Page 119 of Promise Me Nothing
“Missed what?” he asks, giving me a tight smile, his face looking tired and distracted.
I furrow my brow. “What’s wrong?”
He shakes his head. “I’m just tired. What did I miss?”
I wrap my arms around his stomach and lift up on my toes. “It’s my birthday.”
I press my lips to his but I feel Wyatt freeze against me, so I pull back.
“Don’t feel bad for not knowing, okay? I’m surprised Lucas remembered. But there’s cake. Do you want to come inside and eat some with me?”
He lets out a sigh and presses his forehead to mine. “Happy birthday, Hannah. Sure, I’d love some cake.”
I don’t know what has him in a weird mood, but I press a kiss to his cheek and lead us inside, dropping his hand as we get into the kitchen.
“Look who I found outside!” I say, with a big smile.
Wyatt gets a chorus of hellos from everyone. He does the rounds, hugs, hand shakes. And just as Paige hands me a piece of cake, he gets to Lucas, who looks at him with a hard glare that I don’t understand before stalking out of the room.
Wyatt scratches the back of his neck, his expression uncomfortable.
But no one else notices. Everyone’s too busy eating cake and dispersing back into the living room to dance and drink and talk with other people.
I sidle up next to Wyatt. “Everything okay?”
The last thing I want to do is tell him I saw what was clearly an strained interaction between him and Lucas, but I still want him to feel like he can talk to me about it.
But he shakes his head. “Nothing,” he says, then steps away and grabs a beer from the fridge.
My heart sinks just a little bit.
This isn’t how I pictured tonight.
I thought we’d be flirty, sneak up to my room and fool around while the party raged downstairs. Not that there would be lots of awkward tension and discomfort that I don’t understand.
He stands next to me for the next half hour as we listen to Otto and that Aaron Singer guy from Harbor’s as they tell us about a trip they took to Iceland last year.
But I can see the writing on the wall when he turns to me not long after and tells me he has to leave.
“Really?” I ask, though I feel guilty even saying that. He clearly isn’t having a good evening, and I should want him to get rest or whatever he needs to make sure he feels better.
He nods. “Yeah, I’m just… my head is in a weird space right now. But I’ll text you tomorrow, okay?”
“Sure.”
We head to the front door and step out to the courtyard, and I can’t help myself when I place a soft kiss on his lips. He squeezes my hand, then gives me a tight smile. “Happy birthday, Hannah. I’ll make it up to you, okay?”
And then he turns and heads home, leaving me wondering what’s really going on.
When I wake up early the next morning, I do the first thing that comes to mind.
I pull out the manual to my amazing new camera and get to reading.
There are so many things to learn, so many differences between my old, crappy piece of shit and this new, very expensive, work of craftsmanship.
And that’s where Lucas finds me two hours later. My back against my bed, all of the camera parts spread out around me, with the manual open to one of the last pages. And a huge, nerdy smile on my face
“You know, I feel like there’s no way we can be related.”
