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“I’ve only been a few times. I avoid drinking. I don’t need to add any addictions to my roster of bad personality traits.”
“That’s pretty noble, actually. And if it makes you feel any better, I don’t usually drink either. The hangovers aren’t worth it.”
“Most people do it anyway.”
“I’m just smart.”
“Not saying you’re not, but there could be another reason.”
“I suppose that’ll stay a secret.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “You have a lot of those?”
“Yep.”
“Like what? Your favorite color isn’t pink?”
She rolled her eyes. “Did you mean to sound like an ass?”
“Not really. I just figured it was since I see you in it a lot.”
“It’s a great color, but not my favorite,” she said. “My actual favorite is the color orange the sky turns when the sun sets.”
I could picture it. The farm had a picturesque view of the setting sun nearly every night. When Mollie was working in the living room, sometimes I would catch her staring at it.
I glanced over at her, and her gaze had drifted out the window. The sun had set a long time ago, but its rays still changed the sky. The sunsets here were always indescribable, but I had a hard time enjoying them when I looked at them. All I could see were the empty fields.
“So, yeah. Not pink.” She dragged her eyes away and blew out a breath. “You need to stop slipping into silence. I’m trying to distract myself from my nerves.”
“You’re nervous?” I asked. “I didn’t think that was possible for you.”
“I do mess up socially, thank you very much. And bars aren’t really athingI do.”
“Yeah, working on your laptop seems to take up most of your time.”
“I’m trying to change that.”
“Don’t worry. You will. The whole town will be talking about this tomorrow, and you’ll have plenty of questions to answer.”
“I share a house with you, and I wanted to hang out. I’ll just tell them that.”
“And you think that’ll be enough? You know what this’ll look like.”
“We don’t have that vibe, Cain.”
“What kind of word is vibe?”
“You know, thataura.”
“Aura is worse.”
“We’re purely friends,” I said. “The town will see that.”
“Bet you your first strawberry that they don’t.”
“Myfirststrawberry?”
“The first one is always the most sentimental. I’m confident.”