She woke to find Gavin’s phone vibrating on the bedside table. When it stopped ringing, she sighed and relaxed into his warm embrace.
Her eyes snapped open again. She was lying half on top of Gavin with her head on his shoulder and arm draped over his middle. One leg over his. She tried to extricate herself before he woke up, but his arm tightened around her waist. His free hand moved to her back, completely holding her in place.
“Five more minutes,” he said against the top of her head.
She stilled. Was he awake or just mumbling in his sleep? She tried to pull away again, but he stopped her.
“Lila,” he whispered. The use of her first name sent a shiver down her spine, and as if he knew what she thought, he rubbed a hand down her back. “Can we please just enjoy this for a minute?”
She wanted to. God, did she want to. But a thousand thoughts swirled through her mind as she stared at the wall. A beam of light streamed in from the corner of the window where he hadn’t pulled the curtain all the way shut. Her head throbbed with the brightness. She turned her attention to the digital clock beside the bed, counting the seconds as she waited for the numbers to change. They had an hour before they needed to check out. She had to pack, and they would probably need to eat before getting back on the road.
“Stop thinking so hard,” Gavin said, drawing her out of her own head.
“I…”
Gavin’s arms loosened around her with a sigh, and she shifted away. He turned on his side to face her. They were still too close. She could count his eyelashes, if she dared to look that close. He slowly reached out and trailed a finger down her cheek. She held her breath.
“I know you.” His smile warmed her heart.
Lila didn’t want to leave that moment, despite how anxious he made her. She wanted it to be real, and that’s what scared her the most. She hated that she’d pulled away from him, but it was necessary.
He rested his palm against the side of her face. “It’s okay. Breathe.”
A shaky breath passed her lips. She tried to think of something to say—anything to convey how she felt. She needed to tell him the truth.
“Why did you push me away?”
Gavin’s quiet words caught her off guard, and Lila's heart stopped. She knew he would bring it up at some point, but she’d hoped to get through the trip before it happened. Pushing herself to sit against the headboard, she reached over to check her phone. She had one text from her mom, asking her to be safe on their way home, and one from Beth Ann, asking for all the juicy details that didn’t exist.
“Weston, I’m sick of this.” He sat up beside her, lowering her phone to her lap. “Please just talk to me.”
She swallowed past the tightness threatening to close her throat. For seven years, she’d waited for those words. She’d only ever wanted him to show he cared and ask, but that didn’t make it easier. If anything, the years apart made it worse. Not because she was still hurt—that had passed a long time ago—but because she knew that it was too late. If they made up, it would only hurt worse when they inevitably parted ways. With a sigh, she asked, “Do you remember our eleventh birthday party?”
“Vaguely,” he said. “I know that’s the last birthday party we shared. I went to stay with Aunt Sharon for a couple weeks, and by the time I came back, you wanted nothing to do with me.”
Flashes of that summer flooded her mind. The laughter and betrayal that seemed like the end of the world at that age. The truth was his words didn’t hurt for long. It was childish, even she knew that. She would have forgiven him.
What broke their friendship was his inability to apologize or even acknowledge it. He never tried to figure out what was wrong. Instead of fighting for their friendship, he began teasing her every opportunity he had. Then the arguing started.
But what if he hadn’t apologized because he truly never knew?
“I went inside to get your birthday present,” she said as she stood, moved to the window, and slid the curtain to the side. “I saved up my money for months and months, doing extra chores, to get us Cubs tickets. When I came back downstairs, you were surrounded by your baseball team. You were all laughing, and I snuck up behind to surprise you.”
Staring out at the city she’d dreamed of for so long, she tucked a piece of hair back before rubbing at her temple. She didn’t want to have that conversation. At the end, another waited for her. One she wasn’t ready for.
“What did you overhear?”
She turned to face him. “Your friends making fun of me. You joined in and said you only hung out with me because your parents made you. That you hated it—hated me.”
He stared at her, regret filling his eyes. “I didn’t mean any of that. It just wasn’t cool to have a girl best friend.”
Lila looked away. “I get that. Really, I do. My heart was broken though. I thought when you came back from your aunt’s, you’d apologize and things would go back to normal, but they didn’t. Everything escalated from there.”
“I didn’t know you heard me.” Gavin got out of the bed and took cautious steps toward her. He stopped a few feet away. “I didn’t know I needed to apologize because I didn’t know why you were upset.”
“But you didn’t even try to find out. You just started teasing me.”
He let out a soft laugh. “I was eleven.”
“Yes, but a few years later, I heard you again. You were talking to Kyle with the rest of the team at the homecoming dance. You told him to
