Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
Connor pulled out of his parents’ driveway, driving slowly with the windows down as he left behind the last of the noise—laughter, music, a door slamming, someone shrieking about eyeliner.
His childhood home looked the same as it always had—calm and orderly from the outside—but inside, it was anything but.
He stopped at the end of the street and checked his face in the mirror.
There it was.
A faint shimmer still caught the light along his cheekbone, subtle but unmistakable once you knew it was there. He rubbed at it with his thumb, then tried again, harder this time. When it didn’t fully disappear, he huffed a quiet laugh.
Five seconds, my ass.
His phone sat in the console, dark and quiet. He didn’t pick it up yet. Let the thought settle. Let it be what it was before he tried to turn it into anything else.
The sound of Addie’s laughter followed him anyway. Loose. Unchecked. Like somebody who didn’t have to keep track of time.
Mac’s face came to him again. The way she’d laughed on the grass at the park. The way she’d looked surprised that they’d joined the ballgame, like joy had snuck up on her.
He exhaled and reached for his phone before he could again talk himself out of texting her.
I’m on my way home, probably be there in fifteen minutes. This is random, but would you want to come over and watch a movie? I’ll provide the popcorn, snacks and beer.
He read it once. Didn’t add anything clever.
Then he sent the text and headed toward home.
Mac had just finished drying her hair when her phone lit up on the kitchen counter.
She glanced at it absently, expecting Bella or a calendar alert she’d forgotten to silence. Instead, Connor’s name sat there, solid and unassuming.
She picked it up and read the message once.
Then again.
Mac leaned back against the counter, the tile cool through her T-shirt, her bare feet tucked together on the mat. The place was quiet—windows cracked, the faint hum of a neighbor’s lawnmower drifting through the screen, distant and unimportant.
She hadn’t planned on going anywhere. She’d already changed. Already decided the night would be simple.
Her thumbs hovered.
It’s Wednesday.
She sent it before she could overthink the words, a half-smile tugging at her mouth. A moment passed. Not long, but long enough to feel deliberate.
Then she typed again.
But yes.
She smiled before she could stop herself.
Mac set the phone down and stood there for a second longer than necessary, listening to the quiet she’d been so good at building around herself. It didn’t feel fragile tonight. It felt…flexible.
Ten minutes later, she heard the sound of Connor’s SUV pulling into the driveway.
She waited another five minutes, then grabbed her keys from the hook by the door, slipped her sandals on and checked her reflection in the hall mirror.
Her hair was slightly wavy, her face free of makeup except for a hint of mascara. She looked comfortable in her own skin.
At the door, she hesitated just long enough to recognize what she was feeling.
Not nerves. Not doubt.
Anticipation.
Sharp and unmistakable, the kind she hadn’t let herself feel in a long time.
She stepped out into the warm evening air, pulling the door closed with a soft click and locking up, ready to move toward whatever this was becoming.