AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She looks back at me as if she might be thinking about it, but in the end, she just says warmly, “We’ve had a good time. Thank you for visiting with us.”
Oh well.
In kind, I tell her, “Yeah, thanks for everything, especially dinner. It was all really fun.”
She nods. “You’re welcome. And please let me know if you need me to help with Lolly somehow. In any way. If you need to talk some more, or if you want to see her but don’t want to go alone….”
Remembering my struggle with all of that doesn’t make me feel like smiling whatsoever, but I do it because I deeply appreciate how much Liv cares.
“I’ll let you know,” I promise. Then I add more softly, “Listen, I’m—I’m really thankful for you.”
She looks rather surprised by that.
I’mrather surprised when she replies with next to no hesitation, “I’m thankful for you, too.”
And I feel now like I have to touch her or the whole rest of my life will be off. I’m not feeling romantic, don’t get me wrong; I don’t want to run my hands through her hair or kiss any part of her or—
—well, I mean, okay, the actual truth is that I wouldn’thatedoing those things—
—ugh, no. No.
I want to touch her because she’s a beautiful person on the inside, not just on the outside, and I think even the briefest physical contact with her would bring that much more meaning to my life. Like,‘Look! This is an actual person, not a dream person! Kick-ass people like this really exist and I know one of them!’
But since I’m still not sure exactly how she feels about the hug, I just stick my hand out to her.
Her surprise heightens and brings about a cute frown of curiosity, but she shakes my hand without any questions. Her skin is soft and her fingers are somehow both delicate and firm—like her, I guess.
It all makes for a weirdly nice handshake. I find it soothing even though I don’t really have a reason to.
“Goodnight,” I tell her.
“Goodnight,” she echoes. She gives my hand a gracious squeeze, then slips hers out of it. “Got everything you need to leave with?”
“Phone, keys, shoes, the picture Rae drew me…check, check, check.”
“Great.”
She opens the front door for me, and I step into the hall. We bid each other goodbye with a smile.
As I’m walking toward home, I hear her door shut and lock. I look back anyway to make sure she’s safely out of sight, and it occurs to me that neither of us mentioned seeing the other soon.
I’m not worried about it, though. I know it’s going to happen.
The memories of the evening and the tingling from where she squeezed my hand tell me so.
|| 9 || Liv-Andria
“So is Lolly your mom’s mom or your dad’s?”
Landon, Rae, and I are at the park again, having a Sunday picnic. Something like two and a half weeks have passed since our spaghetti dinner. We ate my chicken-and-broccoli alfredo last week (a real hit, especially with the Broccoli Monster thing), so Landon prepared today’s spread for us. He put together some simple but delicious sandwiches, cut up fresh fruit, and madethemostincredible double-chocolate-chip cookies. Yeah, I learned quickly that he knows what he’s doing when it comes to food, which only makes his enjoyment of mine that much more pleasing.
The switch from September to October hasn’t brought much of a drop in temperature, but it’s not sweltering outside today, which is nice. Rae ran off to play as soon as she finished eating, so Landon and I have been sitting on the picnic blanket, talking about this and that. I brought up his parents just now because we were talking about a nightmare I had of Kelle breaking into my house to kidnap Rae, and it somehow made me think about his mom and dad. I know they left him with Lolly and Pop when he was really little, but that’s it.
He finishes his bite of sandwich before he answers my question with, “She’s my dad’s mom.” He pauses before he adds, “She always said I look a lot like him.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen his pictures, but he quit letting her take them when he was around twelve, so I don’t really know what he grew up to look like. Apparently, we’re both tall with black hair and similar facial features, except his eyes are brown instead of green.”
