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“So, you don’t hate me?” Lucy asked him weakly. Had she been worrying for nothing? Everything that Daniel said made sense to her. It was Logan’s fault. She’d done all that she could. She’d made sure that the girl got justice.
“Of course I don’t hate you.”
“Thank you for coming today,” she said as they walked down the sidewalk and away from the court house. “You don’t know how much it means to me.”
“I’m pretty sure that I do,” Daniel said quickly.
Lucy winced at his words. He was clearly talking about the fact that she hadn’t been there for him. “I am sorry about Sophie, you know,” she told him, because she didn’t want to avoid the elephant in the room.
“I know you are.” Daniel nodded.
“So, what happens next?” she asked, because she had no idea. She’d spent so long focusing on the court case that she’d forgotten that it would be over at some point. “What do I do now?”
“What do you want to do?” Daniel asked her curiously.
“I don’t know,” she told him honestly. “I think I want to go back to college.”
“Then you’re going to need to talk to your mom.”
“Yeah.” Lucy nodded. “I guess it’s time that I did that.”
“If you want, I’ll talk to her with you? I could tell her about the court case and stuff, or just be some moral support?”
“Why would you do that for me?”
He shrugged. “I care about you.”
“Do you think your dad will be able to get me into somewhere midterm?”
“I’m sure that he will.” He nodded. “Where are you thinking about going?” he asked. He didn’t want to ask. He was a little afraid of her answer. She’d avoided the family for so long. Would she run away again now that she might have the chance?
“I don’t know,” she said thoughtfully. She hadn’t really thought about other colleges. “You said yours was good, right?” she asked.
“Yeah, mine’s great,” Daniel said quickly. “I could show you around the campus sometime, if you want?”
“Sure, that would be cool.” She smiled at him. “Can I ask you something?”
He nodded. “Sure.”
“What is going on between you and me?” she asked before she could chicken out. She had been so sure that he would hate her after the court case. She had been so sure that he would want nothing to do with her. That wasn’t what had happened, though. It was too good to be true. She felt almost high. So, she figured, why not? Why not push the limits of the day? Why not jump with two feet into the only other problem that was plaguing her?
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we kissed and then…I don’t know.”
“You remember the kiss?” he asked in surprise. “I thought you didn’t remember that night?”
“I don’t remember all of it,” Lucy told him quickly. “But, yeah, I remember the kiss.”
“Why didn’t you say anything about it?”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I thought that you would think I’d taken advantage of you. If you were so drunk that you couldn’t remember, it was hardly the right thing for me to do.”
“Is that really why you didn’t say anything?”
“Yeah.” He looked excited and exhausted at the same time. “I can’t believe you remember the kiss,” he said in disbelief.
“So, like, what does that mean?” Lucy pushed him. “Did you like the kiss?” She felt pathetic for asking. She wanted the ground to split in two and swallow her whole, but not before she got her answer.
“Yes.” He smiled, bringing out the dimples in his cheeks. “Obviously, I liked the kiss.”
“So, you don’t think it’s weird?”
“Sure, it’s weird.” He laughed. “I mean, the entire world is going to look at us like we’re brother and sister. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to do this, though. I think that we all have to do crazy things in our lives. It doesn’t really matter whether anybody else understands the crazy stuff, as long as you do.”
“I guess that’s a cool way to look at it.” Lucy nodded.
“I think that we could have something worth all of the stares,” he told her with certainty.
Lucy could feel her heart almost leaping out of her chest. Her pulse was beating so fast around her body that she could feel her wrists moving with the flow. “Do you mean all of that?” she asked him, because she had to be sure.
“I meant every word.”
The sidewalk, the sunshine, and even the twittering of the birds melted away. Their first kiss had been beside the ocean. Lucy’s clothes had been wet and her heart confused. She’d pulled away regretting it. She’d felt sick over the thought of being confronted about it. Their second kiss wasn’t like that, though. They were standing in the middle of the street. Anybody who passed them would be able to see, and Lucy didn’t care. The only thing she cared about was getting deeper into his kiss.
“We need to go talk to your mom and my dad,” Daniel said when their kiss had ended. “We need to tell them everything. It’s the only way that they are ever going to accept any of this.”
“Oh, god,” Lucy said, as she thought about what her mom would say, what her mom might think, when she told her the whole truth.
“It’s going to be alright,” Daniel told her supportively. “Don’t forget, Logan was to blame for what happened at college. And, what we’re doing right now, it isn’t wrong. We’re not actually brother and sister. We’re two people who met and fell in love.”
Lucy took a small step back from him. She’d heard him say it, but she couldn’t be sure he meant it. Maybe he’d just meant it as a turn of phrase. “You love me?” She held her eyes open wide. She felt surprised that he’d let the words slip from his delicious lips so easily.
Daniel frowned at her. “I thought that was obvious,” he said, and then he pulled her in and kissed her.
THE END
