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My smile bloomed. “So I stand by my statement. You, Knox Parker, are an amazing brother.”
His eyes glittered as he gazed at me without responding.
My eyebrows lowered. “What?”
“Nothing.” He shook his head but kept watching me in that thoughtful way.
“No. Tell me. Why’re you looking at me like that?”
“It’s nothing. I just...” His cheeks went flushed and my mouth fell open. What the heck? What had I done to make him blush? Finally, he glanced away and mumbled, “I just like being with you. You make me happy.”
I drew in a shuddery breath, tempted to spill giddy, girly tears. When I’d first bumped into him weeks ago and had daydreamed about his beautiful smile and windblown hair, I never in my wildest dreams would’ve guessed he’d be saying something like this to me, and look like he meant every breath of it.
I licked my lips, just...overcome. I really did need to do something to cool myself down, or I’d blurt out how much I’d fallen for him.
So I said, “That’s because I know kangaroos can jump higher than the Empire State Building.”
A grin cracked his lips, and he shook his head. Then he gave a silent laugh. “You’re delusional.”
I gasped in mock outrage. “What? You actually think the Empire State Building can jump higher?”
This time, he laughed out loud and grasped my hand. Staring at our interlaced fingers, he murmured, “I even live to hear your corny jokes.”
The brush of tree branches overhead as they swayed in the gentle wind seemed to creak through my bones. I stopped breathing, too afraid to ruin the moment with even an exhale.
He sounded so serious and reluctant to tell me this, so I knew he meant what he said, deeply. When he finally darted a glance my way—his eyes full of uncertainty and fear—I rushed out a breath. Oh, crap. I needed to say something back and quit swimming in my internal happy dance.
“I like being with you, too,” I whispered.
“I’m serious, City.” His gaze burned into mine. “Coming here every day to be with you is like...” He shook his head and glanced out between the trees. “It’s not even real, it’s so nice. It’s like some kind of dream.”
“I know what you mean.” Every morning when I woke, my first thought was to wonder if the day before had really happened, or if it’d just been a lovely hallucination.
With a sigh, he pressed his mouth to my temple. “What’re we going to do?” he said into my hair.
I stiffened because he made it sound as if we were doomed, but then I realized... maybe we were. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, about us.” Pulling back, he stared into my eyes with a worry that sparked my own fears. “Outside these woods, what do we have? I can’t meet you anywhere in public. Hell, I probably can’t even talk to you at school when it starts back up. Neither of our families would ever let us stay together. Your father would probably have me murdered. Mine would disown me.”
I hugged myself as the truth behind his words made me shiver with dread. “Are you saying you want to stop meeting?”
“No!” He tugged me closer against his chest, his eyes large. As he buried his nose into my hair, he murmured, “God, no.” Then he kissed my temple and smoothed stray locks out of my face. “Getting to see you is the highlight of my day. I don’t think I could handle not seeing you anymore.”
I rested my cheek against his heartbeat and closed my eyes. “Then, what’re you saying, Knox?”
“I don’t know.” He sighed out his frustration. “I’m just...fuck, I’m pissed. This isn’t fair. If I pass you on the street or in the halls at school, I’m going to have to ignore you, and I hate that. I don’t want to ignore you. You’re my City.” His words broke at the end and I rubbed his arm soothingly.
He kissed my hair again. “Let’s go to the movies. Tomorrow.”
I let out an incredulous laugh. “Are you insane? We can’t...”
But when I looked up at him, there was something so desperate and determined in his eyes, I couldn’t deny him anything. I shut my mouth, and he continued pleading.
“I have the night off. We could go there separately, sit in the last row, and I don’t know, accidentally sit right next each other. I’ll even provide the popcorn and drinks.”
“This is really important to you, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is. I don’t want to only ever meet you in the woods, even though I love this. I...I gotta feel
