“I remember. That day, my Jeep.” Fontana shrugged, fidgeting with a silver ring on her finger. “Where’s Kit run off to?”
“Sleepover. Luca, too. They had darkroom time with me, then Kevin’s mom picked them up.”
They shared a smile.
She gave her ring a spin, catching a stray beam of moonlight that glittered across her skin. “It’s a nice party.”
“My parents used to have lots of them…” he began, his words trailing off.
Because this path led to the dreary and the dank.
Gradually, so it didn’t seem like he was running atop that wall, he twisted back to face the house, those brightly-lit windows, the memories. She didn’t press, didn’t push. It almost made him mad how patient she was, like she understood his emotions were on a ledge, considering whether to jump. “I’d sit out here just like this. Same sounds, same smells. I don’t know—” He ran his shoulder over his jaw to scratch an itch. “I’d sit out here, well, until the trouble started. My parents went through a lot of dishes.”
She picked at a slice of splitting brick, holding the faded pink fragment up to the light. Turned it this way and that like it was a jewel. “Is that the reason you look like you’re attending a funeral instead of a birthday party?”
He reached across, took her glass from her, and drained it. “Yep, I think that’s it.”
The night broke over them. Crickets, wind cutting through trees, an owl in the distance. The clink of glasses, muted conversation. The scent of a fireplace, turned earth, honeysuckle. Moonlight flooded over them—his knee, her cheek, their hands.
Campbell felt bound up in it.
“What did you do when the trouble started?”
No one had ever asked. But then again, he’d never told anyone. “At first, I went back in. Tried to stop it. But when I got older…”
She knocked her ugly black boot against the wall and glanced at him, brow raised.
“There was this place.” He brought her glass back to his mouth, knowing there was nothing there. He tapped it againsthis lips just in case onedropremained. And because he knew it had touched her lips. “I didn’t love it, I didn’t even like it, but I felt calm there. Closed off from the chaos.”
She hopped off the wall with such grace that his mind went right back to the way she’d moved on top of him. She was a physical woman, in every wondrous, lithe sense of the word.
“Let’s go,” she said, holding out her hand.
Caught between rough brick and need, he hesitated, lowering the glass to his side.
“Atlanta, current state: this is going to go one of two ways.” She held up a finger. “You stay out here, drink until you’re too smashed to climb the stairs to your bedroom and effectively avoid your own party, or”—she jacked her thumb toward the house—“you give up and accept Rhonda’s birthday present. Sell yourself way too cheaply on what should be a special day.”
He dropped the glass into the tall grass, ground his palms into the brick, and vaulted to the ground. “I don’twanther present.”
I don’t want her.
Fontana halted, already halfway to the house, her dress dancing around her like it had a life of its own.A spark of moonlight colored her gaze twilight-blue as she turned just enough to glance at him. “You’re not even tempted?”
“Loneliness and the memories in this town are wrapping me in a tight fist, but no, I’m not.” Not by Rhonda, anyway. He laughed, realizing what he was about to say was actually true. “I think I need a friend more than a lover.” A disgusted huff of air escaped his lips. “Imagine that.”
He held his breath, waiting for her reply. Waiting for the moment he would stop thinking she was the most stunning woman he’d ever seen, standing there on his mother’s winding garden path.
A place that had the power to shred him to ribbons.
“We’re creating another option.” She held up three fingers. “Altering your course.”
He did a two-fisted shove off the wall, swaying the slightest bit when he stood. “Can’t wait to hear this.”
“You’ll love it.” Fontana smiled, all knowing, and his stomach took another dive as he imagined hauling her up the stairs to his childhood bedroom and not letting her leave for days. “You’re going to show me this calming place.”
When she held out her hand this time, he took it.
FONTANA
