Things changed after that conversation and neither of us said it out loud because saying it would have made it real.
Drake didn’t suddenly become soft and I didn’t suddenly become easy. But something had shifted between us anyway.
It was in the way he looked for me before he looked anywhere else.
It was in the way I noticed him before I noticed the noise.
It was in the way we somehow kept ending up near each other. Even when neither of us admitted we were doing it on purpose.
The property stayed tense after the shots and the clubhouse clearing had turned into something between a construction site and a war camp. Everyone moved around with one eye on the trees and one hand close to a weapon.
But Drake kept finding me and it was hard to tell anymore.
I sat on the back steps wi
