Page 44 of Stops Along the Way
I’m across from Declan, and he says something, but as I sit on this bench, it’s still incredibly difficult to hear him with the roar of bubbles at my shoulders. There’s too much competition noise, and I’ve never been the best at lipreading. But also, with Declan, I’m maybe a little distracted.
I just smile and nod, uncharacteristically quiet.
The way he stretches out his neck, I can tell Declan is speaking up a little louder, but I return a vacant smile. Another nod.
What am I doing here?
If he hadn’t gathered already, Declan deduces what’s going on and slides around the circular bench until he’s next to me, close enough that I can pick up on the low register of his voice, just crossing the threshold of what I can catch, and also stare at those lips of his. With a grin, he asks, “You haven’t heard a single word I’ve been saying, have you?”
I smile—for real this time, recognition alight in my eyes—and shake my head.
Which still leaves him guessing. “You can hear me now, though?”
I grin, teeth showing, as I nod, not quite ready to talk since I know my voice will come across louder and unregulated because I can’t hear myself, either.
This is something I’m usually not self-conscious about.
Until now.
“No swimsuit?” I ask, but I apparently overcorrected and didn’t add enough volume.
He just laughs and slides another inch closer until we’re less than an arm’s reach away to say, “You’re whispering, Iris.”
“Right,” I say, too loudly, but he doesn’t seem bothered. “Just wearing shorts?”
“It was either that or follow your lead and steal from my brother’s wardrobe.” He shakes his head. “But he didn’t have a suit for me to borrow. Well, not of the swimming variety. He’s got professional work attire for days.”
“Better than nothing,” I say, and immediately regret saying the wordnothingwhen we’re already less dressed than usual. I can’t stop the blush spreading across my cheeks.
“Lucky that we got the hot tub without a bunch of kids hanging out in here,” he says.
“I think the last time I was in a hot tub was when I was one of those kids hanging out in here.” I’m definitely shouting over these bubbles. This is so cringe. “But our parents would make me and Amelia get out if they saw an adult looking angrily in our direction.”
I glance over my shoulder to check on Amelia in the pool and catch a glimpse of her leaving out the doorway without saying goodbye, her hair dripping a trail of water in her wake.
“Oh, she left,” I say to myself.
Though Declan probably hears. He shrugs.
I don’t know what I expected when I decided to go to the pool. Maybe I had some innocent picture of the four of us playing a game—someone finding a Nerf football and breaking into teams, throwing it across the length of the water. Or going back and forth taking turns jumping into the deep end. And maybe, on some other night, we still would’ve gotten up to more silly antics.
But right now it’s just Declan and me in this hot tub.
Chapter Twelve
The atmosphere is markedly different now that it’s just Declan and me. This is a big open room, and the large window to the hotel hallway is right there, but despite the occasional passersby, somehow it feels like we’re completely alone together with nothing else in sight. Sort of like when we were chatting together on the common room couch, or sitting across the table during a Rivalry match, there’s something about spending time with him that can make the rest of the environment fade away.
And there’s this new familiarity, I swear.
Take us away from our usual spot, to a place where we don’t really know anyone else, and suddenly, after the initial shock of stumbling upon each other on a college campus, it’s like we were always this close, like it’s only natural for us to share more, to talk about things we never would’ve talked about onan ordinary day. Somewhat similar to being on vacation and ending up stuck in an elevator with people who are also from Nebraska. The particulars of them living in a different city don’t matter because, for a few minutes, it’s the most interesting thing in the world to have run into strangers a long way from home and find everyone has something in common.
Everything is scrambled in my mind. I have to trust that I’ll be able to hold my tongue and stop myself from blurting out something too revealing, but that’s a hard sensation to fight, because one look in his eyes and I feel like I could tell him anything.
Does Declan feel the change too?
But he’s relieved I don’t have a crush on him, right? That we’re friends. There’s no reason for me to be entertaining this thought still.
Yet the door doesn’t feel fully closed.
