“They accept everyone. Even riffraff like us.”
I almost tell him that I would have wanted to get dressed up, that there’s a dress I could’ve worn, but then I stop myself. Not because I forgot to pack the dress, but because I purposefully didn’t pack the dress. It’s the type of dress I only wear on dates or going out for girls’ night.
I can feel myself getting emotional. I’m not sure why it happens here and now. It’s like when Luke rejected me earlier, I was doing all I could to go along with what he was saying and pretend like that’s what I wanted him to say, but now the words sting.
It was a joke.
How have I gone so long with Luke in my life, never really seeing him as more than a friend, and then suddenly, it’s all my heart wants?
I want us to be dressed up, holding hands at the table. I want him to walk me outside, looking for the northern lights, pulling me to his chest to keep warm. But most of all, I want to know what it would be like to kiss him. To know what it’s like to love him for everything that he is, as more than just a boy I grew up with, but the man I grew up to love.
“You okay?” Luke asks.
My eyes dart up to him, and I can feel myself go flush.
“Were the two of you interested in dessert? The ganache is a popular choice for couples who want to share,” the waitress says when she comes in to check on us.
“Oh, we’re not a couple,” Luke says, his words light, joking. It’s the same thing I said earlier in the day, but hearing it from him feels like a knife to my heart.
Chapter 28
Harper
When we make our way back to the Airbnb, I’m shocked by the all-too-familiar camper van sitting in our driveway. In theory, I suppose it could be anyone since it’s a rental van that’s a dime a dozen, but why else would there be a van sitting in our parking spot?
“Uh. . .” Luke looks confused.
“Hasn’t she gone home already?” We both know who I’m talking about without saying her name.
“She leaves tomorrow.”
For a fraction of a second, I wonder if Luke has been in touch with her after all. He said she didn’t want anything to do with him since she thought it was weird that the two of us were sharing a bed, so why is she here now?
Maybe Luke has been texting her, telling her how much he doesn’t see me that way.
If Cassie needs someone to vouch for his lack of feelings, she just has to join the pity party I’m throwing for myself.
“What’s she doing here then?” I feel like a jealous girlfriend when I say the words, but I have to remind myself that I don’town Luke. If he wants to date her, I have to deal with it.
“Stay here.” Luke steps out of the car, leaving me to wait in the passenger seat.
I watch him walk up to the door of the van, knock, and then be let inside, the door shutting behind him.
A jealous rage boils inside me, and I have to work to keep myself calm.
A few minutes later, Luke comes back out from the van and opens my passenger door.
“She needs a place to park overnight.”
I give him a face. “Aren’t there campgrounds?”
“She’s having issues booking the campgrounds. She’ll sleep in the van. She just wants to park here, I guess.”
I blink, a little stunned. “Did you already tell her she could?”
He shrugs in a what-else-was-I-supposed-to-do?
“She doesn’t like me,” I say. This has become a familiar conversation.
