“I’m sorry. Did I scare you? I just would love to pet Stella here.”
“Oh, surely! Back from college?”
“Yes. It’s so good to be home.” I kneel on the sidewalk. “Stella. Hi. Do you remember me?” Her droopy eyes squint as I itch around her ears. “I understand, sweet girl. Sometimes I have to get pulled along too. It’s so warm in your house though.”
“And we’ll have breakfast,” Judy adds.
“Ooh and breakfast. If you’ll trust Miss Judy to get you home, you have so many good things waiting for you. You can do this.” I stand. “Thank you. She’s precious.”
Judy chuckles. “She’s a character, that’s for sure. Okay, Stella Bella, come on. Almost home.”
She begrudgingly rises to her enormous feet and takes the smallest step.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
I perchon my dorm room bed, chewing a hole in my lip and eyeing the box of Tic Tacs sitting on my desk. What should I text Levi?
At a soft knock at my window, I pull back the curtain. It’s him, with a big white box under his arm. Gold script and his blond hair glimmer in the sun. That favorite face of mine is a sight for sore eyes. So much concern, so many questions are etched into it.
“Kit.”
I can’t really hear him, but I may as well. I’ve heard that scrumptious murmur enough.
“Levi,” I whisper back.
“Meet you at the bench?”
I grab the paper-wrapped package on my desk and cram the stolen Tic Tacs into my pocket, running through the hall to the stairwell.
I heave the door open and motion for him to come in for Open Dorms. He follows silently. He’s never been in my suite before. My suitemates aren’t around, but they could be back any minute.
When I finally told Mom everything, she had to remove her jaw from the sidewalk. To her, there was an obvious thread of God’s orchestration throughout our relationship. I tried to tell her how impractical things were for me and Levi. “Then keep praying,” she said, “and definitely ask Levi what he heard this week. If he heard a no, that’s it. But it sounds to me like God’s been setting this up all along, like he’s gift-wrapped this relationship for you. I really think it’s time you make your choices and let Levi make his own.”
I prop open the suite door as required and whip around to him. “Hi.” I shyly grin at Levi and his box. “For me?” I mean both.
“For you.” He opens the big box with one hand so I can see the macarons of every flavor inside. This doesn’t look like a no.
The box has attitude, like it hails from a fabulous bakery, folded by hand by someone French with excellent posture and perhaps a sneer of superiority. I want to dive in and transport myself there.
“Did you fly back from Connecticut with these?”
“I did. I dragged Everett with me to a patisserie in The City.” Not something he’d do if he’d heard a no.
I snag a pink one as he closes the box. Strawberry bursts in my mouth with a perfectly delicate bite. A moan escapes. “Bless you, cosmopolitan New York.”
“They were my ‘personal item’ on the plane,” he says. “Very nearly stepped on. I’m clearly under the impression you’re open to bribery.” His face changes like he regrets the joke, and he sets the box on the coffee table.
My heart beats not a no, not a no, not a no.
Not ano?
I can’t answer until I swallow but give a closed-mouth smile. Then, “What am I gonna do with you?”
“I hoped we could cover that topic,” he says seriously. “What do you have there?” He motions to the package still in my hand.
“It’s for you. Later.” I set the handmade leather-bound journal I found for him next to the bakery box. Unable to wait another second, I take a step closer, almost touching, and look way up.
Anticipation and hope replace his hesitation. So much is different from the last time I stood like this. I have answers, strategies. It’s scary—terrifying—but I’m ready. He can help me. I’ll let him, teach him what I need.
