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“You never mentioned that Maeve was still around.”

“I honestly never thought about it.” Anna shrugs. “There are lots of people who we went to school with that are still here. She moved back two years ago, I think.” She looks at Tiffany for confirmation, but she just shrugs. “We all take a Pilates class together every other Thursday.”

“That sounds fun.”

“I don’t know if it’s fun, but you should join us.”

“Maybe.” I dunk my grilled cheese in my soup and sigh in absolute happiness when I take a bite.

“Oh great, Mia’s here,” Tiffany tells us, and I can’t help but peek over my shoulder. After Anna told me that she and Wyatt dated and that they are still friends, I’m curious if she’s changed, if she is nicer than she used to be. I’m also wondering if she is someone he slept with but never actually slept with. Like she feels me looking, her eyes come to me, and she presses her lips together.

Okay, that’s weird. We were never friends, but we did share basic pleasantries whenever we saw each other.

“What did you do to her?” Tiffany asks.

“Nothing.” I turn back to my food.

“She probably heard that you and Wyatt are spending time together,” Anna tells me, then adds, “They might have been short lived, but rumor is she was banking on winning him back.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah, but Kolter told me that Wyatt wasn’t even a little interested.”

“How long did they date?”

“Maybe a couple months. I’m actually not really sure. I don’t think it was as serious as she wanted it to be. Wyatt has been coming to your parents’ for dinner on Sundays for just about as long as he’s lived in town, and he never brought her or even brought up that he was seeing her. The only reason I found out is because she told me.”

Hmmm. I focus on eating rather than on the pit in my stomach that I don’t like very much and the jealousy that I’m not even a little willing to dissect right now.

Chapter 19:

So It’s Official

Genevieve

“When you asked if I wanted to go out, I thought that we were going to do something fun.”

“This is going to be fun,” Wyatt tells me over the walkie-talkie he gave me before leaving me with a kiss way up at the top of a tree in a deer lookout. If anyone was to ask why I’m in this situation, I’d just point out how good looking he is and how stupid he obviously makes me. I probably should have asked questions, but I didn’t; I was just happy to be spending time with him. How was I to know that when he told me to dress warm and to wear shoes that I could walk through the woods in and didn’t mind getting dirty, this was what he had planned?

“Is it too late to tell you that I’m afraid of the dark?” I ask, looking down at the forest below me. The sun is starting to set, so there is a good amount of light, but there is not enough to see very far, and honestly I’m kind of getting freaked out about being alone in the middle of the woods with darkness creeping up on us.

“You’re not afraid of the dark, baby,” he mumbles, sounding distracted. “And we’ll be there soon.”

“What if he can’t find me, though?”

“He’ll find you.”

“But what if he can’t?”

“Then we head home and try again tomorrow. There are a couple protein bars and a bottle of water in the bag I left you with. That should get you through the night.”

“I hate you,” I whisper, and he laughs.

“I’m almost back to the truck,” he says as I hear a branch break nearby.

“I just heard something.”

“It’s probably just a deer.”