by Easton, Meg
You said we shouldn’t see each other anymore.
Which is hard, since you’re my neighbor next door.
But even more impossible is trying to not love you.
Which I can’t do, so I hope you’ll follow each clue.
Go where we were given the “unplanned” scooter rides.
Jog 400 feet south to where the road divides.
To the left that leads to our old animal trail.
At each fork, choose the one more traveled and you’ll prevail.
Soon, you’ll end up at the place I painted on that rock.
And then maybe we can have a little talk.
She shouldn’t have ended it with saying they should talk. Nobody liked to hear that. It sounded ominous and bad. Why didn’t she think to change that before having Peyton deliver it to Ian? She hoped he wouldn’t think it was bad, or maybe he wouldn’t want to come.
She pulled out her phone again to check the time. Peyton should’ve dropped off her rhyme at his house twenty-five minutes ago. If she’d have gotten a note like that, she would’ve checked her hair and makeup, maybe even changed clothes. So five minutes there. The drive was about ten minutes to the quasi-trailhead. And then it was at least a fifteen minute walk to where she was—if he didn’t take the actual trail, which was two miles down from the viewpoint. With all its meandering, it would take much longer.
And that was assuming he was home when Peyton dropped off the note. And that he wanted to come talk to her.
She paced some more.
And some more.
Maybe her directions were bad. Maybe she should’ve chosen a location they had actually been to as adults, like along Chipper Creek trail where she lost her shoe. Or the park where they’d watched Bex’s nieces and nephews. Or the high school or restaurant or viewpoint or lemonade stand.
Or maybe she should’ve just knocked on his front door.
Finally, she decided maybe it wasn’t bad directions at all—maybe he just wasn’t coming. She was just bending down to pick up her bag when she heard the sounds of footsteps through the undergrowth and she spun around.
Ian was emerging from a non-existent path in the trees that wasn’t their animal trail shortcut or the main trail. He wore dark jeans and a light blue t-shirt that was so similar to the one he had been wearing when she’d first seen him in the grocery store, a plaid shirt over it like a jacket. His hair was perfectly tousled and the sun shone down on him in the clearing and he had that amused smile on his face that she loved so much.
He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I might have, uh, made some wrong choices on a couple of those forks in the path. It’s been a while.”
Addison smiled. “You have a little...” She motioned with her hand on the top of her hair, and he reached up and pulled out a twig that decided to hitchhike during one of those wrong choices.
He dropped a backpack she hadn’t noticed he’d been wearing to the ground and stepped a few feet closer to her. It was strange, seeing this very grown up, very beautiful man in the same space they had spent so much time in as kids so long ago. Except for some minor changes, the place looked largely the same as it had.
It was the opposite for them, though. They were the ones who had grown and changed over the past thirteen years. That crush she’d had on Ian when she was thirteen had been a little sapling. Something she thought had withered and died from lack of water over the years, but had really just been waiting for its time to grow into something more beautiful.
Or, at least she hoped it still had a chance to continue to grow. He looked like he had things he wanted to say just as much as she did, but they were both standing awkwardly on the bank of a river, eight feet apart, not talking.
Addison looked down at the bend in the river, where the water lapped against the small rocks and dirt as it lazily turned back to join the slightly faster moving water, then she met Ian’s eyes. “That night, when you said you didn’t think we should see each other anymore”—Ian flinched, but she pressed forward anyway—“I wanted to say how I really felt. But I was afraid to do it because I wasn’t sure you felt the same, so I walked away. Kind of like I did when I was thirteen and I gave you that painted stone. Except this time I didn’t run, so obviously I’m making progress.”
Ian chuckled quietly.
She shook out her nervous hands again and then wiped them on her hips. Maybe she hadn’t made so much progress after all. She forced herself to take a few slow breaths to calm her nerves. “But I’m ready now. I’m ready to tell you exactly how I feel.”
Maybe she shouldn’t have spent so much time writing the rhyme and then worrying about his reaction to it, and spent more time figuring out how she was going to tell him everything that was in her heart.
“You were a big part of everything magical in my summers as a kid, and you’re an essential part of everything magical about my life now. I love the way you look out for others, the way you look out for me, the way you make me laugh. I love the way you care, and even the way you smell. Which sounds weird, I know, but you smell really great. And that smile! That one right there. I really love that smile.
“I love the way you get me, and how you’ll drop anything to help someone in need. Plus, you have really great eyes. Have I mentioned your eyes? Sometimes they make me forget how to think, which sounds like a bad thing, but it’s anything but. I just...I love your whole heart, Ian. I love you. I want to be with you.
“Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I fought off some pretty impressive fear demons, which probably gave me some impressive muscles. And I guess I’m giving up some pretty big insecurities, too.”
She figured it was probably time to quit rambling, so she stopped talking and just made eye contact with him. Even though she was feeling pretty vulnerable after revealing so much and really just wanted to look back down at the river. “I know you had a pretty serious relationship not too long ago, and maybe we started dating too soon. Maybe you need some more time, and I’m happy to give it to you. Because I don’t want to be your rebound, Ian. I want to be your forever.”
Ian met her eyes for a long moment, and then in three strides, he was right in front of her, cupping her face in his hands, like she was the most precious thing in the world and he wanted to protect her. She looked into those blue eyes, made even more vibrant by the early evening sun. Then, without a word, he leaned forward and his lips met hers with such an intensity that she found herself fisting his shirt at his chest, holding him close.
Then his kiss slowed, and it felt like he was pouring his whole heart into the kiss, just like she had poured out her heart in words. She slipped her hands up and entwined them behind his neck. She tried to return his kiss with all the words she hadn’t managed to get out.
He broke the kiss and smiled, leaning his forehead against hers, breathing fast.
“So,” she breathed, “Does that mean you want to start dating again?”
26
Ian
Ian laughed, happiness from Addi’s words filling every single cell in his body. “I never wanted to stop dating. I was just battling my own fear demons.” He held up an arm and flexed it, just like she had. “Since you gave up some insecurities, I will give up my fears about the future.”
“Oh yeah?”
“I was apparently holding onto them so tightly that it’s amazing I didn’t choke them to death.”
“Fears are pretty resilient creatures.”
He looked at the water in their little cove that they’d played in so much as kids, and then he looked back at Addi. It was a hot day and she was wearing shorts, which made her legs look incredible. But more importantly, they weren’t pants. Her shoes were lace-up canvas ones that looked like they could handle getting wet and would have a much better chance of staying on her feet than the one’s she’d worn when they’d gone to Chipper Creek. He wore jeans himself—he’d only been thinking about how many branches and tall weeds encroached on the animal trail they’d used as a shortcut so
long ago and not about the water.
“What do you say we recreate the scene you painted on that stone?”
“You want to jump in?”
“For old time’s sake.” Addi looked excited by the idea, so he bent down and started rolling up his pant legs.
They went to the spot at the edge of the higher ground before it dropped off to the river’s edge a foot and a half below, right by the big cedar tree. He wrapped his hand in Addi’s, and she looked at him with a grin so wide and so brilliant that he couldn’t help but feel the same. Then, holding hands, just like in her painting, they jumped into the river, laughing as they landed in the water.
He wrapped his arms around her waist, and she put her arms around his neck as the water swirled around their calves, the gurgling rushing sounds of the river as it moved faster downstream just beyond their cove.
“I remember the water being deeper,” Addi said.
“I remember being worried I was going to step in quicksand and be trapped and you’d have to save me.”
Addi chuckled. “Me, too. I don’t remember it being this cold.”
“I don’t remember being this in love with you.”
Her gaze turned from the river to him and she smiled. “Is this you, admitting that when you were fourteen and I was thirteen, you were kind of in love with me?”
He tried to hold back a smile, but wasn’t very successful. “If how much I thought about you over the years was any indication, I would probably have to admit that I was.”
“You thought of me?”
“Every single summer since then, especially when July rolled around. Every family barbecue. Every time I visited my grandma. Every time I saw any directions written down, even if they didn’t rhyme. And every time I saw Legos, or flat stones, or a picture of a shallow river, or an empty field, or the Hideaway Inn.”
She studied him for a long moment. “And now?”
“Since the day you moved in, I don’t think I’ve gone a whole five minutes without thinking of you.”
“And if that’s any indication—”
“Then it’s a guarantee, Addison Sparks, that I am hopelessly, completely, more entirely in love with you than I thought it was possible to be. You are perfect exactly how you are, and being with you makes me perfectly happy.”
She kissed him on the lips, but she was smiling so much it only lasted half a heartbeat. But she stayed close enough to him to kiss for several long moments, both of them grinning like it was time for Fourth of July fireworks.
“Let’s get dried off,” he said, reaching for her hand again and leading her to the shore and up the step the water had carved out. He grabbed his backpack from where he dropped it and pulled out a blanket, spreading it on the grassy clearing. “I didn’t have time to make a meal, obviously, but,” he said, dragging out the word as he reached into his bag, “I brought blueberries. I figured going with what started this in the first place would be an appropriate start to us dating again.”
“You didn’t,” she said, playfully pushing his shoulder.
He pulled back. “Careful. I like this shirt.”
Addi laughed a beautiful laugh that came from her belly and seemed to fill his whole soul.
They both sat down next to each other on the blanket, their shoulders touching, their legs outstretched. Addi leaned in close enough that he could feel the breath from her whispers. “Also in honor of new beginnings and embarrassing moments, I’d like to mention that today, I decided to wear Secret’s Va Va Vanilla deodorant. What do you think of that?”
He chuckled softly. “I think,” he said, looking deeply into her hazel eyes with the rim of sunshiney gold, “that I fall more and more in love with you every single day.”
Epilogue: Bex
Bex set down one of Ian’s moving boxes in Addison’s room. As she was heading back toward the stairs, she opened her phone and held it up with the video camera turned so it was aimed at her, and pushed the Record button. “Hello, Bexlandians! As promised, today I’m bringing you the very first video in my Hidden Inn Roomies segment! I decided to start with the events of today—”
Timini poked her head into the frame and cut her off by saying, “—because she wanted to catch us in all our t-shirt and sweat pants-wearing, ponytail-sporting, box-toting glory.”
Bex switched the camera so she could get a good shot of Timini. “And it is glorious. This is my roommate, Timini. You can call her Tim.” Timini waved at the camera, and then Bex turned the camera to Peyton as she walked up the stairs. “And this is Peyton. But you can call her Pey.”
Peyton came in close to the camera and said, “No, you can’t.”
Laughing, Bex whispered to her viewers, “You totally can—it’ll just make her twitchy like that. But no, the real reason we are starting this today is that we are getting a new roommate! Our other roommate is Addison, and she is getting married tomorrow.”
All three of them squealed.
“As you can see, we are more than a little excited about it. Ian’s a great guy and they are so freaking adorable together. We are moving most of his stuff in today because they are leaving for their honeymoon straight from their reception, and this way, when they come back from their honeymoon, they’ll have a place to come home to. Peyton, what do you think about getting a new roommate?”
“I’ll admit that at first I thought it was a little weird. It’s always been just the four of us—no guys. Ian has always been our next door neighbor, not our roommate. But then Timini pointed that, hello, this is an inn! For decades, people—mostly couples, even—have been staying here, and they didn’t know each other at all. It really is different here than just a regular apartment. And Ian’s great, so now I’m just excited. For this and the wedding.”
“So am I,” Bex said. “They only wanted a small wedding with just family and a few friends—and they specifically said no video. So sorry, Bexlandians! You won’t get to see the wedding itself. But here’s a sneak peak of me in my bridesmaid dress.” She would add the picture Timini took of her wearing her dress when she edited the video. “Isn’t it fabulous? It’s why Adds is my new favorite person ever. I will show you a few pics of the wedding itself in my segment next week.”
Addison walked from wherever she’d been at the back of the house into the lobby and opened the front door, so Bex, Timini, and Peyton all went down the stairs to join her. They had probably spent way too much time slacking at the top of the stairs anyway. They joined Addison on the big wrap-around porch, leaving the front door open, like it had been most of the day.
“And this is my roommate, Addison. If you couldn’t tell by the glow, she’s the bride-to-be.”
Addison smiled, waved, and said, “Hi” to the camera. Then her eyes immediately went back to the start of the hedgerow that separated the inn from Ian’s house. A few seconds later, Ian and a guy Bex hadn’t seen before came into view, hefting a heavy-looking dresser.
Bex turned the camera to Addison just in time to catch her happy sigh. “I can’t believe I get to marry that man tomorrow.”
“Girl,” Bex said, “you are so joyfully smitten it’s practically bursting out of you. I wish I could bottle it and give some to all of my viewers.”
“He’s just so...” Addison motioned to where her future husband carried the dresser down the curved drive in front of the inn, headed toward them, the weight of the dresser showing off his impressive back muscles. “Perfect.”
Bex chuckled quietly. Addison was so clearly blissfully, completely in love, there was no way her viewers were going to miss it. They were going to be eating this up. Especially because Ian was putting off the exact same vibes, and that man’s emotions showed on his face as clear as day. She made sure to get a good long shot of him hefting that dresser.
Bex had been making sure to show Addison and Ian and capturing how they felt about each other that she had practically missed the guy who was helping Ian with the dresser. “Hello, Mister Hot Stuff.” She zoomed in on the guy, who
was also displaying some incredible upper body strength, along with a jawline so strong she wanted to put her hands on his face. The hair was pretty great, too.
“So, who’s the tall drink of cool water on a hot day? Please tell me he’s single. And that he has an easygoing personality and a soft spot for YouTubers and puppies and large, noisy families.”
“Don’t you already have a date for the wedding?” Peyton asked.
Bex kept the camera on the guy as they came up the front walk. “Yeah, and he’s all those things. But we’ve already gone out a few times, and I can tell you he isn’t forever material.”
Timini bumped her shoulder into Bex’s. “Which makes him exactly your type.”
Bex laughed as she filmed the two men hefting the dresser up the stairs and through the door.
“Roman Powell. He’s Ian’s friend from college,” Addison said. “He’s in town for the wedding.”
The guys set the dresser down in the lobby, and Addison immediately wrapped her arms around Ian’s neck and told him how impressive it was that he hauled something that heavy over from his house. Then they kissed, even with the camera aimed right at them.
“See what I’m talking about?” Bex said to her viewers. “Aren’t they just the sweetest couple you’ve ever seen? I may have to put up some sticky notes about PDA free zones, though.”
“I would think you could come up with a more organized way of making house rules than posting sticky notes everywhere,” Roman Powell said.
Bex flipped the phone’s setting to aim the camera back at herself. “Oh. So the wrong type of guy, then.” She rolled her eyes, knowing that her viewers were probably rolling theirs right along with her, then she turned off the camera and slid the phone into her pocket.