Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 241
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
“We all had crushes when we were sixteen,” Akara tells her. “Donnelly.” He suddenly brings him into the conversation. “Who’d you crush on?”
His eyes dart to me, then the sky. “The moon. Round and sexy. Always out to play at night.” He makes a crude gesture with his fingers, splitting them in a V, and sticks his tongue between them.
I grin.
Akara holds out a hand like it’s strange evidence but evidence nonetheless. “There you go, Sul. It’s not that big of a deal. The lifeguard wasn’t that ugly—”
“It was you!” she snaps. “Okay, it was you. You were standing behind him, Kits. I was looking at you and I slipped—which I never do!”
Akara is stunned.
Banks buckles in laughter.
“It’s not funny,” Sulli groans.
“No, now it’s fuckin’ hilarious,” Banks says, his laughter making Sulli’s restart, but she tries to stop, then strides away from her husbands.
“Fucking ugh,” she curses, then sees me. I expect her to ignore me since most family were told not to bombard me after the amnesia, but she approaches.
My stomach twists.
“Hey,” she says. “You want to come with us? We’re not going too far into the woods to find the tree.”
“I, um…” I glance down at Cassidy. “I’m babysitting, so…”
“Oh fuck, yeah. Sorry.” Sulli teeters on her feet, uncertain.
I want to visualize the friendship we had, but I can’t picture it. Did we share inside jokes? Did we grow apart when she married Akara and Banks?
“Later?” Sulli tries again. “Maybe we can hang out with Jane. Or with our sisters?”
That sounds odd too, and my stomach overturns again. “Yeah, maybe.”
I’m nervous about these social interactions that I built and can’t make sense of. I want to try, but what if I just disappoint Kinney and Sulli and even Jane by being the Variant Luna?
They’d say there is no pressure, but I feel it more when I’m around the girls of the family. Partly, I want to preserve what I created, in hopes it’ll exist and remain untarnished if I ever do remember, but here lies the trouble: I could never remember anything with them. And then what do I have left?
Sulli shuffles away, and Banks curves an arm around her shoulders, guiding her up the hill. Akara whispers to her, and I realize I fucked up that interaction.
We both lost a friendship, but it might be more painful for her. When we were young, we used to have a lake house tradition together. Ice skating on the lake in the early, early Christmas morning. Though, we ended that when we got older, and I wonder if maybe OG Luna reignited it during a time I can’t remember.
My phone chimes in my pocket.
Donnelly places his gaze on me, and I already feel his protectiveness over me. Like he’s bracing for another attack. Another stray text from a rando. Another catastrophe to shield me from. Another rug being pulled beneath our feet.
I check my phone and exhale. “It’s just a Fanaticon notification for Bass. They’re casting minor roles for season two.”
He breathes out too.
I tuck my phone in my jacket, then bounce Cassidy a little. “Do you think we’ll ever reach a place where we’re not standing on our tiptoes, waiting to sprint?”
He starts to smile, which surprises me. “What do you have against sprinting?”
I shrug. “I’m not that fast.”
“I’ll carry you.”
“I’ll weigh you down.”
“You’re air in my arms.”
I smile at the fantastical image. “You’ll never stop, will you?”
“I don’t know how,” he admits. “That’s the thing about the rug. You stop caring if it gets pulled when you figure out how to land on your feet when it does.”
“Teach me how,” I say.
Donnelly approaches with a grin. “And so the apprentice becomes the master.”
“It was bound to happen,” I whisper, my heart speeding out of my body as his hand slides against my cheek. He leaves some space between us to make room for Cassidy. And I suspect he’ll shy away from doing anything more because of the baby.
But he’s close enough.
And then…he dips his head, and he’s kissing me. His lips meld against mine with a tingling heat, and his tongue breaks my lips apart, as if teaching me how to kiss for the first time.
My body sings and aches to bow against his tall frame. My mind ignites in neon shades. My pulse skyrockets through earth’s atmosphere. All kisses should feel as world-altering as the ones with him.
Bang!
We flinch at the violent noise, but he keeps a protective hand on my neck. My pulse jumps into my throat, and Donnelly trains a vigilant eye on the front door.
“The wind must’ve blown it closed,” he tells me. “You alright?”
“Yeah.” I check Cassidy. She’s calm and content. “Are you?” I ask him.
He nods, then flashes me the rock on gesture. He gathers the trash bags before a gust carries those away.