Then, because emotional devastation had reached its legal limit for the afternoon, she abruptly pointed at my sunglasses resting on the counter. “Now seriously. Where the hell did you get those?”
I laughed. “You like them?”
“Do I like them? I fuckingneedthem.”
I laughed. “I’m ashamed to say that they’re absurdly expensive.”
She waved me off. “I used to model. My standards are skewed.”
That startled an actual laugh out of me. I pulled out my phone immediately. “I’ll send you the link.”
“You’re an angel.” She gave me her number, and I saved it on my phone.
Across the room, Conrad gave me the same look that’d almost devastated me before. It was heavy and intent, still slightly dazed from what’d happened between us.
Heat rushed into my face. I turned abruptly before anyone could notice. “Well,” I said quickly. “I should probably head home.”
Billie gasped. “Already?”
“Yes, but I’ll see you tomorrow.”
CJ narrowed his eyes suspiciously at both me and Conrad. The boy had the unsettling intuition of a future novelist. Bianca looked from me to her father, then slowly returned to her funnel cake without comment.
Conrad walked me to the door. Neither of us quite knew what to say, not with the children nearby. Not after?—
Everything.
His hand brushed lightly against mine near the foyer, but it was enough to make my stomach flip.
“Thank you,” he said.
“For what?”
He held my gaze. “Today.”
My pulse stumbled. “You’re welcome.”
I escaped before my self-control fully disintegrated.
But even as I walked toward my car, I could still feel Conrad watching me from the doorway.
Somehow, that felt far more dangerous than the kissing. A kiss could be explained away as poor impulse control. It could be blamed on proximity, loneliness, or the adrenaline of the moment. Watching someone leave was different. That wasn’t about temptation. That was about wishing they hadn’t gone.
16
WINNIE
A few days after Conrad and I were almost caught in a precarious position in the kitchen, I’d decided to text Amethyst. I couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d said.My sister would’ve liked you.
The words had followed me around for days. They lingered while I watered the garden and helped with math homework. They echoed in my head when I helped Billie glue googly eyes onto a paper plate turtle that represented “the spirit of recycling.”
The problem was that I wasn’t wondering whether Jade would’ve liked me. I was wondering whether she would’ve approved of me.
I took out my phone and pulled up her number. Our text thread consisted of the link for the sunglasses, and her replying withthanks. Would she be okay with me reaching out? We’d only met once.
But I didn’t really have anything to lose, so I decided to throw caution to the wind.
Me:Hey, Amethyst. It’s Winnie. Hope I’m not bothering you.
