Page 18 of Next to Everything We Wanted

Forrest drummed his fingers on the table.

“To go outside and take a walk,” Phoenix finished.

I let out a breath. “I thought you were going to say I had a freak disease and only have four months to live.”

He chuckled. “Maybe a brain disease. It’s called writer’s block. Going for a long walk can heal your mind.”

“Thank you,” I said with a smile. “Maybe I can get a walk in after dinner, to see the sunset and all.”

“That sounds like a great idea.”

I finished eating my eggs and got to work on what I needed to do that day. Sometimes on Thursdays, I hosted an online class with students who were into music. It made me happy that so many people wanted to attend and have their dreams of being an artist come true.

I hoped it’d work out for them the first time unlike it had for me.

When I finished my tasks, Ellis and Celeste came over for dinner. To my surprise, things weren’t too awkward between me and Celeste. It was almost like our breakup had never even happened.

Which was what I wanted.

After eating, I put my sneakers on, grabbed my backpack, and prepared myself for a walk full of inspiration.

As I walked, ideas flooded my brain like a gush of water. I smiled as I daydreamed about what I could write songs about. I had my backpack with me, so I could sit down and write at any time, but I wanted to enjoy the moment. Instead, I wrote whatever ideas I had on my notes app. Why hadn’t I taken walks like these before?—

A drop of water fell onto my skin before I could complete my thought. And another. And another. Each drop fell faster than the last, until my clothes absorbed the water.

I glared at the ominous clouds above me. “Did you really have to come for me now?” I challenged Mother Nature.

And all hell—well, rain—unleashed on me.

What could I write aboutthat?

CHAPTER 6

Sienna

“Why can’t we adopt a dog?” Emma whined as we got in my car Thursday afternoon. “You and Uncle Ryder have Bailey, but Adam and I don’t have any pets.”

I’d brought the twins along to my volunteering session at April Springs Animal Shelter, owned by Oliver’s mom. Our entire friend group volunteered there almost every day after school and on Sundays if we had the time. Adam and Emma usually attended April Springs Elementary’s after-school program while Aunt May and Uncle Reed worked, but they’d begged me to do something different this week. Mrs. Landers, the owner, let them watch me do my tasks.

“That’s because your parents are barely home,” I said as I checked myself in the car mirror. My signature red lipstick was a bit smudged from drinking coffee in the break room, but my sweat-proof mascara and eyeshadow were hanging in tight. I took out my lipstick tube to touch it up. “And you guys are either at school or with me.”

“That’s the point,” Adam said. “If we got a new dog, he’d watch over the house and scare away strangers.”

“Shewould,” Emma corrected.

“Sienna already has a girl dog. We need a boy.”

“What if they accidentally have babies?”

I snorted. “Bailey is fixed, Emma. And if we adopted a boy dog, he’d be fixed too.”

Emma’s brows furrowed. “Why are they broken in the first place? And what does that have to do with pregnancy?”

Adam rolled his eyes before whispering something in her ear.

Emma’s mouth dropped open. “They’re allowed to do that? Is that what Dr. Leanne does all day?” Leanne, Dallas’s mom, was one of the veterinarians. “How does it work?”

“Yeah, we’re ending the conversation here,” I said as I backed out of the parking space. “I don’t want to think aboutthat.”