AllFreeNovel
Share Us
What was I doing? I didn’t need to impress Fiona. She had literally seen me at my absolute worst before. This wasn’t a date and I wasn’t trying to woo her.
I had to get a grip.
There was a knock at the door and I flung it open before the sound could wake Lacey. I heard soft music coming from her room though, so maybe it wasn’t a big deal.
“Hey,” I said, drinking her in. She had on a long sundress and large sunglasses that would have looked downright ridiculous on anyone else, but they looked gorgeous on her.
“Hey,” she said, putting the sunglasses on her head. “What do you want to do?”
“Well, Lacey just got back and I thought we could go out and give her some space. I still feel awkward about being here.” She nodded and leaned down to pet Murder as I grabbed my bag and put it over my shoulder.
“We could take a walk or something. Someplace shady. Or get some lunch?” It was about that time and my breakfast hadn’t been very substantial.
“Sure,” I said, shoving Murder back inside and locking the door.
*^*^*
We ended up on a little nature trail just outside of the town limits. It was the kind of trail people walked their dogs on and had picnics at the end in a little clearing, set up with picnic tables and a swing set.
“What’s your major?” I asked, which was such a bad question. I cringed to myself, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“Uh, right now? I’m not sure. I’m declared as a business major, but that’s not what I want to do. My parents made that decision for me.” Ouch. At least I didn’t have to deal with that.
“What do you want to be doing instead?”
“Psychology,” she said immediately. “I want to be a therapist and work with queer kids. I want to help them. I want to be someone they can trust.” Well if that didn’t break my fucking heart I didn’t know what would.
“Be the person that I didn’t have growing up,” she said more quietly.
“That’s amazing,” I said, totally meaning it.
“Really?”
“Yeah, it is.” A warm feeling had settled in my chest and I was trying to ignore it and failing. I was thinking too much about how things had been when we were together. I’d just seen her for the first time in years yesterday and now I was completely caving and picturing having a full- blown relationship with her again. As if that was even possible. We were both off at different schools and had different lives and there was no way it could work, even if it was a good idea. Which it wasn’t. Not even close to a good idea.
I realized I was staring at her and forced myself to look back at the trail so I didn’t trip.
“What do you want to do?”
I told her my vague plans of working in publishing. “I don’t really know. And my parents are still up my butt for being an English major. But at least they didn’t set limits on what I could study.” I gave her a sympathetic look and she smiled sadly.
“Things have changed a lot, but then they haven’t at the same time,” she said and damn, wasn’t that the truth?
“Some things don’t change,” I said and our eyes snagged. Of course, I tripped over a root in the path and she grabbed my arm so I didn’t fall.
“Sorry,” I said, even though I wasn’t sure what I was apologizing for.
“It’s fine,” she said, a little breathless. I was leaning on her and I needed to get my legs to work on their own again, but all I could see were her gorgeous eyes and the way her hair framed her face.
I coughed and then moved away from her. It took me a minute to figure out how to put one foot in front of the other. Walking, yeah. I could walk. I apparently wasn’t the only one having trouble. Fiona reached up and tucked her hair behind her ears. She’d always complained about her ears and thought they were too big. I thought they were adorable. Still were.
We walked in silence until we made it to the little clearing and sat down on one of the picnic tables. We’d timed it right and were the only ones here. I was relieved, I didn’t like people watching us. It felt invasive, even if it was well-intentioned.
“What are you going to do with yourself this summer?” I asked, leaning back into a cool patch of shade.
“I’m not sure yet. Probably get a temporary job. I can pick apples or something. I’ve done that before.” We were both lucky because the towns we lived in were dominated by summer-only industries so jobs for us were easy to come by.
“That would be cool. You’d be outside all the time.” She nodded and then laid out on the top of the picnic table.
