Page 123 of Paper Hearts

She grabs a hold of Ender’s left hand. “You want to swim with me?”

Ender’s eyes drift to mine. “I uh… sure.”

“Only if he wants to.”

He leans in closer to me. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be, Hads.”

“Oh.” Eddie eyes drift to his hand she’s holding. “You haves an owie. What happened?”

“Nothing. I can swim.” And then he peels his shirt off and hands it to me and his phone from his back pocket. I’m too stunned since he has no shirt on. I didn’t get a good look at him shirtless last night. He still had it on when we were in the barn but now, goddamn. Fuck. Why is he so hot?

“You have a lot of muscles,” Eddie notes, staring at his stomach and chest. He laughs when she touches his stomach muscles. “I bets you could throw me really far, huh?”

“I’m not sure. It’s been a while since I threw anyone around.”

“I bets you can.” Eddie pulls on his hand. “Come on. Let’s try.”

Ender looks back at me over his shoulder. “Put your number in my phone.”

“I…” I pause and look down at the black phone in my hand as the screen lights up. There’s a picture of a lake on it. Our lake. “I don’t know your password.”

“It’s your birthday,” he says, knee deep in the water now.

My heart lodges in my throat. My birthday? Why would he…? Never mind. I have his phone. Would it be wrong to look through it?

Yes. The answer is yes. Stop tempting me.

Sure enough, his passcode is my birthday. I open his phone app, enter my name and phone number, and then accidentally on purpose, look through his other contacts. He has six. Oz. Ronan. Axton. Lucas. Myles. Arya. And now me.

My eyes lift to the water where Eddie is treating him like a human jungle gym. And it’s like they’ve known each other her entire life. She climbs all over him and he’s so careful and attentive with her, as if she’s a bubble he’s afraid of popping.

They come back up soon after and Eddie grabs her stomach. “I’m hungry.”

“You’re always hungry,” I note, taking her hand.

She takes a hold of Ender’s with her other, swinging it. “Come eats with me.”

And just like that my daughter found her best friend. I’ll admit, it was easier to introduce them to one another than I thought, but I have to remember she’s five. She doesn’t understand any of this. She’s probably excited about having someone other than her girls in her life.

* * *

My mom cookslunch and Ender sits next to Eddie. Or rather, she sits next to him refusing to allow an inch of space between the two of them.

“Thank you, ma’am,” Ender says when Mom hands him a hamburger.

Mom touches his shoulder. “Ender, it’s Melanie.”

Beside him, Eddie eyes his beer and before we can stop her, she grabs it and takes a drink.

Ender’s eyes widen, but he laughs when she spits it right back out, coughing. He rubs her back. “How’d that taste?”

She sticks her tongue out. “Yuck. Why you drinks that?”

“I’m not sure. I probably shouldn’t, huh?”

Eddie climbs on his lap, taking his hamburger from him too. “Do you want to go swims with me more?”

I fidget nervously with the hem of my dress I’m wearing as Ender helps Eddie with his burger she stole. “I’d like that,” he tells her, smiling as he tucks her wet hair behind her ear.

---