Page 42 of Heal Me, Love Me

“Yeah.” I reached for his hand, and his fingers slid through mine.

He glanced down at our joined hands and let out a quiet laugh. “Look at us, going on an actual date with your mom answering the door and everything. We’re even holding hands before we get to the car.”

“Big night for us.”

“Huge.”

I let go so we could get into the car. Once we were both inside, he put the banana bread in the back seat and started the engine.

“I can’t believe you took food from my mother.”

“She offered.”

“You looked way too excited.”

“She makes good banana bread.”

“You remember that?”

He pulled away from the curb. “I remember a lot.”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Me too.”

Metallica played low through the speakers as he turned off the street we’d both grown up on. Neither of us rushed to fill the silence. After the last few days, it felt nice just sitting beside him and not worrying about the stuff we still had to figure out.

Then he cleared his throat. “I saw Devon today.”

My head turned quickly. “You did?”

“Yeah.”

Hearing Devon’s name immediately put me on edge. “And?”

Keaton’s fingers flexed around the steering wheel. “And it was weird as hell.”

“That doesn’t exactly make me feel better.”

“I know.” He blew out a breath. “He acted normal. Too normal. Like if he pretended nothing happened, maybe I would too.”

Of course he did.

“What did you do?”

“Not much.” Keaton kept his gaze on the road. “Trust me. I had this whole speech in my head, but we were at the gym, with people around, and I didn’t want anyone overhearing part of the conversation and turning it into something else.”

My irritation didn’t go away, but it eased enough for me to understand that he was still trying to protect himself, not Devon. “So you didn’t say anything?”

“I said enough for him to know I wasn’t okay with what went down,” he replied. “And enough for him to know it won’t happen again.”

“Did he at least apologize?”

Keaton laughed. “Not really. He gave me one of those dumbass apologies that isn’t really one.”

“What did he say?”

“That he shouldn’t have caught me off guard.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s not an apology.”