“What?” That’d been the last thing I thought he’d say. “Why?”
“ASU… isn’t what I thought it’d be. I thought it’d get better as the year went on, but… I missed home too much. Missed you.” He ducked his head a little, blue eyes locking onto mine. “When I mentioned we could pick back up where we left off, I didn’t mean just for the summer. I was thinking of staying, DD. And you can take all the time you want to forgive me. I’m not walking away again.”
I stared up at him, struck speechless, partly because they were words I’d dreamed of him saying. The phrasing was almost exact.I’m not walking away. Over the year since our breakup, imagining him begging me back had been comforting. Like my mantra with the kids when things got hard.Think of NYU.
Now, both calming thoughts were useless. Meaningless. “I’m with Jamie,” I said, voice strong and sure.
“Daisy, I know—” Dalton stopped. Regarded me. “You’re with him for now. Until he leaves for college in the fall.”
“Jamie won’t throw me away like you did.”
“No, Jamie would rather die than disappoint you.” He scoffed at it, though, as if it weren’t a good thing.
But the coldness of his voice settled over me. Every part of me screamed to get off the bench. “We should go.” I shoved my napkin into my cup and stood, already walking to the trash can. “I don’t think there’s anything else to say.”
A part of me felt like I’d made a mistake calling him, but a different part of me felt reassured. Not that I thought I was making the wrong choice, but rather finally realizing for myself what my friends knew all along.
Dalton Giovanni was no good for me. Liking Dalton had been easy. He was handsome, easygoing, and could always make things feel light. It’d been easy to be around him, because he’d never looked deeper than surface-level. He saw a smile on my face and never tried to look deeper.
Last summer, I’d planned to hold on to Dalton with all my might while he’d already been at work prying my fingers out of his skin. Dalton liked me, but he didn’t like the two most important things about me—my art and the kids.
The drive home started out silent. It was almost seven, with the sun and puffy blue clouds still in the sky. Mom and the kids would be eating dinner by now. Book club would almost be over, if it weren’t already. I didn’t havethe drawing, but maybe I could still go to Jamie. Heck, even if not to confess, I could use his shoulder to lean on right about now. And maybe I could confess about half of it. That I didn’t have feelings for Dalton anymore and that I actually hadn’t ever been drawing Dalton—I’d been drawing Jamie all along.
I turned my phone over in my hand, wishing it weren’t dead so I could text Jamie, wondering if it’d be obvious to Dalton if I asked him to drop me off at Alderton-Du Ponte.
“Jamie will never let himself be the bad guy,” Dalton said suddenly, like he was answering something in his thoughts. “He’ll tell you what you want to hear because you have him wrapped around your finger. He won’t say anything you don’t want to hear—he’ll just agree with whatever you want every time.”
You have me wrapped around your finger. Something sharp in my chest twisted. “What are you even saying?”
Dalton glanced at me, as if hesitating. “Is that how you got him to agree to a fake relationship?”
At first, the words didn’t land—and when they did, my stomach dropped so hard it hurt. The beat of silence lasted far too long before I tried to play it off. “W-What are you?—"
“I heard you. In the library. I went to ADP to golf, and Raelynn said you were in the library.” Dalton tapped his fingers languidly on the steering wheel. “I heard you ask him why he wouldn’t kiss you.”
Heat flooded my face, searing my cheeks in a rush that left me dizzy. That shadow in the hall I’d seen—it hadn’t been Raelynn lingering. It’d been Dalton. No.No, no, no.
“I wasn’t going to call you out on it, DD, but—well, you really got me, you know that?”
I squeezed my phone tighter in my lap, throat working as I tried to come up with words. Any words. Any that would sound convincing. “Y-You don’t know what you’re talking about?—”
“Daisy.” He exhaled softly, almost pitying. “Come on.”
The pity was worse than if he’d laughed. As everything unraveled before my eyes, I realized how stupid I must’ve looked to him. Amusing. “It’s real,” I got out, this time turning in the passenger seat to glare at him. “It’sreal. You said yourself, the way he looks at me?—
“Maybe I misread it.” Dalton shrugged a shoulder, gaze focused on the road. “Confirmation bias and all that. Except if he still won’t kiss you after all this time, then I was obviously wrong.”
Dalton had to have heard the other part, though.I think I’d kiss you just fine. That was proof in and of itself, wasn’t it? Proof Jamie had thought about it, the same way I had. “Jamie really likes me,” I told him. “He loves me.”
“I told you before, DD. It’s easy to confuse love and friendship. I said Jamie would rather die than disappoint you. He’d never say no to you. If you asked him to be your fake boyfriend to make your ex jealous, of course he’d say yes. Because he’d do anything for you—but that doesn’t mean he loves you.”
I didn’t ask him, I wanted to say, because it was true—Jamie had been the one who’d volunteered the fake relationship. Jamie had been the one to step in first.
Because I’d gone to him, seeking comfort likeI’d always done, and asked him to fix my mess. And he did. Without question.
Inexplicably, Jamie’s voice filled my head.
You have me wrapped around your finger.
