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“Get up,” Shannon ordered with a laugh as she reached down to grab my hand. “You are not ringing in the new year under the Christmas tree with your cats,” she added, pulling me to my feet. “We are going outside to ring it in properly.”
“Fine,” I huffed, pulling my unicorn hood up. “But I’m not even going to be cheery.” Sulking, I allowed her to push me out of the house. “And I also reserve the right to…” My words trailed off when I stepped out of my house and locked eyes on the boy standing on the other side of the road in a kangaroo onesie. “Gerard?”
“Claire-Bear.”
“Happy New Year, bestie.” Shannon chuckled in my ear. “Love you.” She pressed a kiss to my cheek before sprinting across the road to the other boy. “Hi, Johnny.”
“Hi, Shannon,” he replied, caught her effortlessly when she threw herself into his arms. “Happy New Year, baby.”
The moment our eyes locked, the sound of fireworks erupting filled the air. Moments later, the night sky exploded with colorful sprinkles of twinkling lights.
“Gerard?” My breath caught in my throat, and I had to give my chest a little thump to reset my heart because when he raised his hand and waved at me, it flatlined.
And then he was crossing the road, walking toward me with strong, purposeful strides.
Unfortunately for me, the ability-to-remain-cool gene clearly skipped me over, and every tip, trick, and lesson on seduction Aoife had given me went right out the window.
Waving back at him like a demented cat lady, I almost broke my neck in my rush to get to him, trip-tumbling over my furry slippers and then sliding over a particularly icy patch of the driveway.
“Jesus.” Gerard chuckled, hooking an arm around my back and pulling me to safety before I could fall on my ass. “Those slippers are an accident waiting to happen.” Setting me back down on my feet, he inspected them with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “I love them.”
“You’re not supposed to tell my slippers you love them, Gerard,” I complained, fisting the front of his onesie. “You’re supposed to tell me.”
“Really?” He slipped his hands into his kangaroo pouch and tilted his head to one side. “I thought that was already a given.”
My heart began to race, and I shook my head. “I, ah, I’m not, I mean, I wasn’t too sure if you still did.”
“Love isn’t a tap, Claire,” he said, closing the space between us. A swell of emotion bombarded me, threatening to consume me to the point of passing out. “It doesn’t turn off that easily.”
“No,” I agreed with a heavy sigh. “No, it doesn’t.”
“So.” Taking a safe step back, he shoved his hands into his kangaroo pouch and shrugged. “Do you want to talk?”
Yes, I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, but fear of chasing him off had me swallowing down my excitement and offering him a timid nod instead.
Slip-sliding across the driveway, I fell into step beside him as we embarked on the familiar route to the tree house. It was a trip we had taken thousands of times, but this time there was a heavy weight blanketing us. Like impending adulthood and sadness and hope all weaved into one complicated weighted blanket.
“Careful,” I couldn’t stop myself from tossing out when I climbed up first and then watched Gerard narrowly avoid that beam that had almost poleaxed him on our last venture. “Dad’s not home to save you this time.”
“Funny,” he mused, gingerly maneuvering around the beam before taking a seat on the tree-house floor opposite me. “He’s actually gone out this year?”
“Yep.” I nodded, mirroring his actions by sitting cross-legged opposite him. “He took Mam out for dinner and drinks.”
“Jesus.” Scrubbing his jaw, he glanced around aimlessly. “That’s a first.”
“First New Year’s Eve since the accident,” I agreed.
“Hmm.”
Unable to help myself, I let my eyes roam all over Gerard, soaking him in, all the while resisting the urge to fold myself into his arms. There were too many unspoken words between us for that. Conversations needed to happen first.
“So, ah…” Plucking on a loose thread, Gerard glanced around again before finally settling his attention on me. “Let’s just get this out of the way, huh?”
“Okay.” Nodding in agreement, I sucked in a sharp breath. “But before anything else, can I just say that I am so sorry for how it came out, Gerard.”
“How it came out,” he repeated slowly. “Don’t you mean that you’re sorry that it came out at all?”
“No, I mean I’m sorry for how it came out,” I confirmed, steeling my resolve. “I can’t be sorry for speaking up for you, Gerard. I won’t be.”
