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I slowly nod. But I’ve got this feeling that my heart just wasn’t made to last. That I’ll need another surgery sooner or later, that my parents will have to declare bankruptcy—or worse. What sorts of things can we trim from our lives that we haven’t already?
Knox seems to read my mind. “You think you’re going to need another one.”
I swallow and press his hand to my chest. “Do you feel that?”
His gaze drops down and lingers on our fingers. Belatedly, it occurs to me how intimate this position is. I let go automatically, just as he leans in.
When his lips brush mine, it’s like everything goes still.
Even my heart.
I press up and into him, gripping the front of his t-shirt with both hands. His go under my elbows, holding me steady.
“Aurora?” Mom knocks on my door and opens it without warning.
I shove away from Knox, practically falling over backward.
Knox doesn’t move.
Mom pauses, her gaze ping-ponging from me to him and back again.
“Well,” she murmurs. “No closed doors with boys around, Aurora, you know that.” She tries and fails to hide her smile, slowly backing out of the room. “Not too late, you two. It’s a school night.”
I wait until the door to her room clicks shut, and I whirl around. My face is on fire, and Knox… the jerk is silently laughing. He wipes away tears, shaking his head at me.
“Excellent timing,” he finally manages.
I punch his shoulder. Because what else am I going to do. Kiss him again?
28
KNOX
Aurora is gone by the time I wake up.
We didn’t have the best night. After the mom death chat, and then me blurting out my long-kept secret about her sleeping with my brother, we proceeded to get drunk, stumble into the car, and fall into bed. On our own sides, with a gulf of space between us that may as well have been a mile.
I wander into the office-slash-guest bedroom, where we put her things up in the best imitation of the way she had it. There’s a paper in the typewriter, queued up and ready to go. Beside that is a stack of papers facedown.
Already typed.
I pick up the stack, noting that it starts on chapter three. It starts with:We’re drowning.And it takes me approximately four seconds to register my name in the same paragraph.
Interesting.
So naturally, I go digging for the first two chapters.
They’re not in the first drawers I check, and the last one is locked. Which piques my curiosity and convinces me that they’re hiding there. I could break the lock, or I could attempt to pick it.
Or…
As soon as my new phone arrives, I rip it open and download my stored memory. Then I dial Jacob.
Five minutes later, he’s kneeling in front of the heavy desk with his lock picks, and the drawer makes a nice little snick as it unlocks.
“Thanks.” I pat his shoulder and grab the pages, confirming I have chapters one and two in my hands. “That’s all.”
“Okay—”
