Page 86 of Rewrite the Rules

Joel interlocks his fingers and touches his pointers to his lips. “Adler, I have donethoroughinvestigations and I can confirm with certainty that you do not have aLand Before Timetattoo anywhere on your body.”

I wink. “Just testin’ ya.”

“And you’re not a Littlefoot. You’re Ducky for sure.” Joel opens and closes his hand repeatedly in the ‘talks-too-much’ gesture. I glare at him with my most intimidating expression, which really isn’t saying much. “And isn’tLand Before Timea little before your time?”

“It’s even beforeyourtime. But my grandma raised me on all the good old-school stuff.”

“Your grandma raised you? Not your parents?”

I groan in reluctance. “Joel—”

“Okay, let’s make a deal. Tell me about your parents and I swear on my life I will go with you tooneSpice Girls reunion concert, should it ever happen.”

“What?!” I clap my hands together in glee. My goofy grin puts all my teeth on display.

“I can’t promise I’ll be sober…but I’ll go.”

“Fine, okay. That’s a pretty good offer, Joel Lewis. I’ll take it.”

“You have my word. One concert. Now spill.”

I exhale as my eyes fall on the patterned blanket. I fidget with my fingers as I reflect on the topic I usually try to avoid at all costs.

“My parents never wanted kids. I was an unhappy accident due to faulty birth control. And it wasn’t one of those movie moments where my mom gave birth and they realized they wanted a family after all. I arrived and from what I understand they still didn’t want a kid. My grandma mostly raised me while my parents traveled constantly. Then she passed and they had to return home and claim me. That was a real summer bummer for them.” I laugh awkwardly.

“Adler…what?” I hate the pitying look on his face. This is why I don’t talk about my parents. “I thought you were going to say something like—I don’t know, I can’t even think of anything funny right now. I’m sorry. Do you talk to your parents?”

I blow out a deep breath and prepare myself. Because it’s Joel. And he’s not going to let it go.“Rarely…over the phone. Holidays and whatnot. To this day they don’t take much of an interest in my life. I chose a lot of things they wouldn’t have chosen for themselves…like living in a city, working a nine-to-five.

“For most of their lives, my parents were penniless hippies who traveled for a living. It was my grandma who had the financial stability to raise me. My parents were happy to float continent to continent whenever they could scrape up enough cash to do so. When my grandma died, I was sixteen. My parents would come home and check in every now and then, but I mostly just remember them being gone. They left me to raise myself. I always had this feeling that they resented me for existing.”

“Where are they now?”

“Germany—their favorite country. I’m named after my dad’s favorite pub in Berlin, believe it or not. Adler’s Place. I’m told it’s where I was conceived.”

“Wow. German, French, and Italian.” Joel laughs lightly. “Our kids would be such mutts.” We both freeze. Joel’s hands lock in place on my leg. A lump rises in my throat and sits right on my windpipe, threatening to starve me of air.

“Um, I didn’t—” Joel chokes.

“I’m not—”

“Hypothetically—”

“Just to clarify—” I interrupt him again in a panic.

One of us needs to finish a freaking sentence.I steady my voice. “Joel, I’m not German at all. My parents love Germany, but I’m not German. They are travel writers. They have articles in National Geographic and History. They just as easily could’ve settled in Brazil or India.”

“Oh,” he breathes. “Writing runs in the family?”

“I suppose. Of course, my parents would never touch my books. Not their thing.”

“I would’ve never guessed all this in a million years. I pictured you with a picture-perfect suburban situation. A happy family.”

“I do have a happy family. I have four big sisters. One of which kind of doubles as a mom.”

“Quinn?” Joel chuckles. I tap my nose twice and point at him. “Cody is literally living on her Instagram page by the way. You’re going to need to warn her.”

I snort loudly. “Yeah right. You warn Cody. Quinn has room for no man in her life except her dad and baby brother.” I stand up and nod toward the balcony ledge. “Come here, I want to show you something.”

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