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I give her a grateful smile. “Thank you, Addie. But I want to hear all about you. Tell me everything.”
“That’s a dangerous thing to say, babe. I’m a talker.”
“Don’t care. Give me the full rundown. Don’t miss anything.”
We release each other’s hands, and she adjusts herself in the driver’s seat before pulling the Jeep onto the road. The sun is setting in front of us, casting a beautiful glow over the horizon. With the sunroof open, the radio playing a country song, and the comforting company of an old friend, I feel good. I tuck the memory of this feeling away for later tonight when I’m sure I’ll need it.
“Well, I signed up to be a Girl Scout about two months after you left and only managed to last three weeks before I was kicked out for refusing to listen to the leaders on a camping trip. Then I joined a few school sports teams, but nothing really stuck.”
“I can’t picture you as a Girl Scout or on a sports team.”
She laughs, the sound so pure and carefree. “Me following a stern set of rules and a schedule? I was setting myself up for failure.”
“You’ve always been a wild child. Everyone else should have known better,” I tease.
“That’s what I said! Anyway, Cooper and Dox taught me to skateboard when I was fourteen, and I broke my ankle a month later and then my wrist a few weeks after that. Dad hid my board for a while so that I couldn’t hurt myself again, but after I got my first job at that adorable little cupcake shop on Clover Street, I bought a new one. Surprisingly, that hobby has stuck around over the years. Have you ever skateboarded?”
“No way. My balance is awful to start with.”
“You should try it anyway. I can teach you sometime.”
I glance at her and smile. “I would like that.”
“It’s a date.” She changes lanes and steps heavily on the gas. I jerk in my seat while she taps her hands excitedly on the steering wheel. “Do you remember when I said I wanted to skydive?”
“Of course I do. You scared the crap out of me when you told me that.”
“Well, I did it! You should have been there, Brax. There’s nothing like it.Nothing.”
My jaw hangs open. “You actually did it? Yourdadlet you jump out of a plane?”
“After he knew how happy it would make me, of course he did.” She winks. “It helped that Cooper volunteered to join me. I’m sure Maddox would have, but you know how terrified he is of heights.”
“Cooper jumped out of a plane?” I sputter.
“It was him or Noah, and Noah wasn’t in the right space to be doing anything like that.”
My heart warms. “Cooper did it for the both of you.” God, I love that guy.
Addie’s neck and ears are pink when she says, “What about you? Besides slaving away at school, what have you been doing?”
“Well, I definitely wasn’t doing anything as exciting as jumping out of a plane. I spent most of my time rushing between school and work, but after I graduated, I did take a trip to Spain with a few friends. It was probably one of the best weeks of my life.”
My college dormmate spent two days convincing me to come with her and a few of her friends on a trip to Madrid, and while we were all dirt poor and had been living off ramen noodles for the past couple of years, she managed to get me to come. I still don’t know how she managed to do it, but I don’t regret my decision. Not even a little.
Besides my decision to pack up my life and go to school across the country, it was the most impulsive I’d ever been.
“Oh, my God! Where did you stay? Barcelona is on my list of places I’m going to travel to next year.”
“Right. Your big trip, right? We stayed in a hostel in Madrid. If you don’t mind rooming with strangers and having to share a bathroom, it’s not a bad option.”
She shudders. “Sharing a bathroom?”
I laugh. “Maybe budget to stay in hotels.”
“I’ve been saving money for this trip since my sixteenth birthday. Everyone thinks I’ll change my mind about leaving, but it won’t happen.”
“Do you have anyone to go with you? I think you going alone is what’s freaking everyone out.”
