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His face flushed right up to the tips of his ears. He tried to pull a pillow over his head but she knocked it away. “I didn’t… not like you and me,us…just, in general—the general royal we. I won’t call anyone’s parents by their first name until they’re officially my in-laws. That’s it. All I meant.”
A harried Colin Benjamin was Allison’s favorite toy. “We haven’t even discussed if Iwantto get married,” she said. “Have you been planning on kids too? Because I’m definitely not having any of those.”
Colin covered his face with a sheet this time. “I didn’t meanus,” he insisted, his voice muffled by the fabric.
“What’s my wedding dress going to look like? Where will the wedding be? Do you have abinder? Can I see it?”
For the second time tonight, Colin said, “I hate you,” with more affection in his voice than Allison could stand.
She laughed. “Youloooovvvveeeme.”
Jerking the sheet down, he gazed at her with wide eyes. The corners of his lips wavered, his face more serious than she’d ever seen it. When he spoke, Allison could barely hear him over the TV. “What if I did?”
This time, it was her fumbling for words. “What?”
“Would that be so strange?”
She studied his face. Was this a joke? She was afraid to answer until she was sure. Because the truth was, those words had wanted to sneak their way out of Allison’s mouth a few times now.
She’d already loved him once. Doing it again was easy.
“Are you being serious?” They were both angled forward, that invisible thread that bound them yanking tight.
“Allison.” The intensity in his gaze pinned her in place. “I can’tfallin love with you. I’m already there. I never stopped.”
Her whole body went slack, the words so unexpected they snapped every bit of her restraint. Letting her sheet fall away, she eased up until they were face-to-face and brought her mouth down to his.
“I love you, too,” she whispered against his lips.
Chapter 32
Two nights later, Allison sat on Mandy’s couch, shaking her phone as if a text might rattle out of it.
Except for a Jed update from her mother, it hadn’t made a sound all day. She’d checked the volume twice, switched the power on and off, and even disconnected and reconnected the Wi-Fi, but nothing seemed to be wrong. It was simply that no one (more specifically, Colin) was responding. Hergood morningtext sat on the chat screen, lonely and abandoned.
Mandy furrowed her brow as she glanced up from her cross-stitch pattern. “I don’t think it works like a Polaroid picture.”
“Did you know that’s a myth?” The needle she’d stabbed into her Aida fabric jabbed Allison’s thumb, making her grimace. She really needed to get a thimble. Or stop crafting with sharp objects when she was under duress.
“What is?”
“That you have to shake a Polaroid. OutKast was lying to a whole generation of listeners.” Colin had told her that. Allison’s stomach clenched.
Mandy pursed her lips. “Good to know. I’ll add it to the vault.”She tapped her temple. “But seriously, what are you doing with your phone? You’ve been hounding it since dinner.”
Allison set down her fabric and slouched deeper into Mandy’s very soft, very cozy sofa. “I haven’t heard from Colin at all today.”
And not much since Monday. They’d been curled up together in Allison’s bed, still breathless from post-I-love-you sex when Colin’s aunt called. Allison couldn’t hear what she’d said but Colin had turned to winter right in front of her: skin white as snow beneath glasses the color of holly berry. He was already pulling on his pants as he’d hung up. “They need my help with Charlie.”
Allison had risen to her feet too, scrounging for her bra in the dark room. “Is everything okay?”
“I don’t know.” He was focused on picking up his belongings, shoving them all in his backpack.
Allison threw open her closet. “What should I bring?”
“For what?”
“Well, I’m coming, right?”
