I’d overheard Collin from fourth period say Dalton would be coming home for summer, but I thought I’d have more time to build the wall around my heart and fortify it with barbed wire. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered—Dalton had always been my kryptonite, and he would’vebeen able to blast through any shield I put against him with ease.
That was Dalton. So easily able to rip me apart.
But more than anger, I felt an even more traitorous emotion, one that, deep down, I’d always known would come back—longing.
“Wow, man,” Jamie said suddenly. He even stood up and offered Dalton a handshake. Ahandshake. Like they were old friends and not actual enemies. “Crazy to run into you in Jefferson. Aren’t you still supposed to be back in… Arkansas?”
“Arizona,” Dalton corrected, as if Jamie hadn’t gotten it wrong on purpose. “I just got home for summer break. My grandma lives in Jefferson, so I was just on my way to see her.”
Hisvoice. The same voice that I’d fallen to sleep to when we’d talk on the phone until late. The same voice that used to tell me that he loved me before he kissed me. Every single time.
Come on, Daisy, get a grip. Find a quip. Insult him. Something.But I couldn’t even form a word.
I hadn’t seen my ex-boyfriend since the day we broke up mid-August when he’d stood on the porch of my house with a box of my things in his arms. Things I’d left at his house, in his car, things I’d bought for him—they were all tucked neatly inside a cardboard box.
It’s been fun. A two-year relationship reduced to three words.
And then several more hurtful ones followed.
I’d thought everything had been going smoothly. Sure,Arizona State University was over two thousand miles away, but we’d made a game plan of texting every morning, calling every night before bed, and FaceTiming on weekends. We’d talked it through, planned it out, and it had just come down to execution.
I’d just been preparing for thewrongkind of execution.
“I thought I saw you two over by the art store.” A weird note crept into Dalton’s voice, but I refused to look up at his expression to see what it was. Refused. I shouldn’t have been curious. I shouldn’t have been desperate to see it. “Nellie’s not with you today? You’re missing one part of your trio.”
Instead, I focused on Jamie, who had a calm expression. “Oh, this is just our adventure today.”
There was something strange about the way he phrased it. He didn’t tell Dalton about Nellie’s perfect attendance. No, he framed it in a specific way.Just our adventure.
“I bet you’re excited for graduation, Daisy,” Dalton said to me, leaning down enough that I could see his chin from the corner of my eye. Too close. The scent of his cologne tickled my nose, but it was enough to shatter something in me—he evensmelled the same. “You’re off to NYU in the fall, right?”
Hearing the college name on his lips was what did it. Much how Penn had reared up screaming after I’d thrown water onto her sleeping figure, that was how I felt now.
He couldn’t have known I hadn’t gotten in, but in that moment, itfeltlike he did. There was no condescension inhis eyes, nor in his voice, but for how certain he’d been I wouldn’t get in last year, his belief now didn’t make sense.
It’s a little silly to hear you talk about NYU like you’ll go, he’d said to me.I need someone in my life with more ambition.
Even thinking those words had my heart breaking all over again.
I was immediately very glad I’d given the napkin to Jamie and Dalton couldn’t see it on the table.
Despite absolutely everything—the way things ended, the way he’d broken my heart, and the way he showed up now with no mercy—something in my chestpulled, like there was a tether between us that suddenly yanked taut.
There was one other thing I’d wished for Dalton Giovanni. One thing I’d prayed for in secret nearly every night.
That he’d crawl home and beg me back.
And then, underneath the table, I felt it.
Jamie’s foot slid softly against mine, the toe of his sneaker brushing against the side of my shoe. It drew my attention to him. His eyes behind his glasses were locked on me, his thoughts as clear in my head as if he’d spoken aloud.
Don’t do it, Daisy.
Out of everyone in the world, James Brighton could read me the best.
Guilt and shame drenched me, with embarrassment hot on their heels. Without thinking, I stood from the picnic table, bringing my ice cream soup with me. Dalton leaned back, startled, and I held my cup so tightly in myhand that my nails nearly cut through the Styrofoam. Dalton’s gaze was open, almost pleased, as if we were old friends running into each other and catching up. As if nothing had happened between us at all.
My heart twinged again, and I realized the ache was coming from all the small little tears in it. The places that hadn’t fully healed from when he’d forced me to piece it back together.
