Chapters (42)
He shakes his head. “Your mom will murder me when she finds out I saw them first and didn’t ground you.” He winces at the thought. “But I’ve always wanted a tattoo, actually.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Of course, mine wouldn’t be some misguided attempt at teenage rebellion.” His scoff is teasing, but I glare at him.
“Not a thing. If I wanted to rebel, I wouldn’t have told you about it.”
“Oh. So, you’ve told your mom?” he asks, tracing a finger in the condensation on his glass of iced tea.
“So she can judge me and tell me that baring my shoulders to a tattoo artist will only lead to fornication? Or that vanity is a sin? Or that needles carry hep C?”
“She’s not that bad,” he says. But it comes out uncertain, so I don’t bother arguing. Besides, I’ve been wondering about something else.
“Before everyone else gets here, can I ask: What was she like before me?”
“You mean at seventeen?”
I nod.
“She was the kind of girl who radiated happy. Fearless and a flirt, if you can imagine.”
The corner of my mouth twitches. “I honestly can’t.”
“Beautiful and kind. She practically forced me to be her best friend, much like you did to poor Vada back in the day.” His eyes hold a hint of teasing. “She fell head over heels for your dad. She likes to play it off like they were these strangers who barely knew each other … which is true, truer still in her memories. But meeting him lit a spark inside of her. That weekend they spent together was her romantic ideal for years. Maybe still is, since she doesn’t have anything to compare it to.”
I play with my napkin, unfolding and refolding it. “This is sort of surreal, talking to you about this. But nice. Thank you. Were you there when they met?”
His eyes soften. “Actually, yes. They were like two magnets. Completely absorbed from the very first. I watched her watch him during the show, and she was enamored. I’d never seen her so fixated. Afterward, he sought her out and introduced himself. They were making out by the end of the evening, making all of us sick. There was no going back for Amanda once she met Andrew. That they lived so far apart and really only had one weekend to explore each other made it all the more exciting, I think. She gave everything she had and didn’t regret it one bit.”
Declan leans in as I spot Micah at the entrance. “Don’t forget that part, okay? Your mom never regretted what happened with Andrew, and she never regretted you.”