MY ALMOST EX (The Greene Family #2)

Chapter 2

Mom shuttles me away through the crowd. All I want to do is break free and run back to Adam—wrap my arms around his neck and allow him to pull me in, whisper to me that everything will be okay, that whatever happened to us isn’t an issue anymore. Instead, I hide my tears as the townspeople we pass look and whisper about me. My mom huddles me into her chest as we make the short walk to the inn.

Suddenly, a memory flickers to life as if it was hidden in a dark room and Adam had the key to unlock the door and flip on the light for me.

We were thirteen and it was his birthday.

Marla, his stepmom, threw him a huge party with balloons and streamers decorating the pergola outside by their pool. His dad was newly remarried, and the whole group of them had moved into the Greene family house on the hill about a year earlier.

I arrived with my best friend, Cora, while Adam was doing cannonball competitions with his friends, not paying any attention to the girls at the party. Then his brothers, Fisher and Xavier, and Fisher’s friend, Cam, came out of the house. Most of the girls’ mouths were ajar as they stripped off their shirts and did cannonballs that soaked everyone, including the bowls of chips near the pool.

Adam sat on the edge of the pool while his brothers razzed him and all the other boys about how the party was split down the middle with girls on one side and boys on the other. Then we played games I think Marla might have spurred. We did swimming contests and tag, and slowly all the girls and boys started interacting.

All the girls thought Adam was good-looking, and he was funny and sweet. Though I knew a lot of the girls liked him because he was a Greene. Every boy in his family had been a quarterback of the Sunrise Bay High School football team. Fisher was the captain and quarterback at the time, but rumor was Xavier would take over as the starting quarterback in his junior year because he was that good. It was expected that Adam would also play that position when he hit high school.

But I liked Adam because when Toby Turner depantsed me two years ago, earning me the nickname rainbow since my underwear had rainbows on them, Adam depantsed him back during the Christmas play in front of everyone. As Adam was being pulled away by Mrs. Fields, he winked at me. He got himself in a lot of trouble for getting payback for me.

“Chicken fights,” Cam yelled, drawing me from remembering when I started to like Adam.

A lot had changed in two years. We’d all grown, and Adam’s voice cracked from time to time. My breasts filled out my bikini, and my hips had become wider after I got my period. I’d grown up with all those boys, yet we were all starting to see one another in a different light.

“Go be Adam’s partner.” Cora elbowed me from the side of the pool.

I shook my head, kicking the water. “No.”

“Stop playing from the sidelines. I know you like him.”

Amara was already swimming toward Adam. I was jealous of the way she put herself out there. I pulled out my ponytail and repositioned it as though I couldn’t be bothered.

Cora elbowed me again. “Luce, I know he likes you.”

“No, you don’t,” I said, shaking my head.

“Everyone’s known it since the depantsing of Toby Turner.”

I loved Cora, but it’d been two years. Plus, Adam had been going through a rough time with his dad and Marla getting together. A lot had changed since then, so his attitude toward me probably had changed too.

Cam came over to us, pointing. “What about you two?”

Cameron Baker, heartthrob of Sunrise Bay, was standing in front of Cora and me. He was the starting running back and Fisher’s right-hand man. If it wasn’t for Hank Greene marrying his cousin’s ex-wife, the Baker family might’ve taken the cake as the family everyone in Sunrise Bay respected most.

The Baker family ran the fishing piers. They were responsible for the livelihood of a lot of people in this town. But Cameron held a certain charismatic appeal. He was a natural flirt if you asked me. But he was no Adam Greene.

“You’re Lucy Davis, right?” he asked.

Cora guffawed that he knew my name.

“Adam!” He snapped his finger and waved him over.

Adam swam over and I noticed how much wider his frame was than last summer.

“What?” he asked, never making eye contact with Cora or me.

“You and Lucy are gonna be partners,” Cam said. “Come on and slide down in the water,” he instructed me, as if I’d never done that before.

“You want me to get on his shoulders?” I asked, both praying Cameron wouldn’t make me do this and at the same time wanting to.

“Cam.” Adam shook his head, which kept my ass on the cement edge.

“Stop it. Come on. I’m doing you a huge favor.”

“What?” Adam screeched and his voice turned high right at the end.

Cam patted him on the shoulder. “One day he won’t sound like a frog anymore.”

I think the reason people envied the Greenes was their big family. To an outsider, they all appeared to be close. Cameron Baker had been pulled into them, being Fisher’s best friend. Having only a three-year-old brother, I would love to have siblings who had your back.

“Now stop playing games, let’s go.” He pointed at Cora. “You can be my partner.”

“This is hardly fair. You’re taller than me,” Adam complained.

“True.” Cam looked around. “Turner, get your ass over here.”

Cora groaned. “I am not getting on Toby Turner’s shoulders.”

“Oh, come on,” Cam implored.

Toby swam over. We’d made peace after the depantsing incident, and he and Adam actually became friends afterward.

We convinced Cora to get on Toby’s shoulders, and once she was up in the water, Adam sank down into the water and I straddled his head with my legs hanging over his chest. His hands grabbed my shins and my body slowly emerged out of the water. I put my hands on his head and was surprised by how silky it was in my fingers.

“Okay, girls, on the count of three, you each have to try to get the other one to fall off. Boys, stay strong.” Cam leaned along the edge of the pool, Fisher and Xavier on either side of him, watching. “One. Two. Three.”

Adam and Toby walked toward one another, and Cora and I ended up laughing more than fighting, which aggravated the boys. My body wiggled, and Adam’s hands on my bare skin were doing all sorts of things to my hormones. I was so preoccupied with his touch that Cora pushed me and I fell back, unable to keep my balance. As my body sank to the bottom, Adam’s hands landed on my hips, guiding me back up. We both emerged from the water, staring at one another.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly.

He shook out his hair. “Don’t worry about it. You’re okay?”

I nodded a few times. Our bodies were only inches apart and his hands were still on my hips. His gaze fell to my lips and it was as though the entire party disappeared and it was only us. I slid my tongue along my bottom lip because I read that your lips shouldn’t be dry when you kiss a boy. He was so gorgeous, I lost all train of thought.

“Cake!” Mrs. Greene yelled, and everyone scrambled to get out of the pool.

Adam smiled and swam away, his hands falling off my body in a lingering way that suggested he didn’t want to let me go.

That was when I knew Adam Greene and I were destined to be together. I even wrote it in my journal that night.

Before we reach the doors of the inn, I stop, closing my eyes to make sure the memory is still there. I envision a younger Adam in his swim trunks, smiling at me. Yeah, it’s still there.

“I had journals,” I say.

“What, sweetie?” Mom opens the door.

She’s been great the past three months, helping me try to remember. She didn’t want to come back to Sunrise Bay though. Said that whatever made me leave a year ago was still here, and not knowing what it was, she thought returning could make things worse. But I pushed the issue until she worried I’d come by myself.

“I used to write in journals,” I say again.

“You did?”

I nod. “You never had any at home?”

“You packed up your room when you…” She heads toward the reception desk where a young man I don’t recognize stands, her words trailing off like she wasn’t speaking.

Once we’ve secured a room for the night and we’re inside, I sit on the bed. “Mom.”

She’s busy taking off her coat and getting out of her shoes, checking her phone as if I didn’t say her name. I’m just realizing that she never told me about Adam or even the fact that I was married. How could she keep that from me?

“Mom,” I say again.

“What, sweetie? I never saw any journals.” She’s talking to her phone.

“Will you please look at me?”

She glances up.

“Can we talk about what a huge thing this is? I just remembered being at Adam’s thirteenth birthday party. I mean, until twenty minutes ago, I didn’t even know he existed.”

She puts her phone down and sits on the edge of the bed, taking my hands. “This is what I was afraid of. I’m not going to lie, I’d hoped maybe you wouldn’t remember being married. When you came to us in Idaho, you were so distraught. You didn’t get out of bed for an entire month.”

“Why did we break up?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t know. You wouldn’t say.”

“Why? Why wouldn’t I have told you?” My forehead creases.

She sighs, her telltale sign she’s holding back information and would rather not tell me. “I think you were afraid I would say I told you so.”

“Why would you have done that?”

“Because we forbade your marriage.” She pats my hand. “I never saw you get married, Luce. Your father and I didn’t agree with it and there was a fight and…”

I slide my hands out from hers and stand, looking out the window that has views of the bay. “Why didn’t you support us?”

She sighs again. It’s grating on my nerves. “It’s a long story.”

“Good thing we have nowhere to be then.”

She stands and grabs her overnight bag, ready to go to the bathroom.

“Mom,” I plead, “you can’t keep me in the dark. Dr. Lipstein said when I have questions, you should answer them and maybe they’ll help me remember.”

At times in the past three months, I’ve felt my mom keeping information from me. My brother, Zane, would say something that didn’t quite make sense to me and then my parents would shift conversation in another direction.

“Some things are meant to stay in the past. You came back to us. Can’t we just let that be?”

I raise my hands in frustration. What did she expect to happen when we returned here? Did she hope I would remember nothing and this entire part of my life would be erased forever? I think I’m starting to understand why she was so hesitant for me to return.

“Either you tell me or I hear it from Adam, because I’m not leaving Sunrise Bay without an answer.” I cross my arms.

“Okay, okay. Just let me get ready for bed and process everything, then we’ll hash out what happened.” She opens the door and disappears down the hall.

I wait for the bathroom door to shut down the hall, then I grab my coat and slide out of the room. If she has to think about it, she won’t tell me the full truth. And I’m starting to figure out that it’s up to me to remember for myself.

Going downstairs, I tiptoe past the front desk and out the door, but I freeze in place when I see Mandi’s finger poking Adam in the chest.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

Both of them look over. Adam steps forward only for Mandi to wrap her hand around his wrist and tug him back.

Looks like it’s not only my family who wants to keep us apart.