Page 152 of I Choose You

Rena grinned. “You gotta wait until I’m out of the country to do an epic thing like fall for a man. Seriously?”

“I think I already have.” I frowned. “I’m not sure.”

“Well, you either know or you don’t, right?”

I shrugged. “Have you ever fallen for a man?”

She pursed her lips and shook her head. “Nope. They all failed in the first couple of qualifying rounds. But I imagine when you know, you know.” Setting her hands together and propping her chin on them, she grinned. “You can be my tester and report back with your findings.”

“I just wish it wasn’t so confusing.”

She blinked. “Quite frankly I’m stunned. I mean, the guy started out as your enemy and now?”

“Yeah. And now…”

“Well, what are you going to do about it?”

I bit my lip, so grateful she was here to discuss it with me. I’d debated talking about it with Mom, but I worried talking about love would sadden her because she’d lost that in my dad when he left. Sure, it was years ago, but I was living proof of old scars lingering far past the incident that caused them. Sandra was my next bet to share a little girl talk. You wouldn’t know it looking at her because she was so deceivingly Golden Girl sweet, but she’d been dealing with raging fits of menopause lately. If I were to ask her for advice, she’d be more likely to advise I chop his dick off and be a spinster to save myself from the headache.

“What should I do?” I asked.

She sat back and spanned her hands through the air, looking up dramatically. “Hire an airplane that’ll fly one of those banners. It’ll say BBD, I heart you. Have it soar the message on the day of love at the wedding.”

I raised my brows. “So I should tell him, huh?”

She gave me a duh smirk. “How else would it go? He’d read your mind?”

I cringed. “I’m not saying he shouldn’t know, but I want to know know.”

She pointed at me and wagged her finger. “And that is a no no.”

“Why?”

“Let me ask you this. Do you think he is falling for you?”

“I hope so. I think so. He got in a fight with his brother-slash-best-friend over me. That’s not nothing, right?”

“That’s something all right.” She grinned and waited to speak further until all of our plates were delivered. “Did he at least get a bruise or something and you had to nurse him back to health?”

I shook my head, remembering the sweet kisses on his counter, though. That sounded better than him getting hurt and having me take care of him. Honestly, I didn’t want Kody to be hurt either. Their father was about to get married. Now wasn’t the time for them to be acting up and cause more issues so close to the date.

“Are you hesitant to tell him that you’ve fallen for him because you’re not entirely sure that’s what is happening?”

“Or has already happened,” I clarified.

“Or are you hesitant to tell him because you’re gun-shy of admitting it before he has?”

“Yes.”

She rolled her eyes. “That was an or question.”

I nodded. “I’ll just do what you said.”

Her sandwich waited before her mouth. “Hire the airplane and fly the banner? That shit has got to be expensive.”

“I’ll tell him at the wedding. Like, speak to him without the assistance of aerial demonstrations and acronyms that should only belong in texts between the two of us. Or not at all.”

She chewed and swallowed her huge bite then smiled. “You know you’ll do this when I meet someone someday too.”