AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Bode
After I hang all ofher artwork, I set up a desk in her office. She gives me a little pat on the back when she gets home and says, “What would I do without you?”
“Hire someone?” I say, following behind her.
She laughs as she walks into the kitchen.
“What’s on the menu tonight?” I ask.
“Shepherd’s pie.”
“One of my favorites,” I say.
We eat without much talking. She seems to have something on her mind. I’m not going to push her. After dinner, she says, “It’s a beautiful night. I’d like to go on a walk. Want to join me?”
“Yeah. I’d love that,” I say as I load a few dishes into the dishwasher.
We walk for a few blocks and then she slips her hand in mine without saying anything. “Tell me your secret for the day.”
My heart is pounding. This one is a big one. “Remember when you asked me if I’d ever been in love?”
She’s still looking straight ahead as we walk. “Yes. With the stranger?”
“It was you,” I say. “You were the stranger.”
She stops walking and looks at me.
“I thought I had fallen in love when you kissed me the first time. No I didn’t think it – I did. I fell in love.”
Her eyes widen.
“I’d never felt that sort of connection with someone, that level of attraction, chemistry, all of it. I knew I had to get to know you. I had to find out more, but then Eli showed up around that corner and I was crushed – and terrified for a moment that you weren’t even eighteen.”
She laughs. “I wouldn’t have done that to you.”
“Anyway, I forced myself to stay away from you. Juno, you have to know you were too young at that point. Eli really would have killed me, and he would have been fairly justified at that point.”
“Yes. I was too young at eighteen. You weren’t wrong about that.”
“I kept telling myself not to go to family stuff with Eli. It was torture seeing you, but I couldn’t stay away. I had to be around you even if it was painful.”
