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“I don’t know. Should we knock on the door and ask?” He wore that smirk that let me know he was teasing.

“I was thinking about it,” I teased back.

“Your family bailed early?”

I gestured to the air, like they were floating somewhere around us. He followed my movement.

“Too cold for my little brother,” I clarified. “And some sock-exchange thing.”

“So they left you?”

“They didn’t leave me,” I said, defensive. “I stayed.”

He lowered his brow like he didn’t understand the difference. There was one.

I turned and continued the way I’d been walking before. He followed.

“Are you going to catch up with your friends?” I asked.

“At some point,” he said.

“What are you doing instead?”

“I thought that was pretty obvious. I’m walking … with you.”

My cheeks were already pink from the cold, I was sure, but they felt hot now. “How did you know my family was going to leave early?”

“I didn’t. You were giving me a very dirty look when I was in the golf cart, and I was going to try to catch your attention and lure you away. Them leaving worked out better.”

“The dirty look encouraged this somehow?” I asked with a smile.

He laughed. “No, well, sort of. It confirmed what I’d been thinking, that my friends were being stupid.”

“Your friends? You were perfectly innocent?”

“Kind of like your friend yesterday?” he said. He was right. He couldn’t control his friends any more than I could control Fiona. And maybe he couldn’t control his family either.

“Fiona says thank you again and that she loves you.” She had been sending me all the pictures people were posting on social media of her stunt. She was so excited that her project had gotten off to such a good start that the last text she sent was: I love that hot neighbor of yours for keeping me anonymous in my art. That’s the most important part.

A smile crept onto Ryan’s face. “She loves me?”

“She doesn’t know you,” I said.

“Ouch.”

“No, I mean, I’m sure she’d feel the same if she knew you. She just appreciates you keeping her secret and thinks you’re hot,” I said, flustered.

Oh no. Why did I say that?

He chuckled a little. “Thanks, I guess?” he said.

“But being hot only counts if you’re a good person too.” I didn’t know why I said that either. Ryan was a good person, wasn’t he? I was learning that. I just felt unbalanced around him sometimes. Couldn’t think straight.

“You’re trying your hardest not to like me, aren’t you?” he asked.

“No,” I said quickly, then amended. “Maybe … sometimes.”

“It would be easier, wouldn’t it?” he said. “If we didn’t have something.”