Page 30 of Where the Little Birds Go (Little Bird Duet 1)

After he finished laughing at me, he informed me that the classes he’d been going to for the past month got him noticed by one of the newer coaches. The guy was interested in meeting up with Corbin to talk about what he wanted to do with his life, so him and his mom spent an entire afternoon going over the details about what to expect if they had an agreement.

“What does that mean?” Gavin finally asks, holding his arm out in front of me as a car speeds by us at the intersection.

Pushing his arm down, I shrug. “It just means that he’s finally doing something about becoming an actor. You know, learning the trade and stuff.”

“Is he going to leave?”

My eye twitches. “Lincoln doesn’t exactly have opportunities for actors, Gav. He’ll leave eventually.”

He doesn’t say anything with words, but his solemn head bob makes my frown deepen. Why is he being so weird about it? Corbin won’t live out his dream if he stays here.

I elbow his arm. “What?”

He shakes his head and opens the glass door for me that’s littered with tobacco ads and two-for-one specials on soda. When I step through, I wait for him to say something. He doesn’t meet my eyes as he walks over to the counter and orders our usual pepperoni pizza.

Guiding me over to where the big bottles of soda rest on the shelf, he grabs a Dr. Pepper and then gestures toward the candy section with his chin. “Nothing, Kin. Just grab your candy so you can’t say I

don’t love you.”

After he pays for everything, we sit at a table in back and wait for the pizza. “What are you thinking?”

He sighs and stretches his long legs out, ripping apart one of the napkins from the dispenser. “If you’re just friends, it won’t matter, but you’ve never had a guy friend before. You talk about him all the time. Corbin this and Corbin that. If he’s going to leave…” His shoulders lift, then he looks up at me through thick lashes that he got from Mom. “Don’t look at me like that. I just don’t want to see you get hurt. By anyone other than me.”

“I’m not staying here forever either,” I point out, unsure of what else to say. He’s insisting that more is going on with Corbin than there is. It’ll be Christmas soon, which means the annoying cocky boy I was tasked to show around has been here for almost four months. It’s true that we’re always together, but nothing has ever happened that would warrant his suspicion about us being more than friends.

“But you’re also not going to follow him around if he ever makes it,” he counters, sitting forward and dragging his feet under his chair. “I just want you to see that your friendship with him may be great now, but it’s not forever.”

Now I roll my eyes at the thought of him trying to be all brotherly and protective. “I love you, Gavin, but there’s nothing to warn me about. Corbin and I are just friends. I won’t get hurt. One day, we’ll both make lives for ourselves outside of Lincoln.”

“And you’ll be fine with that?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

His silence is deafening.

The conversation dies into nothing but the sound of the woman making our pizza and the door opening with customers coming in to pay for gas and grab snacks.

I watch the stoplight flicker from yellow to red, and the cars turning despite the sign hanging on the line that tells them no turning right. Nothing ever stops anyone around here, and that gives me hope that everything will be okay.

Corbin will become a famous actor.

I’ll become a famous writer.

We’ll be happy.

On Christmas Eve, the giddiness of the following day takes hold of the town. The glittery decorations hanging from the streetlights make the walk from the Tryon more festive along with the carolers singing in the square. Everyone is always happier this time of year, playing nice with their neighbors and smiling more. I never understood, but I like it.

I’m halfway down Main Street bundled in three different layers when headlights get nearer from behind me. The crunching snow under slowing tires has me turning to see a white Jeep pulling over to the shoulder of the road.

“Seriously?” Corbin says.

“Hey.”

He rolls his eyes. “Get in.”

Too cold to argue, I quickly make my way around the front of the Jeep and climb into the passenger seat. The cab is toasty warm, so I put my hands in front of the vents and sigh in relief.

His scolding comes as expected. “I told you to call me when you clocked out.”

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