Page 50 of Library or Lattes?

He opened the book and I leaned over to see pages covered in detailed pencil drawings. The library. From all different angles, inside and out.

“You drew all these?” I looked at them in awe.

“Yeah, I mean, some of them are really rough. I did these today, actually.” He pointed to a drawing of the intricate details above the window we sat beside. “After—” He didn’t finish, but we both knew what he meant. After our kiss, after I chose Harvest Festival over him and left him sitting here alone.

We still weren’t talking about it. Just dancing around it. Unfinished sentences and careful words.

“You’re really talented.” I let my eyes meet his and was so grateful not to see that cold, condescending glare. There was a sparkle instead. He closed the sketchbook.

“I didn’t think you were capable of crying,” he said.

“What do you mean?” I was confused.

“You always look so happy.” He pushed my hair behind my ear and reached for my hand, sending something warm and sweet through my body despite everything. “That smile of yours, it lights up everything around you. So when it’s not there, everything feels kind of dark … like a solar eclipse.” Theo smiled intently at me and I managed a small laugh. “And do you want to know a secret? I don’t actually know that much about the weather.”

“I thought weatherpeople were supposed to know everything about the weather?” I teased, letting myself forget about the fighting for a few seconds, because having these moments with him? My hand in his, that grin just for me? It was electric.

“Want to know another secret?” Theo moved even closer, and my body answered without me telling it to. I leaned into him.

“I do,” I admitted, sniffing.

“I lied on my weatherman application.”

I mock-gasped. “Well, you convinced me.”

“Thanks, Doc, that’s all that matters … So, come on. Tell me why everything happened tonight?”

“I guess everything just got to be too much.” My voice wobbled dangerously again.

“Well, tell you what. Why don’t I help you with those beams you were talking about? I could do it for free.”

Beams? Oh, the beams in our house that Pop was trying to fix. They’d been part of my sobbing rant when I’d stormed in here.

“It would actually be really good practice for me. I worked on my uncle’s building sites the last few summers and picked up a lot. And you’ve seen for yourself how great I am at fixing stuff. I’m sorry, but look at this window.” Theo pushed the window beside him. “Not a draft in sight … Can you feel a draft?”

I smiled at the way he scrunched up his nose and pushed up his glasses. It used to annoy me. And now? It was just cute. But wait. I’d poured my whole heart out. “That’s the part you picked up? The beams?”

He squeezed my hand. And there it was again, the full-body tingle. Like magic.

“No, I get it. I get all of it. But the beam part. That’s something I can help with … People don’t like things to change. They don’t like people to change. It makes them look at themselves. Like really look at themselves, and maybe they think they’re getting left behind? So when you want something bigger, something different, it’s a mirror and they don’t like what they see reflected back.” He squeezed my hand again and didn’t let it go.

The words settled in my mind, heavy and true. Lennie planning to go to college in a different state when I was planning London. Pop just living the life he built here, Krista and Avery staying, when I wanted to leave. It wasn’t that I was doing something wrong. I was just doing something they couldn’t.

“You’re totally entitled to want more. To change yourself. To leave.”

Nobody had ever said that to me. Not like this. That changing wasn’t betraying anyone.

“And I like your new clothes, but if it means anything, I like your old clothes too.” The corner of his mouth turned up. “I think I just like you, Doc, whatever way you show up.”

My heart was in my mouth, and I was sure he could hear the thud against my chest. He liked me. And of course I liked him, too, despite the patronizing looks and the arrogance that he wore like a second skin. He was clever and funny and all that stuff he’d just said? He saw the version of me I was trying to become. I could have kissed him right there, but I held back.

“Maybe you’re right.”

Theo stroked the back of my hand with his thumb as he studied my face. “I’m usually right.”

“Oh, so sure of yourself?”

He shrugged. “I’ve never had a problem with self-confidence.” He pulled me up from my seat. “I know something that might cheer you up. Temporarily anyway …”