Page 17 of Just Forever

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs.

“Don’t be an idiot,” I murmur back.

I can feel his lips quirk into a small smile before he snorts. I shrug my shoulder so his head moves up and down until he lifts it and looks at me.

“Want to get out of here?” I ask.

“I really, really do.”

I ache to take his hand in mine, but I can’t risk making things worse, so instead, I stuff my hands into my pockets to avoid doing something stupid.

“Come on, then,” I say.

LAKE

“Sorry you didn’t getthe good dinner,” Ryker says.

I look down at the slice of pizza I’m balancing on my fingertips and raise my brows at him. “You’re kidding, right? You said I’d be eating sheep balls. Thisisthe good dinner.”

Ryker laughs softly, finishes off his slice, and plucks one of the napkins from where we stashed them under the box earlier. He wipes his fingers clean, balls the napkin up, and tosses it into the now empty pizza box.

He grips the edge of the dock we’re sitting on, his eyes on the glowing skyline of Boston. It’s late, and it’s dark, so the view is pretty damn great, at least, even if the mood is somewhat somber.

“That was a shitshow,” Ryker says.

I mean, yes. But I’m not going to say that out loud.

“It could’ve been worse.”

Ryker slowly turns away from the city and looks at me with a dubious expression. “How?”

“A black hole could’ve opened up in Boston and swallowed the earth whole.”

He mulls over it for a moment before he nods. “That would’ve been a bit worse.”

“Or an asteroid.”

“Still worse,” he agrees.

“A meteorite.”

“Umm, sure?”

“A gamma ray burst.”

“Are all these possibilities going to be space related?” he asks.

“Sawyer was watching a documentary when I was at their place a few weeks ago. Turns out there’s a lot that wants to kill us out there, and I’m now aware of it all.”

“But not tonight, luckily.”

“Well, I mean, not tonight so far. There’s still a fair few hours to go, so we’re not in the clear yet.”

He snorts, then starts to laugh for real. When the laughter subsides, he looks at me and shakes his head.

“This feels like one of those knock-on-wood moments.”

He quirks his brow at me, and I roll my eyes. For a few moments, we stare at each other silently.

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