We Were Here: A New Adult Romance Prequel to Geoducks Are for Lovers (Modern Love Stories Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

picked up the lip balm with her fingertips.
    “No, it’s super strong smelling. Put it on your upper lip and around your nose.”
    “This is weird.” Frowning, she opened it up and dabbed a little on her finger, then sniffed.
    “No, you need a lot.” I swiped a dollop and applied it liberally over my lips and under my nose. The spicy scent of Carmex filtered out dumpster and lingering bathroom odors. “See?”
    “You look like you were slimed.” She copied my actions.
    “So do you.”
    “What is taking Selah forever in there?” I banged on the door. “Did you fall in? Selah?”
    “I’m changing my tampon! Give a woman a second of privacy.”
    “I didn’t need to know that. I never heard that.” Gil stood behind us, his hands covering his ears.
    “What do you two have all over your faces?” He gestured in a circle near my face.
    “It was Maggie’s idea.” Lizzy dabbed at the goop.
    “Why?” He leaned against the cinder block of the gas station, crossing his arms in the nonchalant, cool guy way.
    Selah burst out of the door. The bathroom smell followed her out like a toxic cloud.
    “That’s why.” The answer was obvious, but I told him anyway.
    He pushed himself off the wall and away from the stink. “What died in there?”
    Lizzy gave me her wallet. “I’m going in. Send word to my parents if I don’t make it out. Their address is on my driver’s license.”
    “Good luck!” I called out as the door closed.
    “I need a Diet Coke.” Selah disappeared around the corner to the entrance.
    “What’s with the goop?”
    I forgot lip balm covered my lower face. “Trick I learned from my dad when we went fishing.”
    “You fish?”
    “Not really. But my dad made me a few times. With fishing comes cleaning the fish.”
    “I know. All those guts and gore squishing out everywhere.” His mouth fought a smile.
    I shuddered. “Exactly. He taught me the trick of putting lip balm by my nose. Totally helps block the smell.”
    “That’s kind of brilliant. Is your dad a commercial fisherman?”
    “No, he fishes for fun. My grandparents have a cabin on Whidbey. Lots of summers there meant lots of salmon fishing.”
    “That’s cool. I grew up in landlocked Colorado, but my dad would take my brothers and me fly fishing.”
    “You have brothers?”
    “Two. One older and one younger. You?”
    “Only child. I’d always wanted siblings. Instead, I had Cabbage Patch dolls.”
    “Everything makes sense.”
    I pouted out my bottom lip. “It does?”
    “I’m teasing you. I’ve noticed you don’t like to be teased. That’s a sure sign you didn’t have to deal with it growing up.”
    “Oh.”
    He bumped my shoulder with his. Or more like his bicep to my shoulder. He stood much taller than me. His long arms and legs were thin, almost gangly, like he’d had a huge growth spurt but his muscles hadn’t caught up yet.
    Spurt. Another word to add to the word list.
    Lizzy exited the hell portal. “Your turn.”
    “Wish me luck.” I handed her the wallet. “Don’t leave without me.”
    “We’d never leave you behind, Maggie May.”
    I scrunched up my nose. “Like the Rod Stewart song?”
    Gil sang a few lyrics as he walked backward to the car.
    Inside the dim bathroom, I wished there were a mirror on the wall. Not to ask it who was the fairest of them all, but to see how pink my face looked. My cheeks felt hot.
    I wondered how obvious my crush was to everyone else. After he stopped sucking face with my roommate, we started spending more and more time together. We were in the same lecture with Lizzy and I hadn’t even noticed him for the first month.
    Most of all, did Gil realize I had a crush on him? He asked me all those questions about my family. That indicated interest, right? Or maybe he was waiting on Lizzy. They seemed kind of close. I could ask her about Gil, but if she liked him, I didn’t know what I would do.
    I was the last person back to the car. The others stood around talking and