“What about your song?” Annieprompts.
“It needswork.”
“I canhelp.”
“No.” She looks hurt, so I explain. “Being here with you like this… it feels like oldtimes.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing. We had some good times,” shemurmurs.
They weren’t bad at all, and that’s theproblem.
I can’t say that it reminds me of the easy intimacy we used to have—letting each other in, working together, relying on oneanother.
Craving eachother.
My attention drops to her necklace. Despite the voice in my head insisting this is a terrible idea, I hook a finger around the chain, drawing it out of her shirt. Her breath catches as it drags up her skin, revealing the glasspendant.
The troubling familiarity shifts into recognition, a key sliding into a lock as I turn the pendant in my fingers. “Your dad’sroses.”
“The day after I got grounded, we hung out by the pool, and you carried me up the driveway, and you gave me thatrose.”
Surprise slams into me—that she remembers it, that she kept it, that she wearsit.
“You were a jerk that day,” Annie goes on, oblivious to the emotions roiling insideme.
When I reply, my voice is an octave lower. “I was a jerk because I wanted you so much. Wanting you makes megrumpy.”
She arches a brow, her full lips twitching. “Then I guess it’s a good thing we never slepttogether.”
My next breath is ragged. “I said wanting you made me a jerk. If I’d had you, I would’vebeen…”
I trail off, but her half-lidded gaze roams my face before falling to mymouth.
“What?” shemurmurs.
Whole.
The word fills my mind withoutpermission.
“I think you would’ve been happy,” shefinishes.
The truth of her words echoes through my chest. It’s impossible to rewind to a time before this girl knewme.
If we were dust in the air, her soul would call tomine.
I drop the necklace, reaching up to play with a strand of hair that’s escaped her bun. “I used to wonder if you went to prom. How you would’ve worn your hair if youdid.”
“I wore itup.”
My chest tightens. “Did you goalone?”
“No.”
I wrap the strand around my finger, tugging. “Did you dance withhim?”
Her eyes darken. “Yeah.”
“Kisshim?”