Which meant I was right.This wasn’t just another song.This wasn’t just a random melody she was messing with.
Thismeantsomething.
I leaned in, lowering my voice.“Come on, Ace.I taught you your first chord.I think that earns me some rights.”
She finally turned to me, expression unreadable.“Oh, you think you haverightsto my inner thoughts?Get stuffed, Joel.”
“Okay, poor choice of words,” I admitted, holding up my hands.“But seriously, you’re good.You know that, right?I’d just like to hear it—help if I can.”
She exhaled through her nose, staring down at her notebook, fingers tapping a restless rhythm against the cover.
“I was just messing around,” she muttered.
“Sounded better than messing around,” I pointed out.
Another pause.
A war was waging inside her, and I could see it in the way she bit her lip, in the way her grip tightened around the spiral binding like she was physically holding herself back.
And for the first time, I reallylookedat her.
Anna had always been this tiny force of nature—sharp, relentless, always keeping up, even when she wasn’t invited.But sometime in the past year, she’d started to change.The roundness of childhood had faded from her face, leaving behind something more defined, more striking.Her eyes—dark, intense—held something deeper now, something that made my chest tighten if I thought about it too much.
And right now, with the porch light casting a soft glow around her, I could almost see the woman she’d become one day.
The realization came like a slap—hot, sudden, and so fucking wrong that my whole body tensed against it.I felt it everywhere—too much, too fast, like stepping off a curb I hadn’t seen coming.I swallowed hard, forcing my gaze away before my thoughts could go anywhere worse.
Shit.
Bury it.Pretend it never happened.
I shoved the thought away, clearing my throat, refocusing on the moment.
Then, slowly, she shifted.
“Fine,” she huffed, flipping the notebook open—but not to the song.
No, she skipped a few pages forward and landed on something else.Some random collection of lyrics, unfinished lines that she probably didn’t care about.
She handed it over.“Here.Enjoy my garbage.”
I smirked.“Generous.”
I skimmed the page, picking up on the structure immediately.The lines had potential, but they weren’t what she’d just been playing.
“You know this isn’t what you were singing, right?”
Her jaw tensed.“Just take it or leave it, Joel.”
That should have been my cue to drop it.
To take what she was willing to give and move on.
But I was seventeen, and an idiot.
And, more than that, I was curious.
So instead of backing off, I tapped the corner of the notebook, waiting until she finally met my eyes.