“So, you’re overdue.”
He turns his head to look at me, a wide smile taking over his face. Pulling our old juvenile pranks feels like this time hasn’t passed at all. Like we’re the same teenage kids we once were. Like nothing has changed.
It feels good to have Landon back in my life. It’s alarming and refreshing all at the same time.
Lying on the lawn, gazing into each other’s eyes, a lull falls over us and time stands still. For a moment, everything around us fades away. Someone’s yappy dog down the block. The cars passing by. The buzzing of the bumblebee by the flowers near the porch.
Nothing else exists.
Nothing except Landon.
His tongue skims across his bottom lip, and I fixate on it, enamored by the smooth, plumpness of it. His hand comes up to trace the outline of my face, his fingers following over the contours of my jawline. My skin pops and crackles like a roaring fire. Heat rises from my core, threatening to combust and engulf me in flames. Landon’s thumb glides over my lips, while his other hand still holds my own, firm and strong.
“I’ve missed you, Ainsley.” His low, deep voice smooths over my skin like silk. His hand finds mine, and he laces our fingers together between the blades of grass. “Life wasn’t the same without you in it.”
My heart hammers in my chest, and I swallow hard. “You were just bored without someone to antagonize.”
He shakes his head. “No. I missedyou.”
“I missed you too.” As much as it pains me to admit...I didn’t realize how much until he came back.
Emotion swims in the depths of his honey-brown pools. “I let my father get in my head, and get between us. I was all sorts of fucked up back then.”
“You were going through a lot, and I didn’t make it any easier on you.” I pause, my eyes bouncing between his eyes as I reveal a truth I haven’t admitted to anyone. “I was so scared of losing my dad, of being alone, that it was easier to isolate myself from everyone. Lacrosse was all I had to throw myself into, and I let it take precedent over everything else.”
Landon presses his lips together. “I hated leaving you.”
I turn onto my side, propping my head up with my hand, my elbow resting in the grass. “Can I ask what happened with your dad? What made your mom finally kick him out?”
He roughs a hand through his hair, tugging at the ends. “He got drunk one night, like he always did. He came home late and got pissed that Mom didn’t wait for him to have dinner. She mouthed off to him, because she just couldn’t take any more of his bullshit, you know?” Landon sighs. “My dad ended up pushing her, and she fell. Hit her head on the corner of the counter and had to get stitches.”
I clamp my hand over my mouth.
“I live with the guilt of him putting his hands on her, knowing he wouldn’t have gotten to her if I were there.”
I grip his shoulder. “That wasnotyour fault. You are not responsible for your father’s choices. And I know it might sound harsh, but him pushing her was a good thing. It was the catalyst that got him away from her. So, don’t assume the blame for any of his shit, you hear me?”
“There were so many nights I wanted to call you. To vent. To ask for one of your pep talks. Even just to sit in silence on the phone.”
“You could’ve.”
“I didn’t deserve it.”
“I would’ve been there for you anyway.”
Landon leans in and presses his forehead to mine.
A part of me heals. A piece of my past. A piece of my heart being stitched back together by the person who broke it. I didn’t know I needed this talk with Landon, or at least I pretended like I didn’t need it.
Landon ends up finding the dead skunk in a corner behind a pile of boxes. After he leaves for his mother’s appointment, I cry for the poor dead animal.
And for the teenage version of me who never thought this day would come.
Landon Fletcher apologized.
What’s more...I forgave him.
Chapter 23
