“I don’t know, Lucas or Luke—no wait, Luca. His name was Luca, I think. Cool dude.”
Silence filled the line, even though my heart was racing.
Milo cleared his throat. “You good?”
“Yep. I’ll call her after her date. Thanks dude.”
“No problem man. See ya.”
The line went dead as I took another swig, hoping to squash the jealousy rising in my gut. I opened the airline app, found our flights and scrolled through sooner ones.
“I thought I’d find you up here.”
Peering out of the corner of my eye I caught my grandmother plodding towards me carefully.Shit.I tucked the beer below the lounger.
“Too late, Jude Shin Ransom.” She ambled up and settled beside me on the lounger. “Give it to me.”
I hesitated only a second before handing it over. She took it, surprising me by taking a long drag, then immediately made a face.
“This is gross.”
I laughed under my breath. “Yeah, it is.”
She set it on the table between our sun loungers, then sighed. “Your grandfather would be proud of you, you know.”
Sucking in a sharp breath, I leaned back against the chair, hands settling against my stomach. “I hope so.”
“We weren’t pleased when your mother chose Adam. We wanted to see her—”
“I know, I know.” She’d told me the story five hundred times, much to my mother’s chagrin.
“Happy,” she finished with a bright smile. “You make your mother happy. You make all of us happy.” Studying me, she leaned over to place a small palm against my cheek. Her skin was warm. “Your father could have been happy.”
I looked away.
“We all choose our happiness. You are finding yours. What you said to him today was very brave, and he needed to hear it.”
Leaning over, I wrapped my arm around her and tucked her into my side the best I could. The city was still alive below us, cars honking and lights flashing. It was a welcome distraction from all the turmoil mounting inmy head. Graduation. My project. Adam. Basic training. The news. Solace…
No matter the distance, I couldn’t seem to sever our tie. She was at the back of my mind when I was awake and a shadow dancing along my eyelids when I drifted off to sleep. I thought moving to a different state and attending a different school might change our relationship, might give us the distance we needed, but if anything it only cemented our bond. We talked morning, noon, and night.
About everything except dates apparently. My arm slipped from where I held my grandmother in a hug.
She took it as her opportunity to bid me goodnight and scold me for the beer, before shuffling back toward the elevator, leaving me alone to sit with my tyrant thoughts. Of the bullshit between Adam and I, and the looming war that I would soon find myself caught in. But even that route of thought couldn’t keep Solace from pulling me back. Her dark skin and velvet eyes. Her rich laugh, that skated down my spine. As if conjured from thought alone, my phone buzzed.
I glanced at the screen, to where Solace’s picture now took up the whole frame. A small and stupid relief flickered as I answered, “Hey—”
“Ransom?”
I hated sharing that name with Adam. I used to despise seeing it written and wished I would have been given my mothers surname, until it came pouring out of Solace’s mouth like dribbled honey.
A smile tugged at my face. “Yeah, I’m here.”
“Sorry I missed you earlier.” Her voice was sparkling, and a little breathless, as if she’d been laughing. Faintly in the background there was another voice, deeper andclearly male. “I’m out right now—grabbing food with a… shhh. Sorry—anyway, what’s up?”
My grip tightened around the bottle before I even realized it. “It’s nothing.” The words rushed out of me even though I’d hardly meant it.
There was a pause.
