Night of Secrets (Night of Secrets #1)

Chapter 14 - A Shared Secret

"There's absolutely no way there are secrets here," I declare.

I stare at the old playground we used to go to every week when we were kids. There are street lamps spread out around the perimeter, bathing the structure in a warm glow. If I close my eyes, I can see myself and Jax when we were six running around on the castle and playing on the swings together. I smile at the nostalgia. Jax must feel it, too, because there's a huge smile on his face.

"Technically not," he admits. "But I thought it'd be fun to share the last secret here. You know, just play around for old time's sake." He glances at me. "Do you want to?"

I look back at the playground. My eyes flicker from the monkey bars to the swing to the seesaw to the castle, remembering every little thing Jax and I used to do here. Nostalgia washes over me again, and a smile starts to spread on my face. I can't hide it even if I try to. Jax's smile widens when he sees mine. He takes it as a yes and runs towards the playground. I follow after him.

For the next half hour, we do everything we did as kids, but it's not exactly the same. On the seesaw, I don't jump off to make Jax hit the ground hard. On the swings, we take turns pushing each other instead of only Jax pushing me. On the monkey bars, Jax walks behind me as I swing across them instead of standing beneath me. As for the castle, we cram ourselves in the small space, facing each other so we're knee-to-knee.

"This isn't as big as I remember," I sigh, pulling my knees in as much as I can.

"No kidding," Jax laughs.

His laugh is contagious, and I burst into a fit of giggles for no reason. Jax starts laughing harder when I do, shaking his head at me. He quickly quiets and studies me, a gentle smile on his face. His sudden quiet makes the heat rise to my face, and I bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself from laughing and cover my mouth with my hands to hide my smile. None of this stops Jax from watching me.

"What?" I finally ask, dropping my hands into my lap. "You're kind of staring."

He shakes his head, blinking a few times and glancing away. "Sorry. Just thinking of how to tell you this next secret."

Okay... This is the first time he's hesitated all night instead of just straight up telling me... He opens and closes his mouth a few times, his eyes darting around until he focuses on one of the street lamps, uncertainty flashing across his face. After a few moments, Jax takes a deep breath and turns back to me, meeting my eyes.

"I thought this would be a good last place to share the last secret," he begins, carefully enunciating each word, "because I really miss the old days. When we were best friends and did everything together. And..." He pauses and looks down at his hands before looking back at me. "Do you remember when we were seven and it was Halloween?"

"Kind of." Where is this going? "I was Alice and you were the Mad Hatter, right?"

Jax nods. "And that Halloween fell on a Friday, so we went to the diner to have our family dinner."

I smile as the memory slowly starts to come back. "Right. And we were under the table coloring the placemats."

Jax nods a little more insistently and quickly. "Right. And then..." He sits back, taking a deep breath. "And then I asked you if you would marry me."

I nod. "Yeah. I remember." I laugh lightly. "Then I told you that doesn't make any sense because Alice and the Mad Hatter don't get married. Cute ship, though."

He lets out a single, nervous laugh. "Yeah. Except that wasn't what I meant. I meant that I wanted you to marry me when we were seven because that's when I started liking you."