AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Me too.”
“And why is she out alone?” I straightened, more than a bit irritated. “Who lets their seventy-year-old mother walk Chicago streets alone?” As if on cue, Alex and his wife came in behind her, a baby carrier tucked into the crook of his elbow. “Oh, look, Alex.”
“Fuck me, because one person wasn’t enough?”
I chuckled, ducking down but watching as the four of them reunited in the entryway. “What are the odds they don’t see us if we stay put?”
“Not great. What do we do?” she asked, a bit panicked. I didn’t know how to articulate it, but her nerves irritated me. I got to hold El for four days and didn’t want to spend a moment of it ticked-off, so I did my best to shake it off, opting for humor.
“Smile and wave?” I breathed back, mimicking her dramatic stage whisper.
“Christ, are you that penguin in Madagascar?”
“Why were there penguins in Madagascar?” I asked, smirking, and not remotely bothered by the current predicament. This was inevitable. Albeit, how we got away with her week back on the island only to bump into someone in Chicago, I’d never understand. “El, we’re friends. Is it so odd to be seen out together?”
“Dressed up for a date night in a city four-thousand miles away, just the two of us? Yeah. I think it’s weird. I think it’s the end of our charade if she catches us.” Her subtlety had reduced notably as she leaned over the table, gesticulating between us. Which I found hilarious, poorly hiding that fact behind my fist as I propped my elbow on the table.
Shrugging, I pressed, “So what, El?”
“What do you mean, so what?”
“What if I want to be seen with you? We just talked about telling the family. Might as well get it over with.”
She blinked, looking a little dumbfounded, before the words tumbled out. “Right. Us tell them not Mrs. Anderson and her bingo-playing biddies down at the pool hall. We won’t even have time to talk it out before it gets back to Jameson, and then all hell will break loose.”
Something about her urgency to get the hell out of dodge didn’t settle well. Frustration planted in my bones as she extended a hand across the table. I winced when I looked over my shoulder and saw the hostess marching towards the front stand to greet them.
Sensing my unwillingness to budge, El added, “We don’t even have answers to the million and one questions any Rhodes or Mistyvale busybody will hurl in our direction. Don’t you think that’s important? Don’t you think we should be prepared to explain to Rhyett and Jameson what our plan is, so they don’t beat you half to death?”
Okay. She had a point there. With a sigh, I snatched her extended hand and stood, pulling my wallet out of my back pocket with the opposite hand, fishing out a fifty, and tucking it under the short rose in a little vase on the table.
I followed El between patrons for the back hallway, shaking my head as she glanced over her shoulder to make sure we weren’t busted. Boisterous Italian music came from the speakers, which I found ironic given the very American pallet of the menu. We wound our way to the back, and with one last glance over my shoulder to scan for the Andersons, El leaned into the kitchen door.
Her grin turned maniacal before she led me through the space, head held high as if she belonged here—as if that would ward off suspicion. Much to my dismay, it did. We somehow scooted between counters and servers bellowing, “Corner!” Without causing alarm, or having rotten tomatoes lobbed our way by pissed-off chefs.
When she pushed outside into the filthy, frozen back alley, a heavy breath rushed from her lungs and she shuffled sideways to collapse into the cold brick, like we’d just had a near-scrape with death instead of a seamless escape from a near-sighting with an elderly neighbor.
“You look like you just escaped a bear, not a seventy-year-old woman,” I noted, aiming for lightheartedness and evidently missing the mark. At least, judging by the sarcastic glare she shot my direction. I reached forward to snag her dainty fingers in my hands, stepping into her space as I asked, “What are you so freaked out about? We’re going to tell everybody anyway—would it be the end of the world if we were discovered at a kick ass pizzeria?”
“I’m not ready.”
“To explain yourself to our middle school teacher? I think she knew we were endgame back then,” I chuckled. Despite the focus furrow between her brows, the whites of her eyes grew, and I shook my head. “El, you gotta talk to me here. You’re freaking me out.”
“I’m not ready to explain myself to…anyone.”
“Baby, I’m trying to be understanding, but I’d be lying if I said I was okay with that. Are you embarrassed to be with me or something?”
Pain lanced across her expression, oddly stilling the ache in my chest. “God, Brod, no.”
“Okay. Because I know we joked about it, but I don’t actually want to be your dirty little secret.” Judging by the way her jaw popped open, I’d done a shit job of hiding the edge of hurt lingering in my tone. We wasted a decade pining for each other, but deciding to make El mine was the best thing I’d done in my life. If she said ‘go’, I’d scream it from the damn rooftops. Consequences be damned.
“You’re not. I just… my family is complicated. And huge. And overwhelming.”
“I did crash in that house more nights than not for about twenty summers.” Some nights, it felt like half the high school landed at the Rhodes’ on Friday nights. But the summers turned that old house into a clown car of teenage angst and rank smelling football gear. The entire varsity team would pile in under the guise of pizza pockets and electrolytes, but I always suspected I wasn’t the only kid that needed a hug from Juniper Rhodes.
El was right about one thing though—even when it was just the family, it was still a lot to handle. “That piece, at least, I understand.”
“And this sounds ridiculously petty, even in my head, but is it so wrong that I just want you all to myself for a little while longer? I've shared you our entire lives, Broderick. Just… for now… I want to be selfish. Please.”
