Page 168 of Under the Waves

“We’ll make it out of this town, won’t we?”

Jasper just smiled softly before interlacing his pinkie finger with mine. His lips delicately grazed the tips of our conjoined fingers.

“Yeah,” he vowed, resting our hands above his heart. “I promise, Wellsy.”

58

Jasper Ridge

Something was wrong.I could feel it in my bones.

“Ohmygod. Jakson, I’m serious! Please give me my book back.”

“I would if you weren’t scrambling on top of me like a monkey!”

I blinked, rubbing my eyes. Before me, Lia and Jakson were entangled together, limbs flying everywhere across the sofa as Lia desperately attempted to get her book back from him. Brown hair tied back with a light blue bow, Folklore cardigan on, and a little silver infinity necklace around her neck—she looked likeherself.

She looked happy. Healthy, even.

The Lia I knew. The Lia I loved.

“What are you even reading, anyway, Blue?” Jakson grinned, dangling the book out of reach. With hisgray sweats and backwards cap, even though we were indoors, resting a top of his head like always. He may have taken her book to annoy her, but he handled it with care. None of her little book tabs fell out. None of the pages were damaged.

Lia pounced on him, climbing up his body like it was a ladder. “None of your business, Jak.”

Flipping the book closed, Jakson froze when he saw the cover, his eyes lingering on the title. That alone gave Lia the few seconds she needed to snatch her book back from his hands. Bundling herself back up, body sinking into the corner of the couch beneath the blanket sprawled across her legs, Lia reopened her book, shutting out the rest of the world.

Jakson just glanced at her.

Hope. Longing.Sadness.

He glanced at her with the force of every emotion in the world and felt them a hundred times harder.

But even then, he smiled. For her.

Made himself smaller so her world seemed bigger.Limitless.

Used his own bricks to piece her back together again, even if it meant his own body would fall apart. He’d give her every piece if he could.Every. Damned. One.

Because just the sight of her smile—man, it utterly ruined him.

And he let it.

She was his little blue moon.

His freckle of light in the darkness.

Lia Amelie May Davis.

But she’d always be Blue to him.

The thought was nearly enough to make me smile.

Something was wrong.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

My legs were pacing. My heart was racing.