Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

            “Excuse me.” I scowl. “Some of us don’t have the luxury of stable blood pressure.”

            “I didn’t say it wasn’t cute,” he murmurs inaudibly against my temple. The scratch of his stubble against my skin is rough. His lips, soft.

            Penny seems to be a fan, too. “Does your twin faint, too?”

            “Nope. She got all the best things.” Like the ability to burp the French national anthem.

            “It’s so cool!”

            “It’s actually a very maladaptive autonomic response.”

            “Can you do it again?”

            “Not really, sweetie. Not on command.”

            “When do you do it, then?”

            “It depends. Sometimes it’s highly stressful, surprising situations. Other times it’s just seeing things that I’m afraid of, like snakes or spiders.”

            Penny’s eyes widen. “So if I show you Shaggy again—”

            Levi and Lily yell, “No!” at the same time, but it’s too late. Penny whips the toy back out from behind her back, and everything goes dark again.



* * *



            • • •

            WE STAY WITH the Sullivans all day, and after Shaggy gets locked in an out-of-reach cupboard, we have a blast. By the time we’re ready to leave, I know more about Pokémon than I ever cared to, and Penny has tried to make me faint again approximately twenty times by drawing spiders on every available piece of paper.

            That little monster. I love her to death.

            But when we say goodbye in the entrance, agreeing that we should do it again soon, it’s a bit like a pianoforte crashing on my head.

            “How long will you be in Houston?” Lily asks.

            All I can do is burrow farther into Levi’s side. “Unclear. The project was originally supposed to last around three months, but things are going very well, so . . .” I shrug. Levi’s arm tightens around me. I’m fully aware that Levi and I are the Merriam-Webster definition of transitory. But I’m enjoying this so much. His company. His friends. His food. I’ll be sad when this is over in a couple of weeks.

            “Are your parents still going to be in town next week?” Lily asks.

            Levi’s arm tightens again, this time in a completely different fashion. Before it was possessive, comforting. Now it’s just tense. “Yeah.”

            “Ugh. Sorry about that. Let me know if you need anything.”

            Curious, I bring it up as soon as we’re alone in the truck. “Your family will be here?”

            He starts the truck, looking straight ahead. I’m beginning to recognize his moods, but this one I’m not familiar with. Yet. “My parents. There’s some event on the Air Force base here.”

            “And you’re going to see them?”

            “We’ll probably have dinner.”

            “When?”

            “Not sure. My father will let me know when he’s free.”

            I nod. And then I hear a voice that sounds a lot like mine ask, “Can I come?”

            He puffs out a laugh. “Are you a fan of strained silences interrupted by the occasional ‘Pass the garlic salt’?”

            “It can’t be that bad. Otherwise you wouldn’t even get together.”

            “You’d be surprised by the lengths my father will go to let me know the depth of his disappointment.”

            “What about your mom?”

            He just shrugs.

            “Listen—I can drop hints on how amazingly BLINK is going. I can say that you’re the go-to engineer for most neuroscientists. I can print out your Nature publication and use it to gently dab my mouth after the first course.”