as she runs down the porch steps toward the open arms of Obnoxious Horn Honker. She practically jumps on him, and he’s too late to catch her. Weak. They both land on the dirt, he on his back and Mia straddling his torso.
Jealousy burns a hole in my chest, and I should look away. I know I should. But I can’t.
“Jesus, Mia,” the guy laughs out. “Happy to see me much?”
She has both hands pressed against his cheeks. “I could kiss your entire face.”
He grimaces, tries pushing her off of him. “Please don’t.”
Mia raises a fist. “I could punch your entire face.”
The guy chuckles, his grin wide. “Please don’t do that either.”
John’s standing next to me now, a low rumble of laughter making his shoulders bounce. “Baba, let the boy go.”
“Yeah, baba,” mocks the guy, his hands on Mia’s shoulders as he shoves her to the side. She rolls off of him and onto her back, and she’s smiling, laughing in a way I’d never seen. Never heard. The guy gets to his feet and offers her his hand. And when she looks up at him, her hair curtaining her face, I see a version of her that I’d only been privy to a few times.
She once told me that I brought out a side of her that no one else does, but she lied. This Mia, this confident, carefree girl currently dusting the dirt off her clothes, existed prior. And the guy picking leaves out of her hair brought it out of her way before I came along.
“It’s good to see you, Holden,” John says, his arms crossed as he watches them.
Mia looks up at him as if realizing for the first time that they have an audience, and that audience includes me. Her cheeks redden as Holden makes his way over to us. He shakes hands with John and says, “What’s good, Papa John?”
“Everything is good now,” John responds. “I’ve missed seeing you two together. How’s your anya?”
Holden glances at me quickly and disregards me just as fast. “Mom’s good. She misses you, though.”
“What about me?” Mia calls from behind him. She jumps on his back, and this time, he catches her. Legs wrapped around Holden’s waist, his arms locked beneath her knees, she leans forward so she can look at him. “Does she miss me?”
“Doubt it.” Holden chuckles. “She never even mentions you.”
“Liar,” Mia retorts, and she can’t stop smiling at him.
“This is Leo,” John tells Holden, and suddenly, I’m standing taller, sizing him up.
“Hey, man,” he says, nodding in greeting. “I’d shake your hand, but…” He adjusts Mia’s legs, lifting her higher on his back. His grin falters, his eyes widening slightly. “Wait. Leo?” His gaze shifts between John and me. “As in Leo Pre—” Mia covers his mouth with one hand, the other on his forehead, pulling his head back.
“We’re gonna go, Papa,” she says, teeth gritted.
Holden curses beneath her palm, and she lets go of him the same time he releases her. They walk over to his truck, where he opens the driver’s side door, and Mia gets inside, slides over to the passenger seat. It’s a move so swift and effortless; it’s as if they’ve done it a thousand times before. Holden turns to us, says to John, “You’ll let me know when you’re making your goulash, right?”
“Anytime you want, son.” John chuckles. “You bring her back in one piece, okay?”
“Always, sir.” Holden fixes his gaze on me. “Later, Preston.”
I watch the truck back out, then enter the road, the laughter from a lifetime of friendship fading as they drive away. It feels as if the earth is shifting. As if the ground beneath me has separated from the rest, and I’m floating, floating, gone.
I wonder if Mia ever felt this way the summers she stayed with us. And I wonder what all she’s told that Holden guy about me. I just hope that whatever it is, she remembers us the same way I do.
That at some point, she saw the good in me.
And the good outweighed the bad.
Chapter Sixteen
Mia
“Sooooo…” Holden drags out the single word as though it consists of multiple syllables.
“So?” I contain my giggle as I watch him fiddle with his truck engine, acting like he knows what the heck he’s doing. He has a bottle of water in one hand, but he’s untwisting the coolant container.
“Leo Preston’s here,” he murmurs, and I wait for him to uncap the water and tilt the bottle before shoving him out of the