Page 52 of Someone Like Me
And maybe, after tonight, we can really call each other friends.
Drew opens to the door to a charcoal sky, the frayed ends of dusk. “It got late,” he says, sounding surprised. He looks at me with a frown. “I should walk you home.”
I step past him and out onto the landing. “Nah. I’ll be okay.”
His frown deepens. “But it might not be safe.”
I cock a brow at him. “It’s not even eight o’clock. It’s perfectly safe.” Still, he advances, looking determined, and I hold up a hand. “If it makes you feel better, I’ll just cross through the yard and jump the fence. You can watch for assailants from up here.”
He mirrors my arch look. “You’re going to jump the fence? Who are you, Wonder Woman?”
“Just watch,” I say, no shortage of sass in my tone. And then I turn to go, but I spin back to face him, the impulse irresistible. “I had fun tonight.”
And before he can step back, I grab him around the middle in my fiercest hug.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
DREW
Her arms close around me, and I fight for breath.
Not because she’s hugging tightly — though she is — but because it feels like heaven. And since I can’t help it, I wrap my arms around her, pulling her into me.
“Me too.”
I close my eyes and dip my nose into her soft curls, grabbing what I can of the moment. She smells like lavender and patchouli. Like the free spirit she is. Free and innocent.
Inhaling her is almost as dangerous as holding her, and doing both at once threatens to shatter my control.
I’m trying to muster the will to let her go when she drops her arms and steps out of my reach, giving me her megawatt smile. She starts down the stairs, but points her finger at me.
“Monday. The DMV. It’s a date.”
A laugh breaks from me. Going to the DMV could never and will never be a date.
Which I guess is what makes it safe for me to agree.
I nod. “Monday.”
I will see her again on Monday.
The thought feels too much like oxygen. Fresh. Vital.
With one more flash of that smile, Evie trots down the stairs. When she reaches the bottom, she looks back up at me. The world is one color, the closest gray to black, but there’s still just enough twilight to make her out against the shadows.
“Watch me,” she calls, reminding me of her promise to jump the fence. I laugh again, shaking my head.
“Be careful. You’re going to tear those leggings.” A memory surfaces of Ma yelling at me and Anthony. I’d torn the seat of my shorts trying to climb a chain-link fence in our neighborhood. And maybe it’s because I’m looking at Evie, but the memory of Ma and Anthony doesn’t bring me to my knees.
“No, I’m not,” she sing-songs, sounding cocky.
She flits across the yard and past Grandma’s garden. I’m prepared to see her gingerly grasp the fence post and slowly work her toes into the chain-link to scale the fence, but as soon as her hands hit the top frame, Evie vaults herself in one fluid motion over the fence.
I blink.
“What the fuck?!” I whisper, not believing my eyes. And then I shout, “Damn!”
Her delighted laugh rolls over the yard. She turns and gives me a wave. “Told ya!” She pumps a fist in the air. “Yoga power, baby!”
