Page 157 of Trust Me Always

I chew the inside of my cheek, anxiety rolling off me in waves. On one hand, I don’t want him to jump to conclusions; on the other, I kind of want to see how he acts about it. “I know.”

His eyes narrow. “You know?”

I nod, trying to get a read on him, and if I’m right, it’s irritation and maybe a little disappointment that he’s feeling.

“All right.” He nods, frown pulling low. “No point in talking about it, then.”

Isn’t there?

The drive is like any other. We head out, stopping forty-five minutes later for food because boys “aren’t hungry” when you ask them but magically become so after ten minutes on the road. Thankfully, we only stop one other time after that for gas, Deaton having passed out for the final stretch and allowing us to continue the rest of the way through.

The excitement cannot be tamed as we pull into the driveway, both Ari and I itching to get out and run inside our home away from home.

Brady has barely gotten the thing in park when we’re shoving the doors open and racing up the path to the front door, but while Ari runs to the front, I take off around the corner, running along the wraparound porch to the back and down into the sand. I keep going until the sandy hill levels out and its nothing but ocean for miles.

I kick off my slides and hold up the legs of my sweatpants, not caring that my socks are getting wet, and walk right up to the water’s edge, letting myself fall back on my ass.

I drop back into the sand, smiling up at the sky, and pull in a full breath of salty ocean air.

“Cheater!” Ari screams from somewhere behind me and then she’s at my side, mimicking my position.

We sit there in silence, just enjoying being home.

“Ari?” I ask her after a moment.

“Yeah?”

“Promise me no matter where life takes us, we’ll use this house the way our parents intended.”

“You’re stuck with me forever, sister.” She grabs my hand, folding our fingers together.

We turn to face each other, sand imbedding itself in our hair, water from the wet sand soaking into my pants.

“Do you and Noah watch the sunset together?”

She nods. “We do. He has a spot he likes to go, somewhere his mom used to take him, but we haven’t been there since he left. Why?”

My lips curve but I just look up at the sky, a sadness slipping over me.

“Cam.” Ari smiles softly. “You ready for this?”

Inhaling until my lungs are stretched to the max, I nod. “As ready as can be.”

“Good. Because Noah just turned onto our street.”

Well then. Here we go.

We walk back to the house, chucking our socks on the deck and slipping inside with bare feet, sand in our hair, and wet spots on our pants. Ari runs straight through when she could have just gone around, throwing the door open and bursting outside.

I hold back, sliding my fingers through my hair, and tie it up in a quick, high pony, cringing at the wet, sandy strands clustered together. My leg begins to bounce, and I roll my eyes at myself, walking back the way I came and into the kitchen.

Lolli came over yesterday and waited for the grocery delivery to get here. She was nice enough to not only put away the cold foods but the whole-ass load, so I go straight for a chilled Capri-Sun, making a mental note to walk down to the store tomorrow to get another box so an adorable little boy doesn’t catch me drinking all of his. I stab the straw in, sucking the thing dry as I take inventory of what we’ve got in case I want to tiptoe down for something sweet in the middle of the night. It’s a momentarybreak from the bittersweet undercut whirling in my stomach as I wait for our guests to come inside.

There’s a hint of excitement streaming through my veins, but right behind is an icy chill of anxiousness—of unease, because I know how this is going to make a certain man feel. In part I want to avoid that all together, but again…that anticipation is still there.

Huffing, I close the fridge, yelping when I find a man standing there. Not just any man but a man with familiar green eyes.

I cough, slapping at my chest. “What?—”

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