Page 235 of Safe With You

Mila was waiting for him with both hands on her hips.

“You take forever.”

“I was saying goodbye.”

“You already said goodbye.”

Ellis looked back at me.

I pressed my lips together.

“Come on, Bug.”

The bell chimed as they stepped outside.

I watched through the window as Ellis took Mila’s hand and the two of them headed toward his truck.

I was still standing there when Naomi appeared beside me. She didn’t say anything.

For once, I appreciated it.

My eyes stayed on Ellis until he opened the passenger-side door for Mila and helped her inside.

None of it scared me.

I waited for that realization to bring something else with it—a warning, a reason to slow down, that familiar voice reminding me how easily good things could become something else if I stopped paying attention.

It didn’t come.

All I felt was the smile pulling at my mouth as Ellis’s truck disappeared down the street.

And for once, I let myself keep it.

I’d read the same paragraph four times.

At least I thought it had been four. It could’ve been five, considering I made it to the bottom of the page before realizing I couldn’t tell you a single thing that happened at the top.

I slid my bookmark between the pages and closed the book over my finger, staring at the cover for a second like it was somehow responsible for my inability to focus.

My phone sat on the cushion beside me, close enough that I could see the screen light up if someone texted but far enough away that I could pretend I hadn’t been checking it.

I wasn’t waiting on Ellis.

I was reading.

Or trying to.

I opened the book again.

Two sentences in, my mind wandered right back to last night.

Tasha already knowing things about me. Mila asking if I liked her daddy. Neither Ellis nor me correcting that woman when she called him my man.

Then there was the kiss before he left.

Quick. Easy. Nothing that should still be taking up space in my head a full day later.

I turned the page before realizing I didn’t actually finish the one before it.