Page 139 of As They Are

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“Oh.” I thought about the day in the square when he’d gotten mad. That must have been terrifying—that he’d slipped up and people saw. So far, I didn’t think they did, or at least I hadn’t heard that they had.

I didn’t know the people of the town as well as Mollie did. I didn’t know how they reacted to things like this, but I could relate to the fear of losing others. Almosttoowell.

“We’ll make sure you’re taken care of,” I said. “So all the construction doesn’t bother you.”

He smiled and looked over at me. “You’re incredible, you know. I’ll miss you when you leave.”

That was the issue, wasn’t it? I was leaving.

And I had to. The jobs were in Nashville. That was where I could keep on fixing things.

What was I without that?

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Don’t be. We’ll see each other again.”

“As friends, though.”

He nodded. “As friends.”

I was crushed by this. My heart ached in ways I didn’t know it could.

“I should sleep on the floor,” I said.

“I don’t want you to.”

“But the rules?—”

“Don’t friends share beds at sleepovers?”

“They do.” But I wasn’t thinking of him as afriend.Not after this. I wanted it all with him. The sex. His life.

But I had to go back to Nashville, and I would never ask him to follow me. Not when he loved Strawberry Springs so much.

“We’ll figure out the rest later.”

“You’rethe one suggesting we just figure it out?”

“I can be flexible.” His hand brushed my cheek. “When it comes to you.”

I should have said no. I didn’t need to make this worse.

But I wanted him. In all the ways.

I climbed onto the mattress, finding it softer than I was used to. Our shared weight made it to where we were both in the center of the bed, arms pressed against one another.

“Does your mom believe in firm furniture?”

“Nope,” he said. “I try to tell her it’s terrible for her back, but she doesn’t listen.”

“It’s gonna be impossible to stay on our sides of the bed.”

“It’s a full-size bed. There aren’t sides.”

“All the more reason to sleep on the floor.”

A hand landed on my hip and squeezed. “Wren.” There it was. That warning.

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