So much for a good night’s sleep. Now I’ll be up all night, replaying that sentence in my head over and over again until I drive myself crazier with wanting her than I am already.
I swallow and reach for the door. “See you tomorrow, then.” I swing out of the car, throwing my next words over my shoulder. “I’ll pick you up at one.”
“What are we doing?” Lark leans across the gearshift to peek up at me.
“I have no idea. I just want to spend as much of tomorrow with you as possible.”
She smiles. “Then pick me up at ten, silly. We’ll go get a late breakfast.”
“I get the whole day?” I ask, feeling like I just won the lottery.
Something better than the lottery.
Something no amount of money can buy.
“We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.” She smiles a wide, unguarded smile, with no secret sadness in it. “See you at ten.”
“At ten.” I slam the door and she pulls away, but for the first time watching her go doesn’t make me uneasy.
I’m going to see her in less than eleven hours, and I get the entire day with her.
And now we’re on our way back to each other. For real.
And hopefully, for keeps.
Chapter 13
Lark
By the time I creep quietly into my parents’ house, it’s almost midnight. I expect Aria and the baby to be asleep and the house to be dark.
Instead, I find Melody and Aria in pajamas at the kitchen table with mugs of cocoa, two open laptops, and papers scattered across the red tablecloth. I close the door with a soft knick, and both my sisters’ heads pop up, revealing matching guilty expressions.
“What’s going on?” I ask, kicking my shoes off by the front door.
“Nothing,” Melody says, reaching over and closing the nearest laptop. “How was your date?”
“It was fine. Great, actually.” I wander across the family room, while Aria gathers the papers, folds them in half, and shoves them under the second laptop before snapping it closed.
“What have you two been up to?” I ask, shooting the laptops a pointed look.
“Just hanging out. Researching things and…things,” Melody says, with a nervous glance Aria’s way.
“Things and things,” I repeat, raising an eyebrow at my little sister. “What are you hiding, Mel?”
“Nothing.” Melody blinks too fast.
“She’s helping me with something,” Aria says. “You know I don’t like being alone in the house when Mom and Dad are gone. Melody offered to come hang out and sleep over, just in case you didn’t come back tonight.”
“Why wouldn’t I come back?” I know Aria is trying to throw me off the scent of whatever she’s up to, but I can’t resist responding to the jab. “I told you I would be home before midnight, and I’m home before midnight.”
“Barely,” Aria says with a sniff.
I cross my arms and nod at the kitchen table. “What’s all this?”
“Just doing some research,” Aria says.
“Research on what?”
“I’m not sure yet, but when I am, I’ll let you know.” Aria picks up her mug. “I’m going to get more cocoa. Anyone else want some? Lark?”
“No thanks,” I mumble.
Something is definitely up, but Aria obviously doesn’t want to tell me what it is.
“So the date was good?” Melody asks, still sounding nervous. Melody is a terrible liar and hates hiding things from the people she loves, even good things. She was twitchy and weird for days before our mom’s surprise fiftieth birthday party.
It could be Aria and Melody are planning some kind of pleasant surprise for me, but I don’t think so. My birthday isn’t for another three months and my gut is telling me that whatever my sisters are up to, I’m not going to approve.
Which is why they’re keeping their mouths, and laptops, shut.
“Mason still on his best behavior?” Melody adds after a moment.
“Yeah,” I say, unable to keep my lips from curving up at the edges. “He was great. I think… I think we’ve turned a corner.”
“What kind of corner?” Aria asks, emerging from the kitchen with a fresh mug of steaming cocoa.
“A trust corner,” I say, ignoring the tightening around her lips. “He really understands what I went through when he left now, and I… I don’t know. I don’t feel angry or afraid anymore. I trust him never to do something like that again.”
“You do?” Aria’s brows shoot up. “And why is that? People don’t change overnight, you know.”
“It hasn’t been overnight,” I say, doing my best to remain calm, not wanting to get sucked into an argument right before bed. “It’s been four years.”
“And who knows what he’s been up to for four years,” Aria says. “He could have slept with every woman in Manhattan. Or been arrested. Or joined a cult. Or become a vegetarian who will never eat bacon with you again. You have no idea.”
“He hasn’t done any of those things,” I say. “And we talked about the other people we dated yesterday. There’s been nothing serious for either one of us.”