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Nix wasn’t exactly popular at Kingmakers. That’s probably what drew me to her in the first place—if I were a gardener, I’d only grow cacti.
I hear the commotion in the house that can only mean that Adrik and the others have returned. The dogs bark with joyful excitement. Rafe tells them to shut the fuck up much too nicely for them to actually obey.
Rafe comes out on the porch, hunting for Nix. She jumps out of the hammock, almost swinging me out on my ass, so she can throw her arms around his neck and kiss him.
Adrik stands in the doorway, dark and unsmiling.
The urge to jump up like Nix and put my hands on him is almost overwhelming. I can’t not look at him when he’s close. I can’t stop this burning all over my skin, this anxious churning in my guts. It’s lust and it’s need and it’s something else I can’t put into words because I don’t understand it—I don’t understand how it can be so strong when we’ve only spent a dozen days together, spread out over months.
How has he become so essential to me?
I don’t like this at all.
I’m vulnerable. Cracked open like one of those crabs down on the beach, exposed to any gull that wants to drive its beak through my heart.
“Do you want to go for a drive?” Adrik asks me.
I should say no. I’m only making this harder on myself.
Instead, I’m already on my feet.
All The Things She Said – Poppy
Spotify → geni.us/savage-spotify
Apple Music → geni.us/savage-apple
We take Rafe’s car, which he’s lent repeatedly without question. Rafe knows what it’s like to keep secrets. To want something you’re not supposed to have. To sneak away again and again for a taste of it, promising yourself each time that this will be the end, you’ll finally be satisfied …
I let Adrik drive because it’s his cousin’s car.
My rules about cars aren’t as strict as bikes. Even so, I don’t sit in the passenger seat unless I’m confident in the driver.
Adrik operates the Mustang smoothly and efficiently. He knows competence is more impressive than speed.
The road unspools beneath us, his arm resting lightly across the back of the bench seat.
“You leave tomorrow,” he says.
It’s not a question; we both know this already. The silent clock has been counting down in his mind as much as mine.
“Seven a.m.”
“I’ll drive you to the airport.”
I want to say,thanks,but I can’t trust my voice. It might break or come out in an embarrassing squeak. Better to say nothing.
Why does this feel like we’re parting forever? Why am I so upset?
The sun sinks down heavy and red ahead of us, casting long shadows from every tree and post.
Because no one knows how many days they have, or how many chances. Everything changes. No one stays the same.
Adrik pulls into a lookout point, high above the Pacific. The beach below is dark rock, no sand and no sunbathers. We’re surrounded on two sides by towering fir trees and Ponderosa pine. The sunset is bloody—vivid and angry.
Adrik kills the engine, turning to me. For once he doesn’t seize me and kiss me, but only looks at my face, eyes narrowed, jaw stiff. He runs a hand through his thick shock of hair. His fingers are like claws, his shoulders hunched.
“I don’t want you to go.”
