“Hey,” she says, her perfectly applied red lipstick curving with her smile. Her bright blue eyes take me in as she flicks her hair over her shoulder—hair that seems to glow gold from the orange of the sunset.

I stand next to the car, my hands in my pockets and I nod once. “Hey.”

“You still messing around with the cars, I see.”

Maybe I should be annoyed at her choice of words, but I’m not. That’s just Heidi. “You home to visit your parents?” I ask.

She nods and looks around the garage. “I don’t think I’ve ever really been in here.”

“You haven’t,” I say curtly. It comes out harsher than intended but I don’t back down.

Her smile falls, just for a moment, before returning. “How’s your dad?”

“He’s good.”

“Eric’s home now, right? How is he?”

“Also good.” I lean back against the car and cross my arms. “And you?”

She inhales a breath through her nose, her hands by her sides. Her jeans hug her waist and continue that way all the way down to her ankles. “I’m okay. You know, senior year. Getting by. You miss college?” she asks, a slight laugh bubbling out of her. Probably because she already knows my answer.

“Not a single fucking minute of it.”

Her smile drops, her hands now clasped together in front of her. “I’m sorry, Dylan. I didn’t think it would be this awkward.”

I shake my head. “It’s not.”

“I just wanted to see you, I guess. Make sure you were okay. I heard you got—”

“You heard?” I cut in.

She shrugs. “I asked. I knew the guys were coming to see you so…”

“So you could’ve contacted me yourself.”

“I wanted to, Dylan,” she says, her tone pleading. “I didn’t think you’d want anything to do with me after the way we left things.”

“I was angry back then.”

“And you had every right to be,” she rushes out. “I betrayed you in the worst possible way, not just by what I did but by not telling you about it to begin with. I was scared—”

“I don’t really care,” I interrupt.

“Dylan.”

“No.” I exhale loudly, trying to keep my emotions in check. “I don’t mean I don’t care about your apology or whatever this is. I’m just saying that I don’t care about it; what happened in the past. I’m not mad. Not anymore.”

“You’re not?” she asks, clearly surprised.

“I’ve moved on from it, Heidi. I had to.”

She blows out a shaky breath, her hands at her sides again. “We never really talked about it, you know… what happened to us?”

I shrug. “We grew apart.”

“That’s it?”

I nod.

“Before or after you broke up with me?”

I shake my head, slightly annoyed. “I didn’t break up with you, Heidi. I enlisted.”

“You asked if I wanted to stay with you even though your future was uncertain!”

“Exactly!” I take a calming breath. “Heidi, I asked you. I did it for you. I didn’t say I wanted to break up. You read into that what you wanted. And you can’t deny that even after that there was a part of you still holding onto us like I was because you broke up with me in a damn letter while I was deployed!”

Her mouth opens. Her eyes widen. It seems like words are caught in her throat and for a few seconds, she stays that way. Then, slowly, her features soften, as if she’s remembering the conversation for exactly what it was. “When did we grow apart?” she asks.

“I can’t answer that, Heidi.”

She frowns, her gaze dropping. “Did I do something, Dylan? Was there a certain incident that made you wake up one day and realize I wasn’t enough for you?” When she looks back up, her eyes are clouded with tears.

For a second, I almost go to her. Almost. “No, Heidi. It wasn’t anything you did. But it wasn’t anything I did either. It was just us. We weren’t working. You knew I didn’t want to go to college but I went for you, and that life—” I take a breath. “That life is perfect for you. It wasn’t for me. And that’s how we would’ve spent the rest of our lives had I not made the choice to leave. We would’ve both been unhappy.”

“I didn’t ask you to follow me there,” she says.

“I’m not saying you did.”

“Then why do it?”

“Because I loved you, Heids.”

She wipes her tears. “You did?”

“Of course, I did. I don’t regret being with you all those years.”

“Do you regret how it ended?” she asks.

I shrug. “I really only regret not telling you sooner.”

“Telling me what?”

“That I thought we’d fallen out of love.”

“I still loved you,” she says quickly.

I shrug again. “Yeah, but it was a different kind of love. It was familiar and—”

“Safe,” she cuts in. “You always made me feel safe, Dylan.”

I find myself smiling, though I don’t really know why. “Why’d you really want to see me, Heidi?”

Now it’s her turn to shrug. “Closure, I guess. Why’d you let me see you?”

“Same reason.”

“So you don’t hate me?”

I shake my head.

Then she says, “You look good, Dylan.”

And I look away.

She sighs. “Your dad helping you with the car? That was something you did together, right?”

“Yeah, it was.” I smile again. “Riley’s helping me with the rebuild.”

“Riley’s… a guy from your unit?”

I chuckle. “No. Riley’s my girlfriend.”

Her eyes widen. “Your girlfriend?”

“Uh huh.”

“Sorry.” She laughs. “I thought Riley was a guy.”

“Common mistake.”

“So…” Her shoulders relax. “How’d you meet?”

I jerk my head toward Riley’s house. “She’s the girl next door.”

“How cliché.”

“Says The Prom Queen.”

She laughs louder and pats her hair. “I still wear my crown when I want to relive my greatest moments.”

Shaking my head, I tell her, “That doesn’t surprise me at all.”

“You’re such a jerk,” she jokes. Then adds, “So can I meet her?”

I pull my phone out of my pocket and shoot Riley a text.

Dylan: Come over.

“Whoa, you learned how to text?” Heidi asks.

“Yeah. Riley’s a texter. Besides, it’s about time, right?”

“You must really like her.”

“You have no idea, Heids.”

Riley shows up a minute later, stopping at the end of my driveway when she sees Heidi in the garage. She’s dressed exactly as she was when she left: a plain white shirt underneath one of mine. I make her wear them when we’re working on the car so it doesn’t ruin her clothes.