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She waved with her hand still in her jacket pocket. “Nice to meet you.”
“We’ll be back in an hour or so,” I told him.
“Take your time. She needs to walk off the cake she just ate off our counter.”
Sadie and I exchanged a look and giggled. As we walked away from the Pfanstiels’, I said, “Told you she’s a mess.”
She reached down to scratch Heidi’s ears. “I like her already,”
I held on tightly to Heidi’s leash, walking from the sidewalk, over the soft sand, and then to the packed sand by the water.
“It’s so pretty here,” Sadie said.
I nodded, trying to remember what it felt like to see this beach for the first time. I hadn’t taken time to appreciate how beautiful it was. “It’s stunning,” I agreed.
Sadie turned toward Diego’s house, and I followed her, thinking we could turn around before we got too close. Just seeing him in the hallways at school was hard enough. Walking by his house would be... torture. Especially now that I knew how much he’d really cared about me—how much I’d messed up.
We walked in silence for a few more moments, and Sadie said, “How’s your dad doing?”
My heart wrenched at the mention of my dad. I filled her in about him moving to the Rhodora Center. “We’re getting good reports so far, and he seemed good when I saw him at lunch today, but it’s strange, living in a home without him in it.”
“That’s so much,” Sadie said gently. “Are you okay?”
I shrugged, not wanting to tell her how hard these last few weeks had really been. “I’ve missed you a lot.”
Sadie nodded. “And Diego?”
“What about him?” I asked, trying not to slam up the guards around my heart.
She bit her lip. “I can tell he’s miserable without you.”
“He is?” My heart. My traitorous heart. This hope could break me, but I clung to it anyway.
“He doesn’t smile as much. He’s quieter in the classes I have with him.”
Guilt made me want to disappear in the sand. “Probably because he can’t play football anymore.”
“I don’t think that’s all of it,” she said.
“I was awful to him, Sadie. I pushed him away our whole relationship. I didn’t even ask if he was okay after the fight.”
A fresh round of guilt exploded in my stomach. I’d been right to avoid a relationship with him. Diego was everything good—sunshine and hope, all in a handsome package. I was a storm cloud to his perfect weather. We didn’t belong together. No matter how much I wished we did.
There was a small smile on her face as she said, “You know you could just say you’re sorry and ask him to forgive you.”
I laughed. “Could it really be that easy?”
“You never know unless you try,” she replied.
I lifted a corner of my mouth in a half smile, then stopped walking. We were getting too close to Diego’s house. “Let’s turn around.”
“Okay,” she said, glancing that way like she knew where he lived.
I turned and switched Heidi’s leash to my other hand, but at exactly the wrong time, a seagull swooped by, and Heidi was off.
“Heidi! Come back!” I yelled, willing her to listen.
Of course, she didn’t.
