I temper my amusement just enough to reply. “You’re standing in front of me with unhinged electrocution hair having some sort of existential crisis in nothing but boxer briefs shielding your erection.”
Instantly, awareness takes over as his chin drops and he finally sees what I’ve been looking at for the past thirty seconds.
Before his panic wins again, I continue, “If it’s not funny, it’s awkward.” I pause, something shifting when he meets my gaze, humor smothered under the weight of his stare. “Ithasto be funny,” I whisper.
Please, let it be funny.
Silence lingers, our eyes locked. Jaw tensing with every passing second, I can tell he’s holding something back. Words. Actions. Maybe both.
He finally looks away, lungs swelling on a long breath. With a smug grin, he finally says, “I guess I should go take care of this then.”
I snort. “You probably should. It looks painful.” Falling back onto the bed, I drape an arm over my face and laugh some more. Connor hurls a pillow at me before closing the bathroom door. “You need some help?” I taunt.
“Don’t threaten me with a good time, Fish,” he hollers back as the shower jets roar to life.
“I’m sorry,I think I want to change. I’ll be right back.”
Connor only smiles, twirling the car keys in his hand, as I head back to the bedroom. I shut the door behind me and kick off my white Keds before tossing my denim shorts and white fitted tee on the bed.
I change into a coral and white gingham print shorts romper and grab my white sandals. I’m sliding my sandals onto my feet when my phone pings from the vanity.
Mom
Hope you and your brother are having a great time. Dad and I can’t wait to hear all about it. Send us pics. Love you!
Guilt pricks at my fingertips as I type out my reply.
Me
Sedona is beautiful. Love you, too!
I haven’t heard from Drew since yesterday morning and, clearly, he hasn’t spoken to our parents either. Rather than dwell oneverything he and I are keeping from them—I’m nervous enough as it is—I send over a few scenic pictures from yesterday’s hike and tuck my phone away.
When I step back into the living room, Connor looks up from where he was fiddling with his watch.
“How’s this?” I brush my hands down the front of the romper, pulling at the hem of the shorts. “I thought maybe what I had on earlier was too casual. I mean, I’m not even sure I’ll meet her today, but I wanna be ready, you know? The first outfit didn’t feel like the best outfit for first impressions.”
I puff out my cheeks, letting out a slow breath. Connor closes the distance between us and merely the proximity of him eases my nerves. His hands come to my shoulders as he says, “You’re beautiful, Gretch. In this and the other and…anything, really. It doesn’t matter what you wear, she’d be a fool not to love you.”
My heart soars, the thump of my pulse telling my head to believe his words.
“Big day,” he says.
“Big day.”
He extends a hand toward the door. “Shall we?”
Aside from thethree times I make Connor stop to accommodate my nervous bladder, the drive to Flagstaff is mostly uneventful.
We stopped for gas and he bought me a Diet Coke and peanut butter M&Ms while I ran to the restroom. “For your nerves,” he’d said.
He caught me chewing my nails, stopped me, and held my hand the rest of the way like it was the most natural thing in the world. Even when I made him stopagain, when I got back in the car, I reached for his hand like a ship finding its anchor.
As our destination draws closer, the scenery noticeably changes around us. Where Sedona is a stone and stucco town painted in fifty shades of red, the closer we get to Flagstaff, the landscape shiftsfrom desert to mountainous. Behind us are the desert mesas and unrelenting sun. Here, the sun shines through slivers of dense forests made up of towering pines, lush with green foliage. In the distance, a mountain pierces the horizon with a single, snow-capped peak.
The GPS voice commands us to take the next exit into Flagstaff, sending my nerves into the rafters. The culmination of all that I’ve done to get here over the past fifteen months rushes in: the DNA test, the adoption detective, the money spent, the lies I’ve told and the secrets I’ve kept. Not to mention the countless years prior that I spent dreaming about it all.
“It’s okay, Gretch. I’m right here with you.” Connor squeezes my hand, matching my white-knuckle grip on his.
