Unbreakable(13)

“I’m sorry, Will, I didn’t realize you were making all this food. I agreed to go to a barbecue later with some people I met down at the lake today.”

Aaand now I feel even shittier.

“No worries, Em.”

“Do you want to come with me?” I ask. “I told them I was staying here with a friend, and they said the more, the merrier and all that.”

Will despises parties. He’s not much for hanging out with people he doesn’t know well, so I’m completely floored when he accepts my invitation.

“Sure. I’ll go with you.” He fixes himself another taco. “Sounds good.”

“Really?”

“Unless you don’t want me to go.” He studies me for a moment. “Did you just invite me to be polite?”

“No! No, of course not. You just usually hate parties. I’m surprised, that’s all.”

He just smiles and takes a big swallow from his water bottle. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to make of that smile so, instead, I ignore it. I finish my dinner and take the empty plate to the dishwasher.

“Thanks, Will. That was yummy.”

He smiles again. “Sure.”

I go upstairs to my room to get ready for the barbecue. After a nice long shower, I pull on a clean pair of denim shorts and a light purple tank top. I blow dry my hair and pull it back into a long, sleek ponytail before applying a minimal amount of makeup.

It’s just a casual barbecue, and I don’t want to look like I’m trying that hard for Jackson. Because honestly? I’m not. He’s a bit aggressive in his approach and a little too much in love with himself. I haven’t made up my mind how far I want things to go with him. I need more time to see how I feel. So far, I don’t feel anything.

I head back downstairs and plop down in a chair. Will’s sitting on the couch, scrolling through something on his iPad. “Ready to go?”

He looks up from the screen. “Wow. You look too nice to be going to a barbecue.”

“Really?” I look down at my outfit. “It’s just a tank-top and shorts. I’m not dressed up.”

“Well, you look good.” He pauses. “Hey, do you have a few minutes before we head out?”

Oh God. I hope he doesn’t want to talk about last night again. Things are just now starting to get less awkward. The last thing I want to do is revisit all of that.

“Um, sure. What’s up?”

He stands and opens the sliding glass door that leads to the back of the property. “I want to show you something. C’mon.”

I follow him into the large backyard, which is surrounded by forest. In front of the shed is a dark blue quad bike.

“Oh my God! The quad!” I circle the bike and attempt another ridiculous happy dance. “I didn’t know you still had this!”

“I couldn’t get rid of it. No way.”

The summer I turned fifteen, Sully, Will, and I spent nearly every single day on this bike. When we reminisce about past vacations, we refer to that one as “The Summer of the Quad.”

Of course, between my dad and Sully being overprotective maniacs, I wasn’t allowed to ride the quad by myself. It didn’t matter, though; I’d had a blast regardless.

Will was always more adventurous on the bike than Sully, and I loved riding with him. I think he felt bad that I wasn’t allowed to ride alone, so he made up for it by being just a little bit wilder behind the wheel.

He elbows me. “Want to go for a spin?”

I can’t contain my excitement and bounce up and down on the balls of my feet. “Yes! Do you still remember how to drive it?”

“Sure. I took it out last year.” He climbs onto the bike.

A wave of sadness washes over me. I had no idea Will came up here last summer.

“Wait, so you came up here by yourself?”

Will shrugs. “Yeah. I didn’t want to miss a year, even if everyone else couldn’t make it. It wouldn’t have seemed right, you know?”

“Yeah,” I say softly. “I guess it wouldn’t.” Still, it breaks my heart a little.

He hands me a helmet and starts up the quad as I climb on behind him.

“Safety first,” he says, grinning as I pull on the helmet. “You ready?”

“I was born ready, remember?”

“Hang on tight to me, okay, Sunshine?”

My body tingles at the deep timbre of his voice, and I wrap myself around him. His stomach is rock-hard muscle under his thin t-shirt, and he feels solid and safe. I want nothing more than to trace my fingers along the ridges and planes of his abs, but somehow, I force myself to remain still.

Will maneuvers the bike onto the old trails and does a slow test run to make sure they’re clear.

“Alright, here we go,” he yells.

We take off, speeding along the trails deep into the forest and racing over the small dips and hills. I cling to him, my chest glued against his back as we fly through the woods.

His laughter drifts back to me over the noise of the quad and the wind. He guns the bike up another hill and down over the other side, and I shriek with glee.

Honestly? This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time. I feel free and young and so damn happy. The farther we get into the woods, the farther away we get from the stress of the city, university, and my parents.