Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 71647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Holden bit into his salmon. “Two sisters and a brother. We’re all two years apart. But they seem much older and much more settled in life. Maybe that’s because I’m still in school.”
“You’re getting your PhD, for fuck’s sake.”
“Yes, and they understand. They’re all educators too, but we’re on different paths. We haven’t really been close since we were kids. And that’s okay. I have great childhood summertime memories of following my sisters and brother on hiking trips in the woods near our house, swimming in the creek, chasing fireflies, sneaking pineapple applesauce cookies when Mom wasn’t looking, and—”
I gaped in horror. “What the actual fuck?”
He snort-laughed around a sip of wine, sputtering to avoid spitting it out. “They were good! I promise.”
“That’s not remotely possible, Holden. A pineapple has no business jumping into a cookie. It ain’t right.”
“You take cookies too seriously,” he chided playfully.
“You don’t take them seriously enough.”
His smile grew until it took over his face. Everything in him was involved in the gesture—his eyes, his mouth, his nose. Joy tumbled out of him, painting his surroundings in rainbow technicolor. Christ, he was beautiful.
I could have stared at him for hours. Why did I love that smile now? Why was I so…gone for him?
I sipped my wine and made myself look away. “You’re gonna have to give me a better childhood memory so I don’t feel sorry for you for getting stuck eating pineapples in the country.”
Holden straightened his long legs in front of him and pointed up at the heavens. “We used to have star parties in our yard. We’d dress up as celebrities or historical figures and put on shows using flashlights as spotlights.”
“Oh, that sounds cool.”
“It was. We could choose to be whoever we wanted, but the object was to stay in character, perform a song or a comedy act, then…name a star, a constellation, or planet and recite a fact.”
I furrowed my brow. “You lost me. Give an example.”
He shook his head. “No way.”
“C’mon,” I coaxed, slipping my cell into my pocket. “My childhood summers were boring compared to yours. I ate popsicles, rode my bike all over hell and gone, and played a fuckton of baseball. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice, but yours sounds…fun. In a different way.”
“It was.”
“That’s it? You’re not gonna share. Okay, fine. I’m gonna guess this was how it went down. You were George Washington and you sang ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy,’ pointed at the sky, and said… ‘The moon is a space rock, but once upon a time, it was made of cheese.’ ” I smiled affectionately when he laughed like a loon.
“No…well, yes to the Washington part, including the song choice. However, the space trivia had to be factual, and repeats were not allowed. It went something like this…” Holden hopped from his chair, fussed with the collar of an imaginary coat, and did an impromptu tap dance. And he wasn’t half bad. He tippity-tapped around me with his arms spread like wings, then came to a stop and zapped me with a megawatt grin that melted me from the inside out and blurted, “Footprints left on the moon will never disappear because there is no wind in space.”
“Is that true?”
“Yes.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Give me another one.”
He broke into another dance—a little more animated than the last one. “Pluto is smaller than the United States. And a single day on Pluto is one hundred and fifty-three point six hours long.”
Okay, my smile was actually starting to hurt my face. “Yeah?”
I’d thought I was comfortable in my skin, but I was nothing like him. Holden had been taught to use his imagination and given fuel to ignite his interest in science while I’d been taught to be cunning and savvy—and when necessary, to be a human bulldozer.
I licked my lips, willing the rush of heat and desire to fade. I felt hot and cold and weak in the knees, grappling with feelings I’d buried for years. Warm goopy feelings I’d thought I wasn’t allowed to feel about a guy, but probably always had to some degree.
“Honest-to-gosh truth. When I was about ten, my brother came up with this one…” Holden perched on the firepit ledge and glance up at the sky. “Only five percent of the universe is visible from Earth. That’s also true. And it was the beginning of my obsession with space and physics. I threw microbiology in when I considered going into medicine, but the concept of boundless, unchartered territory is thrilling and frightening. But mostly thrilling.”
I leaned forward and stroked the inside of his thigh affectionately. “I like the way you talk. And the way you think. You’re so…passionate.”
“So are you.”
“But do I burn for something? You said that the other day and…it kind of struck me. I have interests, like baseball and lacrosse, and I’m pretty good at both. But I’m not passionate the way I was when I was a kid. Life gets in the way, and the things I used to build my time around don’t give me the same thrill, you know?”