Page 55 of Heatwaves

Carter clears his throat when we reach the top of the stairs, pulling my attention away from Lila. “Key?”

“Oh,” Lila flushes, looking around as Wyatt stops beside us.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it, Lil.” The incubus leans down to kiss the top of her head before pulling out said key and unlocking the door.

The others file in behind him, and while I know I need to follow them, I also know that stepping inside is going to mean putting her down—something I’m not ready to do just yet.

“Ummm, Ty?” Lila’s arm winds around my neck. “Can we go inside?”

I don’t want to deny her anything, but part of me wishes I could be selfish. Instead, I sigh and head inside.

Wyatt’s standing in the entrance hall with a smirk as he reaches out to close the door behind us. “Where do you want to talk, Lil?”

“I guess the living room?” She tries to shrug, but it throws her off balance, and she’s forced to wrap both her arms around my neck.

“That’s where I sent the others,” Wyatt says with a nod. “Ty, if you’ll bring her in there? I’ll grab a snack and some drinks, then I’ll join you.”

Then he’s gone again, leaving me to stare after him. I’m surprised he remembers my name. We introduced ourselves when we showed up for Lila’s heat, but that feels like forever ago.

“We should probably…“ Lila whispers, trailing off when my attention turns back to her. “Are you okay?”

I snort, though there’s no amusement in the sound. “No, I’m really not, but that doesn’t matter. Let’s get to the living room so we can talk, yeah?”

Not bothering to wait for an answer, I make my way to the living room and set Lila inthe armchair she indicates. Looking around for where I should sit, I startle when Oliver’s hand wraps around my wrist and tugs me toward him. He pulls hard enough to throw me off balance, and I end up sprawled across his and Aidan’s laps.

Scoffing, I right myself and settle between the two of them. “You could’ve just said you wanted me to sit by you.”

Oliver cocks his eyebrows but says nothing as he settles back into the couch. He’s worried about me. They all are and have been for quite some time.

Not wanting to focus on the reasoning behind that worry, I turn my attention back to Lila.

“I wasn’t sure what everyone would want, so I brought a variety.” Wyatt appears with bags of chips and a cooler full of drinks, setting them on the table.

I don’t bother looking away from Lila, which allows me to see the soft smile lighting up her face as she stares at Wyatt.

She loves him.

While I’d suspected as much, seeing it confirmed breaks my heart just a little bit more. Not that her loving him doesn’t mean she can’t love us. It’s just…

Fuck, I don’t even know why it bothers me so much.

I’m glad she had someone after we abandoned her.

“Thanks, Wyatt,” Lila says when he hands her a bottle of water, settling onto the arm of the chair she sits in. She takes a long drink of it before turning back to us. “There’s no reason for us to continue to sit here in awkwardness. You wanted to explain what happened, and I’m ready to listen.”

Silence follows her words as the four of us glance at one another. We’ve been desperate to tell her why we left, but we never discussed who would explain it or how.

Fuck this shit.

“To allow you to fully understand, we have to take you back over twenty years ago,” I say, leaning forward and keeping my eyes locked on her. “It might not make sense to you now, but it will eventually.”

Carter clears his throat. “As you know, we’ve known each other for a long time. We were a pod before anyone our age even really understood what a pod was. Finding one another like that so early led to us being recklessfrom time to time. Only this time, it was almost the end of us.”

Lila’s face scrunches up in confusion, her mouth opening and closing a few times before she gestures for us to continue.

“As teens, we liked to have competitions about who could swim the farthest—both in our human form and our shifted form. One day, we took it too far. We swam further than we ever had before. Our animals were exhausted, and we were forced back into our human forms.” Aidan scoffs. “We were just as exhausted in that form but without the means to stay alive in the middle of the ocean.”

“We thought that was it. We’d fucked around and found out. We knew our parents would be devastated, but there was no way we were making it back to shore.” Oliver wrings his hands in his lap as he stares down at them.

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