Page 251 of The Long Way Home

Daisy rolls her eyes. “Oh, and you didn’t have a spare pair of cerulean sandals in the back of your car?”

“Well—” Magnolia shrugs. “Not this car.”

I crack a laugh even though I don’t want to.

She sits down opposite me, Julian down next to her, and straight away his hand is in her hair. She doesn’t seem to notice either, and I wonder how many times someone needs to touch you before their hands on your body stops being something you notice.

“We’re going to Italy tomorrow,” Jordan brightly tells the table at lunch.

Magnolia glances over at me, looks a bit wounded — that’s a positive at least — I want her chest to feel heavy how mine does, watching her not noticing Julian touch her — but then I flash her the watch she gave me to tell her I love her anyway.

“Are you?” Julian sits back, a bit interested. “We’ve got a house on the lake.” He nods his chin at his sister.

She nods. “We haven’t been in ages.”

He shrugs. “We should go.”

He looks between Parks and Daisy.

“Yeah.” I nod. “Come for sure.”

Magnolia throws me a baffled look.

I catch her eye, try to tell her without having to say it that at this point. I can’t think of anything I wouldn’t do to be alone with her for five minutes. Fly to another country, watch another guy feel her up in the pool just so I can stay up late to watch shitty documentaries with her, swallow heavy as her fingers graze mine when she passes me the remote.

“Where’s your place?” I ask Julian with my chin, ignoring that fucking hand of his that’s slipped under the table.

“Lake Como,” he says, not looking away from me while Magnolia squirms and lets out small laugh. “Let’s all go,” he tells Jonah.

“Come, for sure!” Jordan looks between Daisy and Julian, and she doesn’t look phased at all. “That sounds so fun.”

I shrug, tossing my arm around her as I look over at Julian. “Do you have room for us all?”

Julian nods and Jonah tosses me a confused look.

I raise my eyebrows barely, just enough to tell him to come.

“Yeah—” Jonah shrugs like, fuck it. “I’m in.”