Page 18 of Sing For Me

He looks up at the sound of my boots on the pavement, and when he does, he quickly stands. “Hey,” he says to me, standing up straight. “You look…”

“It’s okay,” I say. “Nora knows. No pretend date words necessary.”

Eli’s gaze darts to Nora.

“I’m the only one she’s told,” Nora says, being nicer than I am.

I bend down to scratch Rufus’s traitorous yet still adorable ears.

“You can’t tell Jude,” Eli says to her. “My brother has the loosest lips on this side of the valley.”

Jude and Eli don’t always get along, I know, so the comment could come across as unkind. But Eli looks genuinely concerned. Plus, we all know he’s not wrong. Jude can be a little oblivious.

Nora nods. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

I hand her Rufus’s leash. “Give him lots of snuggles for me,” I say.

“Me too,” Eli says.

I throw him a look, but Nora only grins. “You got it.”

Once she’s around the corner, Eli launches right into it. “Listen, Reese, I wanted to let you know…if you want out, I understand. Do you?”

For a moment, I say nothing. I just let him squirm.

I should say yes. I should tell him sorry, then run down the block and catch up with Nora.

But then I think about going back upstairs with my hair and makeup done, in this dress, putting on my sad music playlist and going to sleep with that notebook staring at me.

I also think of how Eli looked when Kelly was there, ripping his poor damn heart out. And I ignore all the smart voices in my head and say, “You sure you want to give me an out?”

Eli lifts a brow, then grins.

Tingles explode in my stomach. Dammit, I forgot how panty-melting that grin is. Cassandra told me once that he thought he could get out of anything when he flashed someone that grin. Then we both admitted it seemed to work for him, a lot.

Eli opens the passenger door for me. “Nope.”

When I get in the warm cab of his truck, I almost change my mind again. It’s been two years since I’ve been in this truck, yet everything is painfully familiar. The feel of the leather seats; the distinct scent of the pine air freshener dangling from the mirror; the trace of Eli’s subtle, spiced cologne.

The sound of Joni Mitchell coming through the speakers.

It’s not the same song as I was playing upstairs. It’s “California.”I lean back in my seat after fastening my seat belt, closing my eyes. I’d laugh if this was funny.

Eli’s weight tips the whole cab when he gets in. He’s not as big as his other brother Griffin, but he’s not lithe like Jude, either. He’s the perfect in-between.

Stop it.

“I didn’t know you were into old folk music, Eli,” I say, as much to distract myself as out of curiosity.

“I wasn’t. Someone introduced me to it a couple years ago though.”

Damn. I’m touched I got him into Joni. But then I’m reminded of what happened after we used to play music together. I used to let myself sing and get carried away, and Eli would always look at me with a kind of wonder when I stopped.

Don’t stop, Reese. You have the voice of an angel.

My stomach roils. That’s why it hurt so much when Eli ended things. Because I never saw it coming. He was the sweetness I never saw coming.

“Eli,” I say now, “we need to get one thing straight, okay? We’re not actually dating. When we did date, it was a disaster. So no bringing that up, okay?”