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“Yes, really.” Corey runs his hand over the steering wheel. “Carter was pretty good at intimidating guys to stay away from you. I never thought about how it would feel once one of them finally manned up and asked you out anyway.”
Internally, I release a girlish squeal. Externally, I keep my cool. “Is that when you realized you liked me?”
“No, I knew that on my sixteenth birthday.”
My forehead creases with confusion. “Your birthday?”
He nods. “Yup.”
“But that was the birthday?—”
“That I brought a girl over to the house,” he finishes for me. “Yeah.”
No matter how hard I try, I can’t forget how my stomach fell to the floor when I answered the door that evening, all those years ago. Corey always came to our house for a birthday dinner. It started when he was eleven and Carter let it slip that Corey’s dad didn’t do anything to celebrate his son’s birthday.
My parents were quick to take action. Birthday dinners are a Jones family tradition—something I looked forward to, and not just for my own birthday. So when I heard the doorbell ring, I raced downstairs, determined to be the first one in my family to wish Corey a happy birthday. But when I opened the door, I was rendered speechless.
“Stacy Butler,” I name the popular cheerleader who’d accompanied Corey to our house that day. She was tall, tanned, and gorgeous. Even though she was only a year older than me, she looked far more womanly than I do as an adult. “The day you brought her over is the day you realized you liked me?” I don’t hide the doubt from my tone.
“As crazy as it sounds, yes.”
“How?”
“Do you remember what happened after dinner? When your parents went upstairs and left us kids downstairs to hang out?”
Of course, I do.
I’ll never be able to erase the sight of Stacy’s toned legs thrown over Corey’s lap on our couch while watching a movie. I’d cried in my pillow over it for a week straight.
“Yes. What about it?”
Corey watches me expectantly.
I frown. “What?”
“You don’t remember?”
“Don’t remember what?”
“Stacy telling you that her brother liked you.”
“Oh.” I sort through the memories of that night. I vaguely recall the popular girl saying something about her brother, but it didn’t stick. I was too focused on not bursting into tears after seeing her strewn all over the boy I had my heart set on. “No. Not really.”
Corey shakes his head with a half-hearted laugh. “Well, I do. And for the first time, Carter wasn’t threatening to give a guy a black eye for liking you. I think he didn’t want to blow my shot with Stacy, but I hated the idea of you going out with that kid. For the first time, it hit me that I might like you as more than my best friend’s little sister. But when you didn’t go out with him, I decided to let my feelings lay low. I didn’t see a reason to bring them up and risk ruining our friendship.”
I bite my bottom lip. “Until prom…”
“Until prom,” he confirms.
My heart thumps happily in my chest. It’s impossible not to smile. “You’re something else, Corey Johnson. Do you know that?”
He shoots me a half grin, still looking a little embarrassed. “I hope that’s a good thing.”
“It is.” I reach out and take his hand, lacing our fingers together until he meets my eye. “It’s averygood thing.”
23
COREY
