“Like what?”

His gaze shifts, so does his smile. He stares off at nothing in front of him. Both of his hands have stopped, but they’re still touching me. “Like when you’re at college and you ask the girl you love—the sole reason you’re there—if she’s happy you followed her path rather than take your own… and when she looks at you, there’s a second’s pause, a moment’s hesitation, right before she says ‘yes.’ That split second of silence gave me the truth, right before she spoke the lie.”

“Hey Dylan,” I whisper, and he drops his gaze, his eyes immediately finding mine. “Do me a favor? Don’t talk to me about Heidi anymore.”

He doesn’t say anything, just continues to stare at me, his eyes roaming my face, my eyes, my lips, and back again. “Hey Riley.”

“Yes?”

“Do you want me to kiss you right now?”

A second’s pause.

A moment’s hesitation.

“No.”

Dylan

She lied.

She wanted me to kiss her.

I wanted so badly to kiss her.

I didn’t.

Instead, I gave her time.

Time + perspective can change people.

Hopefully.

Jake answers after several rings, just long enough for me to start losing my mind. As much as I’m not much for talking, I need to talk to someone. And I need to talk about Riley.

“What’s up?” he asks, barely louder than the voices in the background.

“You busy? I can call back.”

“Nah. You’re good. The girls are here for book club so they’re drunk and loud and stupid.”

“Shut your whore mouth, Jacob!” Lucy shouts in the background.

I laugh. I can’t help it. Honestly, after seeing Jake last week, I’d started missing everyone.

“Calm your clit, Luce,” Cam tells her.

“The guys are there, too?”

“Yep.”

I try to imagine them all there, all together, having fun and talking shit. “Have you told them I’m back?”

“Nope.”

“Who is it?” Mikayla shouts.

“Just a guy from the team,” Jake says.

I smile to myself, grateful I have someone I can trust in Jake. “Wait. Isn’t it Wednesday? Don’t they have book club on Tuesdays?”

“Oh man. You don’t even want to know…”

“What guy from the team?” Micky asks, and I can picture the scowl on her face.

“No one, babe,” he tells her.

“Talk about your stupid book, drink your wine, and let’s go!” Logan shouts.

“Fuck you, Logan!” I think I miss Lucy the most.

“Why is everyone there for—”

“So they decided to change from Tuesdays to Wednesdays after last week,” Jake cuts in. “Apparently new books come out on Tuesdays and Lucy reads faster than the others. She was done, and Kayla and Amanda weren’t and according to Kayla, Lucy spoiled the story for them. This is all hearsay. All I know is I came home from practice and Amanda was on top of Lucy. Hair was being pulled, wine was being spilled, something about some Mason Kade dude and it was fucking hectic, man. I tried to break it up and it’d work for a second and then they’d be at it again so I had to call the guys over to help and shit got real because Logan got mad that Amanda was into some other Logan guy from the book and Cam was trying to get him to calm down. Then Logan and Cam got into a fight about letting their girls swoon over fictional boyfriends and—” He breaks off laughing, his accent thicker than normal when he adds, “It was just fucking crazy, mate, and Kayla was just standing at the side, drunk off her tits, laughing at them and shouting your name over and over and—”

“What!” Mikayla screeches.

Jake pauses a beat. “What?” he asks, and I can hear the fear in his voice.

“You said I was shouting your name. As in Dylan. I was shouting Dylan’s name. Are you talking to Dylan? Is Dylan back?”

He curses under his breath. Static fills the phone and then silence… just for a moment before I hear Amanda’s voice. “Dylan?”

I squeeze my eyes shut, preparing for the inevitable. “Yes?”

“How’s Afghanistan?”

“I don’t know, Amanda. I’m not there.”

“So… where are you?”

I smile, and give her a truth I’d been waiting to feel. “I’m home.”

Fourteen

Dylan

I didn’t get to talk to Jake about Riley last night. After I told them I was back I spent a good couple hours talking with each of them, one after the other. We made plans for them to come over on Sunday. Normally, it’d probably annoy me, but it didn’t.

I was on a high—a Riley-induced high.

Speaking of Riley—she hasn’t stopped watching me since I stepped foot in her house. It’s different from the other times I’ve caught her looking at me. Most of the time they’re quick glances when she doesn’t think I’m watching—which is dumb, because I’m always watching. Now, it’s different, like she’s trying to figure something out. Or like the times I’d unknowingly done something wrong and Heidi would look at me waiting for me to admit to something I hadn’t known I’d done.

Riley takes a sip of her wine, her eyes on mine, completely unthreatened by the fact that I’m staring right at her… watching… trying to figure her out… waiting for her to admit to why she’s looking at me the way she is.

Oh, what a tangled, fucked-up web we weave.

I’m giddy.

I don’t know why I’m giddy.

She brings the bottle to her lips and takes another sip.

I’m going to kiss those lips again.

That’s why I’m giddy.

She lowers the bottle, her head tilting and her eyebrow quirked.

“What?” I ask.

“Nothing,” she says.

Sure, nothing.

“So…” I start, getting up from her bed and sitting down next to her on the floor. I like being close to her, touching her, sniffing her. Creep. “I have a thing tomorrow.”

She turns to me, a glare in place, and I suppress my chuckle because dammit, she’s cute. “A thing?” she asks. Another sip.

I move the hair away from her eyes to behind her ear. I keep my hand there for longer than needed, because like I said, I like touching her. “At the VA hospital. Apparently I’m meeting up with someone who’ll be in charge of the physical therapy for my shoulder so I guess her and I will be spending a lot of time—”

“Her?” she interrupts, her glare more glary.

Win.

“I was hoping you’d come with. Make it more bearable?”

She opens her mouth, then shuts it, then opens it again—not to speak—but to take another sip.

“It’s cool if you don’t want to,” I tell her, feeling my heart sink to my stomach. “I just thought… I mean, it would’ve been good to have a friend there, but like I said, it’s cool.” I start to get up but she presses down on my knee to stop me.

“I can’t,” she murmurs, her gaze lowered.