Entangled Summer by Michele Barrow-Belisle

him speak. His hands slid up my arms, then gently unhooked them from his neck.
    "You wanted something without strings Nora. But that's not something I can do with you. For twelve months I've thought about you. We're already entwined, and I only see that getting stronger." He moved his hands down my sides, over the curve of my hips to rest on my lower back.
    I shivered under his touch, then again in frustration when he released me. He was right of course, the way my body responded to his touch, it would be very dangerous for him to stay. And while I could barely admit it to myself, a huge part of me really wanted more than just a summer fling with him. Or a repeat of last year. I was ready to step beyond my imagination and into something real. Strings and all. And that terrified me.
    "So until you're ready for that... being here alone with you…" he kissed the top of my head, "very bad idea."
    Troy headed for the door, but something stopped him. He moved across the room, pausing in front of the bookcase to look at the stuff we had on display. Photos of me and Kenzie in high school. Pictures of Grandma and Granddad. And one photo he took particular interest in, though I had no idea why. It was an old photo of my house. The one I was born in. I don't remember it, since I'd only lived there til I was five, before my parent's tragedy landed me with my grandparents. But I liked having it. A piece of a past life I didn't remember living. Next to it were some sketches of Darcy, not that I'd tell anyone who it was. That made me uneasy, like having a photo of an old boyfriend on display in front of your current one. Neither of which was the case, but it was impossible not to notice the way Troy’s shoulders stiffened when he saw them.
    I took a quick breath. “It’s a sketch I made. There’s this guy I used to dream about.”
    He didn’t look at me when he spoke. “Used to?”
    I swallowed, uncomfortably. I’d never disclosed anything like this before to a guy, and now I was just spilling secrets to him like we’d know one another forever. “Well, sort of still do sometimes. Never actually met him, because he doesn’t exist, but I decided to draw him.” I shrugged.
    I watched his head nod ever so slightly, as he returned his attention to the other photo.
    “This house.” He looked back at me, holding the frame. “Where is it?”
    I stepped closer. “It was my parent’s house.”
    “And the bike?” he was still scanning it closely.
    I frowned puzzled. “Uhm, it was my favorite? Why?”
    “Reminds me of one I’ve seen before.”
    “My turquoise two wheeler? It’s weird that I don’t remember getting it, but from what I was told it was the only good thing that came from that house. Wasn’t exactly a happy home, but…” I took the picture, feeling uneasy with the way he was scrutinizing it.
    As my hand touched his, a memory of my own flashed in my mind. The photo on Grace’s desk of her daughter, Celeste… the girl who’d supposedly disappeared into her dreams... There’d been something familiar about her, because I had seen her before. That same girl was in a picture with Troy, locked in a passionate embrace. It was the photo that made me bolt from his bedroom that night last year.
    I floundered as I put the frame back in its place, nearly dropping it on the floor. “Oh my god,” I blurted. “You knew Grace’s daughter.”
    He didn’t seem surprised by my random comment. In fact he didn’t react at all.
    “You could say that,” he said slowly, lifting his dark eyes to mine. ”We were engaged.”
    My sudden moment of clarity ended with what felt like a dropkick to the gut. “Engaged. Wow. Okay, so...” I had no idea what to say next. This was completely unprecedented in the history of awkward conversations. He was engaged to a girl who’d basically gone missing four years ago. He would have been about twenty-two then. These were the kinds of useless, random thoughts coming to me, as I tried to