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I couldn’t stop smiling.
“Are you ever coming inside, or do you live on the porch now?”
Ray rolled her eyes. “I’m coming in. Just give me a minute.”
Her mom exhaled noisily. “Okay. Oh, and, you know, it’s a little rude not to introduce me to your friend.”
I peered around Ray to give her mother—a gray-haired woman, wearing an amused smirk—a wave. “Hi, I’m Soldier. I, uh … I live next door”—I gestured toward my little house—“over there.”
She crossed her arms, never letting the smirk leave her face. “I know who you are.” Given my reputation, I wasn’t sure that was such a good thing until she added with a little teasing grin, “My daughter and grandson have made it their new hobby to talk about you.”
“Oh,” I replied, knowing damn well by the heat in my face that I was blushing like a fucking jackass.
But so was Ray.
“Thank you for that, Mom. So very much.”
“Mmhmm,” her mom replied cheerfully. “It was nice to finally meet you, Soldier. I’m Barbara, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
“Ray, I’ll give you one more minute, but after that, I can’t guarantee your son won’t be the one to interrupt your littlemoment,” she jabbed playfully before heading back inside and closing the door behind her.
Ray covered her face with her book and my letters to her, and I laughed under my breath, feeling suddenly like the teenager I had never been allowed to be.
“Oh my God,” she groaned. “I’m sorry about that.”
“It’s fine. I like her.”
She lowered the things in her hands and looked into my eyes with an unexpected desperation I thought I understood. That type of powerful, overwhelming emotion you didn’t know what the hell to do with because it was just too … everything. Too intense, too big, too consuming, too much for one person to deal with on their own.
Then, she said, “If I don’t do this, it’s going to drive me crazy all night.”
I had no idea what exactly she was talking about, and still, I nodded and said, “Okay.”
And the next thing I knew, she was stepping forward and pushing her mouth against mine in the simplest, most unromantic kiss of my damn life that lastedall ofthree seconds, in which the world and everything in it stood still and quiet.
Nobody had ever kissed me like that before, and, God, it was perfect.
She had stolen my breath in those seconds and zapped my heart into beating at the speed of light, and the moment she pulled her lips from mine, my entire body ached with the pain of already missing her.
Ray pressed her lips together as she took a deep breath, then smiled while walking backward to her door.
“Good night, Soldier,” she said quietly, shyly, keeping her eyes locked with mine.
I didn’t move a muscle, except to smile back. “Good night, Rain.”
And it was only when she disappeared inside with her book and thelettersI’d never thought she’d read that I finally walked back home, where Eleven waited for me with unamused boredom written plainly on his face.
“Don’t be jealous,” I said, closing the door behind me and knowing I’d spend the rest of my life replaying that kiss in my mind.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
LETTERS: READ
Dear Rain,
My mom visited today for the first time. I’ve been locked up for six years. No letter, no phone call—she just showed up out of nowhere. Honestly, I think I had started to accept that she just didn’t exist in my life anymore, like she was dead or something, and then the second I started to move on, there she was again. Likea canceror some shit.
