises her eyebrows a few times, taking a small sip from her glass.
“Yes, but it was hard.”
“I bet it was,” Sophie mutters.
I groan. “Seriously.”
“Okay,” Avery puts down her drink and tucks her legs under her, leaning forward, all business now. “We’re listening. No more jokes.” She eyes the other two until they nod, agreeing.
“It just wasn’t easy going back there. I left a lot behind.” I tell them about Andy and Meredith and my relationship with them. Everything about their feelings toward me leaving, their newest addition coming soon, and visiting my house again. Seeing it after being away for so long and facing the fear I had.
And then I filled them in on the dirty details too. I just saved those for last so the whole weekend story didn’t end on a depressing, grief riddled note.
“It sounds like you and Eli are really into each other,” Sophie states. She doesn’t even question it and there’s a small flicker of something that flashes on her face, but it’s gone before I can read it. Usually when we talk about this kind of stuff, she shuts down. Her crush on a certain mechanic has never panned out because she’s always been way too afraid to act on it. Him too. But something is different tonight.
“Sophie?” I’m not going to miss an opportunity to shift the attention off me and attempt to get some gossip from her.
Immediately her cheeks redden like she knows she’s already been caught. She takes a gulp of her red wine, staining her lips. “What?” She’s trying to sound calm, but there’s a slight tremble to her voice that gives her away.
I lean closer to her, elbow digging into my leg as I prop my head on my hand. “Who’s the guy?”
“What guy?” She tries to brush it off.
“Wait, there’s a guy?” Sky whips her head toward Sophie, practically snapping her neck by the speed she does it.
Sophie sets down her glass and starts pacing in front of the coffee table. “There’s a guy,” she admits.
“Who?” we all yell at the same time. She grimaces against our voices.
A mumble leaves her that sounds like “Max.”
“Who’s Max?”
“Not Max.” Her feet still and her eyes dart between the three of us. Until Avery gasps.
“NO WAY!”
Sky and I look at each other, confused looks mirrored on the other’s face.
