First-Time Caller (Heartstrings, #1)

by B.K. Borison

“What are you feeling right now?” “To start with, I’m eating pineapple pizza.” A laugh bursts out of me so quick and sharp, I ache with it. “Pineapple pizza is the best. I’m not sure that’s something you need to be worried about.” “Who says I was worried about it?” he asks lazily. “Noted.” Another laugh pops out of me like a soap bubble. “What else is going on?” “I think about her all the time. I wonder what she’s doing. I’ve got this hair tie on my wrist that I stole from her. She doesn’t know about it,” he adds as an afterthought, and the hope burns brighter. A solar flare in the middle of my chest. “Do you keep a list of her favorite things in your glove compartment?” He makes a short, amused sound. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. So I don’t forget.” “What else?” “She does this thing when she laughs…it’s like she laughs with her whole body. I’ve never seen anything like it. She holds her hands tight together like she’s—like she’s holding on to her happiness. Like she’s not afraid to grab it.” Aiden pauses, his breath gusting over the receiver. In the background, I hear the crunch of asphalt. He must be pacing, wherever he is. “I want to be the kind of man who deserves that laugh. Who earns it.” “It’s not about deserving,” I say, my throat tight. “If someone gives you something, you have it. You don’t have to earn it.”