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It’s cowardly. It’s low. As if Alice wouldn’t want a cookie. But I really can’t go for a bike ride. Not with the girls. Still—I don’t tell her where I’ll be. I don’t mention that I’ll probably take the girls home around seven, giving Coco a good three hours to rest. And freeing up the rest of my night. I don’t tell her because…
Iama dummy.
But I’m a dummy who needs to get his head on straight.
36
Meredith
With the advice of my thirteen-year-old friend, I don’t text Levi for twenty-four hours. I play Scrabble with Uncle Bob—part of his celebration for finishing his novel. I also lose horridly. And I go on no less than eight bike rides.
The sky is dark, like the moon isn’t planning to show his face tonight, and I’m riding—again. And somehow, I don’t know how, I end up in front of Levi’s house.
So much for laying low.
It’s been twenty-four hours since he last texted me, since he told me he was babysitting and couldn’t get together.
Is this normal? To kiss a girl and then not talk to her for a time? I’m having flashbacks to Toby Nelson. I don’t care for normal. In fact, I’m pretty sure I loathe normal. I don’t have to go along with normal. Since when has Meredith Bess Porter ever been normal?
I’m sitting on my bike, thinking, deciding what I’ll do when Levi’s front door opens and he steps outside, a bag of trash in his hand.
“Hey. Hi!” I yip. “I was just riding my bike. I wasn’t standing here staring at your house.” Okay… there’s a reason I always tell the truth, I can’t lie to save my life. This is a new revelation. A mistake I won’t make again. I clamp my mouth shut.
“Hey.” He trots down the steps and tosses the bag into the can on the curb. Hands in his pockets, he saunters over to where I sit on my bike. “How are you?”
“I’m good. I’m so good.” Whew. My mouth and brain have opened a new door—a lie-about-everything door and do it on repetition.Close the door, Mer!
“That’s…” he rocks on his heels. “Good.”
“It is.Sogood.”
“Did you want to come in?”
And then, the real Meredith is back— “I do. Yes.”Truth.
I hop off my town bike and Levi reaches for the handlebars. His fingers brush mine, and shoots of electricity make their way through my hand, arm, and body. Did he feel that too?
He definitely did. Who could miss that electricity?
Sure, we haven’t talked for a few hours—twenty-four of them actually.
But that doesn’t change the fact that we spent a beautiful day together, that we ended that day with a thousand sweet kisses.
We pass through the entry and Levi peeks back at me. “Ah, sorry. I haven’t cleaned up. We had the girls yesterday so Coco could rest, and things are still a bit out of order.”
I step over a train of stuffed animals and reach for Levi’s hand.
I am not afraid of my feelings.
And while I’m unsure if I’m afraid of rejection or not yet, I’m more afraid of not trying.
He peers back again with my touch. I slip my fingers through his and he holds on, squeezing my hand and searching my face. “Come on. The kitchen is in better shape,” he says leading me past more toys and an empty baby bottle.
“How’s Alice?”
“Uh, better. I think. She was good at ordering me around yesterday. So, that’s a good sign.”
I smother a laugh. “Did she make it to school today?”
