“Thank you,” I mutter. My eyes search for Fiona. She’s with a group of friends, her hips swaying as she walks up the path and disappears beyond the cemetery gates.
My stomach does that weird fluttering thing again, and I breakinto a run. “Fiona! Wait!” I yell just as I crest the hill. She turns, walking backward, but doesn’t stop. “I love you!”
What. The. Fuck. Brantley.I am literally horrified by what I just said.
Fiona laughs. “I know.”
Then she turns around with a wave and leaves me standing in the middle of Main Street like an idiot.
“Whoa, stop,”Fi says, holding up a hand. “Bruce was not that big.”
“He was too!”
“You were drunk, B.”
“So were you,” I counter. Then I turn to look at Bastian who’s laughing so hard, he can hardly breathe.
“What the fuck is so funny?”
Fi looks at him, grinning widely. He leans back into the couch cushions, wiping tears from his eyes. I raise my eyebrows expectantly.
“She totally Han Solo’d you.”
“What?”
His smile fades and a look of disbelief crosses his face. “The famous line. Charlie is obsessed with that scene. Leia says, ‘I love you’ and Han says, ‘I know.’”
I turn and look at Fiona, eyeing her suspiciously. “Did you do that on purpose?”
“Of course, I did, B.”
“But I’m the guy…”
“Of course you are, sweetie,” she says, her foot kicking mine playfully. “But actual genders aside, I just have more traditionally masculine traits.”
I huff doubtfully. “Like what?”
She holds out her hand, ticking off each item as she talks. “I can outdrink you; I’m better atStreet Fighter; I’m freakishly strong…”
“She can chop wood,” Bastian cuts in.
I give him a dirty look. “Okay, okay, I get the point.”
“To be honest, B, I thought you said it to be clever because of your costume. It was a joke.”
“Yeah, of course it was,” I say, but I can’t meet her gaze. I can’t tell her that my mouth had a mind of its own that night. That those three words came out unexpectedly, and in that moment, I meant them and never stopped meaning them. And that thought is scary as hell.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
FIONA
“So why did you bring up this story, B?” I ask, looking over at him.
I toss some firewood into the fireplace and grab a box of matches from the mantle. Then I light the old newspaper I placed on the bottom as tinder. My collarbone aches even more after cutting all that firewood, so I stay crouched in front of the fire, nudging the logs with the poker to hide my grimace before turning around.
“I just wanted you to understand that from the moment I met you, I never thought you were helpless.” He gives me a rakish smile and my stomach bottoms out. “You were fearless, and Bruce never stood a chance.”
I flush and give him a knowing smile.
