Page 41 of Any Second Now
“Also, my dad’s getting divorced.”
“Wow.” Her face crumples. “Lucy didn’t tell me that. Number four?”
I nod.
“I just told Lucy the other day. She won’t pick up his texts or calls, which is gloriously savage.”
“Twice divorced is bad enough. Four times? That’s his whole personality now.” Raleigh looks like she’s thinking too hard, with her forehead remaining furrowed and her lips pressed tightly together.
“Would you want to get married again?” I slip the question right in there, making things more awkward. But she rolls with it.
“I used to think I needed to be married to be happy.” Raleigh sighs and pulls at her hair with one hand. “Like, any second now, happiness will fall into my lap. I was waiting for it to all come together.” She lets her eyes fall shut for a long beat. “I think my mom was probably right. Focus on myself and a career and a future, with only me in it.”
Raleigh and I are so very different. She’s been chasing—craving?—a stable, standard, suburban life, but is it what she really wants? Or is she working to follow her mother’s wishes, and then her husband’s, and maybe even society’s, but ignoring what she wants from life? Does she even know?
Iknow what I want. And it’s what I’ve been focused on for my entire life: hockey.
Maybe, for once, I’m the one who gets it. I know who I really am. Like it or not, I’m my father’s son, and that’s why I’ve never dated someone seriously. I don’t want to hurt people like he has.
Especially someone like Raleigh.
So while I love hanging out with her, I need to behave myself while she’s in town. I’m just getting to know her again. Hanging out. This isnothing. I’ve gotta make sure we don’t fall into something that can’t happen. Something where I’ll hurt her.
“So, are you ready to ask out Tulip?” Raleigh breaks through my thoughts.
“Rose.” I smirk and raise my eyebrows. “It’s Rose.”
“Right.” Raleigh reaches up and runs her pointer finger over her bottom lip, then touches her neck. I watch, mesmerized at the way she touches her own skin.
“I’m not ready to ask her out yet.”
Or ever, probably.
“Why not?” Raleigh blinks at me. She definitely isn’t buying my bullshit.
I clear my throat and sip from my wine. “I think I need more coaching first.”
Raleigh raises her eyebrows but doesn’t comment.
The waitress delivers our food and Raleigh and I shift our conversation back to ways to ruin a first date. Turns out, all of them are too long to fit on a cross-stitch hoop.
See, I’m even learning her language.
And when I order the creme brûlée and she orders the cheesecake for dessert, I insist that she have the first bite of both.
“You’re a good student.” She smiles and takes a second bite of my creme brûlée.
A half an hour later, we’re on our way back to the Pink Palace. I wanted to make the night stretch longer, but she said she needed to get back.
I pull up at Raleigh’s campsite. She doesn’t get out right away.It’s not like I’m nervous—I’m not going to kiss her—but there’s an anticipatory tension in the car.
“Hey, what are you doing on Friday?” I say, the words out before I can really consider them.
“Hanging out with a chicken in an RV?” Raleigh says without hesitating.
A smile twitches on my lips.
“Well. I hate to mess up your plans, but it’s the fourth of July, and that seems sad and lonely. Want to do something?”
