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

laughing.
    “Shotgun!” Lizzy shouted.
    “Same!” Selah and Gil said simultaneously.
    “You want to hump or drive?” Quinn asked me.
    I slowly blinked at him.
    “Hump or drive? It’s a simple question.” Selah prodded.
    I wished they’d stop saying hump. “I’d feel bad for making Quinn sit in the middle, but I can drive.”
    Sitting next to Gil right now would be too much.
    “Nah, I’m good.” Quinn cracked and rolled his neck. “I’ll get us to Sacramento. Then Selah can take over since she knows the area and it’s her brother’s apartment we’re going to.”
    “You’re stuck next to me.” Gil gave me a small grin.
    After we settled in the car, Selah passed me her giant cup of soda. “You still have lip balm around your nose,” she whispered.
    I sighed and stole the napkin from around her soda to rub off the balm. There was no way he had been flirting with me. Not when I had a face full of goop. He’d been polite. Probably waiting for Lizzy and making random conversation.
    His thigh pressed into mine in the small backseat. I scooted closer to Selah.
    “Sorry,” he said and returned to staring out the window, shifting his legs closer to the door.
    I don’t remember much of the rest of the drive. I focused too much on the heat from Gil next to me while trying to keep my breath even and normal. Luckily, Selah and Quinn took over the conversation. Resuming their list of hated words, they devolved into a conversation about their favorite swear words.
    “When I was in third grade, my older brother Steve taught me how to flip people off.” Quinn shared. “Being four years older and in junior high, he was basically an adult in my eyes.”
    “Wait, you have a brother named Steve and you got the name Quinn?” Selah asked.
    “My mother was in a hippie phase when she was pregnant with me. Steven is named for my dad. I guess she picked up a baby book and found Quinn. It works for either a girl or a boy—it’s perfect for me.”
    “I wish my parents were hippies. Selah was my grandmother’s name. It sounds like a grandmother.” She sighed.
    “Try going through life as a Gilliam. Not William. No, spelled the same way but with a G instead of a W.”
    “Where’d that name come from?” Lizzy asked.
    “My father says it’s because of my mother’s fascination with maps and place names. I guess I’m lucky I’m not named Denver or Roswell.”
    Lizzy glanced at me over her shoulder. “Elizabeth.”
    “Margaret.” I smiled. We were sisters of the boring names. Whatever competition or insecurity I’d felt toward her over Gil disappeared. I wasn’t going to be one of those girls who put guys before their friends. Or allowed guys to come between friendships. Ever.
    “Being born in the seventies, we’re lucky we weren’t named Goldenflower or Astronaut.” Secretly, I’d always wished for a weird name.
    “No one would ever name their kids those names,” Gil scoffed.
    “I went to elementary school with a boy named Apollo. After the spacecraft, not the deity. Or so he told us.” Lizzy laughed.
    “Um . . .” Gil joined her laughter.
    “Exactly.” She shook her head.
    “Snatch,” Selah said out of nowhere.
    Gil leaned around me and his back pressed against my shoulder. I was hyperaware of every point of contact between us.
    “Excuse me? Is that someone’s name?” His eyes cut to mine.
    I realized how close together our faces were. Too close. I sank into my seat.
    “No, it’s another word people tend to dislike.” Selah sipped on her straw.
    “Non sequitur, much,” Quinn said.
    “We were talking about words and names, reminded me of the earlier conversation.”
    “Speaking of earlier, we never finished my game. Selah, your turn. Who would you put in your sex hut?”
    “Don’t I have to do the talking and listening huts first?”
    “Let’s cut to the good stuff. Sex hut. And—go . . .”

“More than This” ~ Roxy Music
    WHEN WE ARRIVED at Selah’s brother’s apartment, it