Nearly Found Read Online Free

Otherwise, Alex would be so tangled up in court dates, we’d be old and gray before we could take enough time off for a honeymoon.” Gena peeled off her apron and set it on the counter. “It’s over. TJ’s in prison and it’s a new school year, and we can all move on with our lives.”
    “Amen!” Alex poked his head through the screen door. “Burgers are almost ready.”
    • • •
    After dinner, we sat around the patio table, talking until the sun began to set, then we all helped clear the dishes. Alex put on Gena’s apron and started in, while Gena organized the leftovers, singing softly to a song on the radio while she moved about the kitchen. I watched, feeling warm and full and drowsy.
    Reece reached for my hand and led me to a patch of grass in the backyard. We lay there, staring at the sunset, my head on his chest and his fingers tangled in mine. He rolled onto his side, wincing from the lingering stiffness in his shoulder. Even though the bullet wound from TJ had healed, it still ached from time to time, and he bore it silently, like a penance.
    “Close your eyes,” he said, leaning into me.
    “What?”
    “Just do it.” I felt a crisp, peppermint thrill as he pulled me to my knees. Reece was nervous, excited.
    “What is it?” I giggled.
    I felt his fingers at the nape of my neck, unfastening my pendant . . . his pendant. Its absence felt strange. I hadn’t taken it off since he’d placed the chain holding his brother’s class ring around my neck that night in the hospital back in June. I pushed away the unsettled feeling in my chest and resisted the urge to open my eyes, trusting in the sweetness of his emotions instead. Any doubts I had were overcome by the cool spill of a chain falling against my skin and the press of his lips to my cheek.
    Reece’s breath was shaky when he whispered, “Open them.”
    I blinked my eyes open. His brother’s pewter ring was gone. In its place was a silver thistle charm, its leaves delicately curled around a flower made from a tiny purple stone. The thistle was a symbol Reece associated with his brother—a kid who wasn’t afraid to do the right thing, even if it meant risking his own future. A reminder of the person Reece was trying so hard to be.
    “If you don’t want it, I’ll understand. I mean . . . I don’t want to take the ring from you . . . It’s just . . . I want you to have something from me, but . . .” Reece held his brother’s ring and its heavy chain, like he was waiting for permission to put it on. To put it back where it belonged. I drew it over his head.
    The winding thistle tattoo on his arm slid around my waist. He pulled me in close and kissed me. His emotions seemed to mirror the changing colors of the sky, layers of deepening feelings with blurry edges I couldn’t quite define. I slipped my hands under the hem of his shirt, up his stomach and over his chest, my fingers finding the smooth pucker of scar tissue just below his right shoulder. His heartbeat was steady and strong beneath my wrist, but everything inside him tasted uncertain.
    “What’s wrong?” I asked him.
    I kissed the hard line of his jaw and it relaxed into a smile. “Right this second? Absolutely nothing.”
    And I knew exactly what he meant. That everything was completely right, but there was nothing we could do to keep this last day of summer from dissolving away.

2
    M Y LOCKER MADE A HOLLOW SOUND when I snapped it open, and my chest felt tight. The first day of my senior year should have felt great, like a new beginning. New classes, new books, new schedule. And yet, starting a new year without Jeremy and Anh—without Teddy’s laughter and Posie’s smile—felt like starting over alone. But I wasn’t alone, I reminded myself. I had Reece. I had Gena. I had an internship.
    I inspected the scratched interior of my locker. A new prepaid cell phone caught my eye on the shelf and a smile pulled at my lips. Reece used to leave prepaid cell