Page 19 of Distant Shores (Stapled Magnolias #2)

IRELAND

A dair stood up from the kitchen table and knocked his crutch over when he reached for it.

“Ah!” He lunged, but it was too late. The crutch fell on top of my board, sending them both rolling across the tile floor. His unruly brown hair fell into his face as he stumbled, and I panicked, reaching for him.

There was no fucking way this was happening again.

I grabbed the first thing I could reach—his biceps. But then he reared back in surprise, dragging me forward so hard that I head-butted his chest.

And just… stayed there, too stunned to move.

Oh my God.

I inhaled, some part of me registering his smell, the feel of his chest.

Pine trees. Fresh air.

Surprisingly firm, hidden beneath his baggy shirt.

“Well, then,” the girl still sitting at the table said before clearing her throat.

I jerked back, meeting Adair’s wide hazel eyes. Probably a mirror of my own. I released him, but not before patting his arms.

“Y’all must have some planets in your charts at war or something,” the girl said, standing up from the table.

I balled my hands into fists, dropping them to my side. Damn pat-happy traitors struck again.

Maybe I should roll straight out of this situation. Out of this house.

Just… take my board all the way to the Gulf and walk into it.

With kettlebells strapped to my belt loops.

“I’m an Aquarius,” she said as if that took precedence over her name, nudging her brother out of the way so she could move in front of me.

“And I’m Adeline Jacks. And I know that saying your sign is obnoxious, but I’m trying to take the heat off this guy.

” She elbowed Adair. “I’m really, really hoping you’re our new roommate. ”

I internally shook myself off and took her offered hand.

She seemed young, twenty at most, taller than me, with little freckles on her cheeks, long dark-brown hair, and kind, brown-and-green eyes.

Eyes the same mossy shade of green as Adair’s.

The exact same.

“I’m sorry you heard us talking about condoms,” Adeline said, making a face.

“My brother likes to think he’s everyone’s lifeguard.

He’ll probably hear about the statistics of the high rate of sexually transmitted diseases within communities like this during our work orientation tomorrow, so don’t be surprised if you catch him going door to door, handing out supplies and pamphlets like the contraception bunny. Or maybe the… sex safety seahorse?”

She turned to her brother as if it were a real question, but he was aggressively cleaning his glasses with a bright purple lens cloth.

“So, anyway,” she continued with a shrug, “You are, right? Our new roommate? It has to be you, with those eyes.”

I frowned at the weird comment and considered lying to this sweet, blabbering girl’s face for a moment. I really did.

But dammit , this was a dream situation, condom talk aside. And I was so desperate for a bed that I would probably agree to room with literally anyone at this point.

“Yes,” I said simply.

“Awesome. I’m gonna get started on unpacking our stuff.” She clapped her brother’s shoulder. “Addy can show you the lease, and then we can help you get your stuff too. Then we can get to know each other!” She literally skipped out of the room and out of the house.

“Wow,” I breathed, watching her go. I wouldn’t have been surprised if there were a trail of glitter left in her wake.

Normally, someone as high octane as Adeline would’ve exhausted me, but I actually felt more alert and alive than I had in.…

There was a light touch at my elbow, and then Adair was there, his glasses back on.

“I won’t apologize for my sister,” Adair said as he stuffed his hands in his jeans pockets, which creased his baggy forest-green shirt. “I’ve spent years drilling it into her head that she should never apologize for existing. But… you’ll get used to her bluntness. And enthusiasm.”

My gaze snapped to him at that, and my heart kicked again, before lying back down. We had a sign in both dance rooms at my old studio, With a Flourish, that said almost that exact same thing. Dad had burned the sayings onto a piece of wood we’d salvaged after a storm.

Grace for all, but especially for you.

The first thing we taught tots, teens, and all dancers in between, even before first position and the plié, was to not apologize for mistakes. For trying.

For taking up space.

I hadn’t thought about those signs in a long time.

Adair’s gaze held me captive—more green than brown today—flicking between my eyes and then across the planes of my face. The longer he searched, the more intense the lines between his brows became.

It looked like concern.

I broke away and made a good show of taking in the house. It was almost the same layout as Miss Lenny’s next door, just with an extra bedroom, according to Jillie.

I shook my head because damn the universe for mocking me like this. For fear and pride that made me wait so long to ask for help again, only for it to work in my favor after so many times when it didn’t.

“What is it?” Adair asked, stepping to my side.

The past month flashed in my memory, but I didn’t need photo evidence —or lack of—to know one thing about Adair.

“You haven’t been here.”

Since a tool belt started haunting me.

Since life lost color.

Adair gripped the back of his neck and looked down at his feet. “No. I wanted to be, but… we’re here now. For the summer.”

I’d almost asked about him a few times while visiting Apartment 3A, almost asked Wilbur about his grandson, but I’d stopped myself.

If his family wasn’t visiting him, Wilbur didn’t need a reminder of that, and I certainly wasn’t one to throw stones.

I watched Adair’s expressive face, ignoring the pathetic thump of my heart as the longer I looked, the more seriously it considered reviving itself.

But it didn’t.

I walked into the living room, where the dusty smell was a contrast to the bright, beachy stock artwork mounted on the off-white walls.

There was a big couch pushed against the wall with a white wooden coffee table in front of it and an armchair beside it.

A flatscreen was nestled into a matching white wooden entertainment center.

Combing my fingers through the loose hair that’d escaped my messy ponytail, I remembered I hadn’t so much as washed my face after sweating through my leotard in the studio.

I probably looked awful.

I dropped my hand, giving up. It didn’t matter if my outsides matched my insides right now.

“Are you—” Adair started, but then wheels on tile sounded, and Adeline was there, dragging two suitcases behind her.

“Have we claimed rooms yet?” She came to a stop beside us and glanced around with a critical eye. “Maybe we should rotate every couple weeks so it’s fair.”

Adair and I stared at her, my internal horror reflected on his face.

“Delly, that’s…”

“A joke,” she finished for him, with a sly quirk of her lips. “I’m not evil.”

“Disagree,” Adair muttered, then turned with the help of his crutch and headed back toward the front door.

“Could you do me a favor?” Adeline whispered, now close enough to me that I smelled the unmistakable scent of coconut-banana sunscreen on her skin.

“Yes?” I whispered back .

Her gaze flicked to the path her brother was taking. “Could you teach me to ride a skateboard?”

I let out a surprised huff. “Sure. But it’s a longboard.”

She abandoned her bags so she could walk over to my board and check it out. “Are they expensive?”

I trailed after her and propped my shoulder against the doorway between the living room and kitchen-slash-dining room. “They can be.”

Her shoulders drooped, and my stomach sank. Her disappointment didn’t sit right. “You can find some pretty basic ones for cheap,” I said. “I can send you some links.”

She whirled and offered me her phone so fast that I actually jumped.

Jesus, my nerves were shot.

Taking it, I frowned at the unexpected bumpy texture that scraped my fingertips and turned it over.

“Is this… bedazzled?”

“Expertly,” Adeline said. “My Grams got me a Bedazzler for Christmas one year. She loved crafting and thought it would help me with, um… stuff. But anyway—” She waved her hand toward her phone.

“That phase didn’t last too long, but I bedazzle all my phone cases in her memory now.

Just a little bit of happiness.” She shrugged as if she didn’t just share something intimate and personal with me.

“Well,” I said lamely. “That’s really nice.”

Adeline smiled as if I’d said something much better and held out her hand.

“Give me your phone and we can put each other’s numbers in.”

A minute later, we had each other’s contact information, and just then Adair reappeared, carrying way too many bags, considering his condition.

“ Addy ,” Adeline chastised as she hurried over to her brother.

“Give me those. I swear you want to wreck your other ankle too. I didn’t realize you needed extra attention that badly.

I guess that’s why you’ve been refusing to cut your hair.

If you keep it up, you’re gonna look like Cole.

” She visibly shuddered. “No one needs that.”

I tried to ease past the bickering siblings so I could head back to the Locc for my duffle bag—I’d left it in a corner of the locker room, not wanting to be too presumptuous by bringing it—but Adair zeroed in on me.

“Need help?”

I went to stuff my hands in my jean pockets, but then remembered I wasn’t wearing them.

I’d thrown on high-waisted athletic pants & a green yoga shirt over my leotard before boarding over here.

“No. I’m just going to go get my stuff,” I said, gesturing toward the front door. “And shower.”

Adair frowned at me, probably wondering why I added that.

I wondered too.

Maybe to assure him that I was aware I likely smelled bad?

“At the Locc?” he asked, stepping toward me.

“Yeah, I?—”

I shut my mouth, because… I what?

Why would I think of showering there?

I really wasn’t fully caught up to what was happening right now. None of this seemed real.

We stared at each other, Adair’s gaze probing mine for answers, but I had none.

“Here’s your key!” Adeline said, shoving it between us, effectively breaking our stare off. “And your copy of the lease.”

I took both, thankful for the spunky girl and her impeccable timing.

Chancing a look back at Adair, I could practically see him running calculations behind his hazel eyes.

But his expression smoothed before he said, “I can give you a ride over there. It can’t be fun to haul stuff with your board.

Unless you have a car parked here somewhere? ”

I shook my head.

He smiled. “It’s settled, then. Delly can come with us if you’d be more comfortable.” When I didn’t answer right away, he cocked his head to the side. “Or…” He offered me his keys in the palm of his hand, entirely genuine and too trusting. “You could just take it.”

It was too much.

This was too much.

With a jerky nod and no thought, I took the quickest out, grabbing the key and leaving the green-eyed siblings without another word.

I felt Adair’s eyes on me the entire way out.