“OH MY GOD, I’VE RUINED EVERYTHING!”
With one knee on the bed, I tug at a corner of the blanket, but she just jerks it back.
I can’t help it. I laugh. I’m fucking elated.
Not because she’s freaking out and doing her best dime store ghost impression, but because she loves me.
Hattie Mercier loves me.
And then I screw up. “Hattie—Baby?—”
“BABYYY?!” she howls. “HAVE I FUCKED UP THAT BAD? YOU’RE BACK TO CALLING ME BABY?!”
“No. Nooo.” I vow through my laughter. She’s left me no choice. I climb on top of her and stretch out, flattening us both.
Her breathing downshifts immediately.
“You’re lying on top of me,” she pants from under the covers.
“I am,” I say, keeping the laughter from my voice. “Because I need your attention.”
Silence.
Then—
“Why?”
“Because I need to tell you something important.”
She groans. “Are you going to tell me that we're moving too fast? That you want to break up with me because I’m such a weirdo?”
My hands find her blanketed arms and I grip them tight. “Nope.”
Silence. Then?—
“You’re not?”
“I’m not. Can you lower the covers so I can see your face?”
For a long moment, she doesn’t move, and then she meets me halfway, lowering the blankets until her eyes peek above them.
“Good enough.” I grin down at her. “So. Is it true?”
She blinks. “Is what true?”
Even though my smile turns wicked, my heart gallops in my chest. I wonder if she can feel it. I hope so.
“You said you loved me. Is that true?”
Hattie squeezes her eyes shut and draws in a shaky breath. “Yes.”
Can she feel the way my body just relaxed? I hope that too.
“Hattie. Look at me.”
Wincing, she opens her eyes. “What?”
I’m smiling down to my toes. “I love you, too.”
