‘I can’t imagine a world where anyone could be better off without you,’ he said softly.
My eyes trailed up his body, the brown leather boots, his long denim-clad legs, the grey wool coat that draped perfectly over his broad shoulders. And then there was that face. Even after all the nights I spent lying in bed as a teenager, wondering what he would look like when we were grown up, I could never have come up with something so perfect. The lopsided smile, the dimple in his left cheek, the lock of hair that insisted on falling forwards no matter how many times he pushed it back, and those beautiful, beautiful eyes. Deep and dark and black-treacle brown, glowing with golden sparks as they locked with mine, a slight crease in his brow as though he was searching for something he hadn’t expected to find.
‘We should probably go,’ I whispered, suddenly awarethat we were sitting awfully close together. ‘Before someone hears us.’
Twisting around to take one last look at the tree, I shook off whatever it was that had come over me. Dev was engaged. As much fun as it might be, reviving a teenage crush wasn’t going to help me move on and I wasn’t looking to set myself up for two broken hearts in one calendar year. Down by my feet, Pari turned her head sharply and let out a short, sharp bark.
‘Hush, Pari,’ I hissed as she began growling at the closed door at the end of the room. ‘You’ll get us into trouble.’
Dev scooped up the excitable little dog and jumped to his feet as she started to yap over and over again. ‘Come on,’ he said, the threat of footsteps echoing down the corridor. ‘We’d better get out of here.’
Still crouched down, I rushed to the open window, hoping I was even better at breaking out of a house than I was at breaking in. Without looking down, I climbed out, one leg and then the other, before hurling myself to the ground, landing on my hands and knees and rolling onto my side in time to see Dev launch Pari out of the window.
‘Catch!’ he called as she sailed through the air, legs kicking before landing on my stomach with a happy yelp, merrily licking my face.
‘Coast seems clear,’ I called, scrambling to my feet and spinning around to check every direction. ‘Jump!’
But Dev did not jump.
Instead, he slipped both legs out the window then hung from the windowsill, his knuckles turning white as his feet scraped against the wall of the house.
‘Stop kicking your legs and drop!’ I hissed. ‘It’s not far, you’re fine.’
‘It’s too far!’ he shouted, legs still flailing around in the air. ‘Will you catch me?’
‘No, because you’re twice my size and it’s only a three-foot drop,’ I howled. ‘Dev, let go of the bloody window before we get caught.’
With an otherworldly wail, he dropped the whole three feet and landed flat on his backside.
‘Maybe a four-foot drop,’ I corrected as I pulled him upright. ‘Five at best.’
‘I can’t breathe,’ he gasped, patting himself down. ‘I think I’ve broken my arse.’
‘Dev, you are a doctor, you cannot break your arse. You’re winded, that’s all, you just need to walk it off.’
With absolutely no time for patience, I dragged him away from the house and across the grass as his breath came back in short, sharp bursts.
‘Better?’
He nodded, limping, as his staccato breathing evened out and a man’s head popped out of the open window above us.
‘Oi!’ he shouted. ‘You two, stop!’
‘Running it off would be even better,’ I suggested, bolting away from the house at top speed. Pari leapt out of my arms and galloped ahead of us, proudly yipping at the top of her little lungs as we chased her, running as fast as we could.
‘Which way should we go?’ I asked, neon sparks flashing at the edges of my vision, my breath coming hard and fast.
‘Doesn’t matter,’ Dev replied, catching my hand in his. ‘Just keep going.’
My legs screamed with every step and every shallow breath I took scorched my lungs. If I was going to take up a life of crime, I was going to have to improve my cardio, I could barely speed-walk to Starbucks without passing out. But when I looked over at Dev, I saw a huge smile on his face and hope surged through me, firing up my tired muscles. We raced across the fields, wild and free and only feeling a little bit like I might be sick, putting one foot in front of the other until I couldn’t tell if we were still running away or just running.
‘I can’t believe we did that,’ Dev gasped, looking over his shoulder. ‘Is he following us?’
‘I don’t think so,’ I replied, slowing down only enough to look behind me, the house nothing but a dot in the distance. ‘I can’t tell.’
Even if he was, it didn’t matter.
With Dev beside me, I felt as though I could run forever.