Page 14 of Paper Hearts

With gum in my mouth, and probably chewing too loud, I’m caught off guard by the question. I thought for sure Arya would have told him I was the same age as her, but then again, that’s probably not something he would have asked her. Why would he? I’m nothing like these girls at the lake so the fact that he’s even paying attention to me has me stumped.

Dipping back down in the water, Ender hangs onto the edge of the dock with his hands. Covered up to his chest in the water, he smiles at me and my heart finds a new rhythm. His eyes, they pierce through me, but they’re focused on my mouth, watching me chew.

Feeling self-conscious, I swallow the gum.

“You gonna tell me or what?” he asks, his chin dipping below the surface of the water.

I smile at him. My chest and neck begin to feel hot and itching.

Then Arya pads over to us, hopping around and trying to keep her feet from burning. She stops at her towel and jumps on it. “She’s the same age as me, fuckface.”

Ender looks up at her, glaring. “I didn’t ask you. I asked Hads.”

Hads. I love the way my name sounds on his lips and it’s not until then I feel the loss of his stare, the missing heat it sends through me. I have no experience around boys, and he makes everything inside me want to burst into flames.

“You’re so stupid,” Arya tells him, smacking his head with her raft as she runs away over to the cove.

“Are you really thirteen?” Ender asks when Arya is out of earshot, his words soft in contrast to the noise on the lake. There’s something different about Ender I don’t see with boys my own age. Maybe it’s the confidence, the easy smile, and a relaxed walk. And the fact that he’s curious about me is new. Most boys don’t give me the time of day once they see my older sisters. I’m a nobody.

His eyes are focused on Arya and Walker pushing each other off the rope swing, each one landing in the shallow water with a slap. He looks annoyed with Walker shoving Arya but doesn’t say anything before he turns back to me, blinking slowly. “Are you ever going to answer me?”

I stare at the beads of water on his cheeks. “I’m thirteen.”

Lifting himself from the water, I watch the muscles in his tight tan body flex and suddenly he’s right beside me, dripping water on me as he stands tall on my towel. “You don’t look it.”

I stare at him and sit up, not wanting to be lying down while he’s hovering over me. This way my boobs will look bigger too. I actually don’t have much trouble there. They’re coming in nicely and my butt is starting to fill out. I definitely look less like an awkward preteen and more like a developing teenager. But to have Ender look at me like that, I’m not sure. A girl can try though. So I do. “What do you mean?”

Ender’s eyes find mine and he kneels to my level. “I have no fucking idea,” he breathes, his chest expanding. “But you don’t look thirteen to me.” He chuckles under his breath, and I think, maybe his eyes dip to my chest and then back to mine as if he knows exactly why he questioned my age but wasn’t going to tell me.

I awkwardly fidget with my bikini top. “How old do I look?”

He bites his bottom lip and a smirk surfaces. His blue eyes sparkle in the sunlight, but there’s something in them I can’t quite place. Emptiness. Loss? I don’t know because I’ve never seen it. He sighs. “I’m not sure.”

“Okay.”

What the heck?

Nobody has ever questioned my age. I’ve always been the youngest Hayes girl that nobody paid any mind to.

Reaching forward, Ender brushes a drop of water off my cheek and his touch sends a burst of tingles through my entire body. “See ya, Hads.”

“Ender James,” I say to myself, biting the inside of my cheek to keep my foolish smile hidden. Even his name sounds sexy.

Arya bounds back over to me. “What’d fuckface want?”

“My age.”

“Figures.” She plops down next to me, the dock rocking with the waves from the boats.

“Why does he care?” I’m not naïve enough to think he likes me, not with Kamila around, but I suppose there’s some hope that maybe he notices me more than I thought?

“He’s fifteen. He only cares about boobs.” Arya rolls her eyes. “And you got nice ones.”

I do? I glance down at my chest. I guess I have nice ones. I’ve never compared them to anyone’s, but they fill out my bathing suit top.

I’m about to ask Arya if she wants to get some sandwiches my aunt Leslie made, when Ender returns. “You guys wanna go for a ride?” With a nod toward their uncle’s boat, our eyes follow. Wiley’s boat is near the docks, within swimming distance, the sounds of Brooks and Dunn bouncing over the water. When I don’t move, Ender winks. “Come on, Hads, it’ll be fun.”

Walker runs past us and jumps in the water, followed by Myles and Roman. I’m hesitant. My dad will kill me for getting on Wiley’s boat without asking. But he’s in Atlanta today. He won’t know, right?

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