Starless Nights (Hale Brothers Series Book 2) by Kathryn Andrews

chest tightens. I always wondered if he continued to gaze at them and now I have my answer. Why are these memories that I have with him so important and prominent to me, when clearly they aren’t to him?
    Sitting next to him, out here, I just can’t do it. I thought that after his kind words at the table he might treat me a little differently, but nope. I glance over at him and stand up to leave. His presence has always been so much. So overwhelming. Being near him, he makes me feel small and insignificant. Why is it after all this time, I still have him built up in my head to be this great person? He isn’t a great person, he’s just some guy that I knew as a kid, and he’s turned out to be someone completely different.
    “Good night, Leila,” I just barely hear him say under his breath as I walk away.

 
     
    I HEARD THE car door slam when she arrived, and I knew the minute she walked out on to the deck. I think my heart stopped beating. Not only could I hear her beautiful voice but it was as if every nerve ending went on alert. I could physically feel that she was near.
    My eyes involuntarily seek her out. I feel like a moth that is constantly being drawn to the flame. Her hair is down and lightly blowing in the breeze that’s coming off the water, and she is wearing a pale blue sundress that is the same exact color as her eyes. Why is it that every time I see this girl she gets more and more breathtaking?
    She spots me and our eyes connect. I’m so busy looking at her, that I haven’t paid any attention to their conversation; that is until I hear Ali ask why Charlie didn’t come. Instantly, I see red.
    Leila was going to bring that guy to our family weekend? How could she? Part of me had been hoping to get to talk to her a little, see how she’s been, but after hearing this . . . there’s just no way. The fact that she cares that little for my feelings that she would bring him here in front of me, just confirms all over again that she’s not the girl I thought she was.
    Whatever.
    They walk back inside and I rub the spot on my chest over my heart.
     

     
    After Leila went to bed last night, I stayed out on the deck to stare at the night sky. I lied to her about looking at the stars. I look for them and at them any chance I get. I don’t know why I still do. I’ve stopped doing most of the other things that I did as a kid, but not this one.
    Most people are nostalgic over something from their childhood, this must be mine. It’s what I think about the most, and honestly, when I was the most happy.
    I’ve missed gazing at the stars.
    My eyes are instantly drawn to Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Sirius, or otherwise known as the “dog star,” is found in the Canis Major constellation. The Greeks called the time when the star is the most visible, the dog days of summer. To them these were the hottest days of year, and the most hated. But, Leila and I always thought differently about the star.
    Where we lived on the island, it’s the law to have the lights out at night due to the Loggerhead Sea Turtles coming onto shore and nesting. Once the eggs hatch, the babies find their way out of the nest, to the top of the sand. It’s the light of the moon and the stars that guides them to the water. The light shines bright for them.
    Leila and I watched this one nest for months, just waiting for the babies to hatch. Of course, the one night we didn’t head out to check on it was the night they dug their way out and swam off. When we saw the trail scrapings in the sand from their little flippers, Leila threw her hands up in the air and declared that from now on, we would stick to stargazing. She was such a little spitfire then, even now I guess, when she needs to be.
    I love stargazing, especially with her. I should have asked her to stay.
    I ended up falling asleep in the chair and Matt woke me up in the morning to ask if I wanted to go for a run with him. Even though every part of me is stiff and