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I tell my parents that I’m heading to Willow’s and then make my way over there. She doesn’t live too far from my house, so it doesn’t take long to get there. Just as I jog up the stairs to ring her bell, the door swings open and Mia appears.
“Hey, Liam. Willow’s expecting you.” She widens the door for me to enter and then shuts it after me.
“Are you her secretary?” I joke.
“Nope. Just trying to do nice things around the house so my parents will let me go on an audition next week.”
“Still serving your sentence, huh?”
She scowls. “My mom doesn’t know how to have fun. My dad’s okay, though. But I think he’s softening her up. Fingers crossed that my good deeds around the house will sway her.”
“And don’t forget good grades. You’ll totally win brownie points with your mom.”
She grins. “Already taken care of. Straight As in thebag.”
“Nice. Well, I hope you get to go on that audition. See you later.”
After exchanging hellos with Charlie and Asher, I go upstairs to Willow’s room and knock on the door.
“Come in!” she calls.
“Hey, Willow,” I greet when I enter. “What’s the big emergency?”
She’s sitting at her desk with her back facing me. She doesn’t turn around, just says, “Can you sit on that chair?”
There’s only one other chair in the room. The one right in the center.
“Uh…okay. Why are you being weird?” Her back still faces me.
She doesn’t answer as I sit down. Nor does she move for the first thirty seconds. When she finally does, she slowly lifts herself off her chair and walks over to WillowBot, who’s cleaning her room. Willow sweeps her off the floor and turns her off, depositing her on the desk. Her gaze hasn’t met mine since I stepped foot in here.
“Uh, Willow? Is everything okay?”
She finally turns around and pins her eyes on me. She’s got a strange expression on her face, one I’ve never seen before.
Folding her arms over her chest, she leans against the desk and narrows her eyes at me. “So Chloe learned something very interesting yesterday.”
“She did?”
“Yeah. She figured out that Mr. Love is her secret admirer.”
“Wait, what?” I gape at her. “You’re saying Mr. Love is the one who’s been writing her those love notes? But how? There’s no way. Mr. Love is a girl.”
“Liam, he’s not a girl. He’s the one who’s been writing her those letters. Mr. Love used similar phrases that her secret admirer used.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” I ask. “I mean, Chloe likes Mr. Love. And he’s supposedly this amazing love expert—”
“Chloe is falling hard for her secret admirer and I wanted to make sure the guy was legit,” she interrupts as she straightens up and starts pacing her room. “I kept asking myself the whole day today, ‘Is there any way I can find out who Mr. Love is?’ I was able to trace his location. I found out where he lives.” She spins around to face me. “It brought me to the Hastings residence.”
I just stare at her, not sure what she’s getting at.
“So let’s see…” She paces her room again. “How many people live in the Hastings residence? Five, right?” She raises five fingers. “Your parents, Ally and Zack. Pretty sure the last thing either of them would do is spend their time writing in an anonymous advice column for our high school paper.” She lowers two fingers. “Next is Evie Hastings. The girl who’s so dedicated to her art. I’m pretty positive she wouldn’t spend her time on a dating advice column, not when she’s so preoccupied with her college art portfolio.” She lowers another finger. “Now there’s Lily Hastings, our hopeless romantic who has snagged the boy of her dreams. She eats, breathes, lives love, but would she be writing Chloe love letters? I highly doubt it.” She lowers another finger. “So that leaves us with one Hastings.” She holds up her finger and turns to face me. “Liam.”
My heart pounds in my head like a hammer. Over and over. Harder and harder.
I hang my head. “Are you going to tell her?” I whisper.
“Liam.” She yanks the chair from her desk and drags it over to me, plopping down and pinning intense eyes on me. “What the heck is going on?”
