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“I didn’t tell her about—”
“I mean, I mentioned it to likeoneperson that you were getting me dinner here—just to say how sweet it was of you—and I guess word might have gotten around.”
She looked out the window. “How many people did you actually tell?”
“Uh, nine.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Oh, yeah. Anders, too. So ten.”
“This was just that I wanted to make sure you eat—”
“Uh-huh. That’s what I told all ten of them.”
She sighed.
“Oh, I forgot I mentioned it to Connor too. Eleven.”
She gave me a tired smile. “You haven’t changed a bit.”
I looked out the window. “I changed a lot. We’ve been going over this.”
She laughed drily. “I guess so. I mean… you’re certainly a lot more upfront with your feelings now than you were. You…” She looked down. “You wouldn’t… tell me so readily that you…”
“That I love you.”
She raked her fingers back through her hair again.
“Nothing makes things clearer than losing something. You don’t realize what you’ve got till it’s gone. And, um…” I shifted, fussing with my menu, and my voice came out smaller. “And I like having you. A lot. I’m a little afraid of being in love, if I’m being totally honest, but if I only have so many opportunities to say it to your face, I’m going to climb onto every rooftop and scream it out to the heavens. Let everyone in Bayview know that I love you.”
She pursed her lips, looking down at her menu, just settling into the quiet, before she spoke in a small, distant whisper. “From you, that sounds like a credible threat.”
I winked. “A credible promise.”
“And… how many people have you already told?”
“Um…” I folded my hands, looking away. “Gee, that’s a question. Define told. Does it count if somebody talks about how I’m in love with you and I don’t question it?”
“I’m going to say yes.”
“Emberlynn, of course. She’s my ride-or-die. Aria, I guess. I mean, she’s my sister, sadly. Priscilla, because there’s no way I’d hide anything from her anyway. Kay already knew a while ago, so Gwen knew for sure, and since Gwen knows, Charlie knows. I told Annabel, because—you know, commiserating over having been sad about the same girl. Sam, because I figured he would forget about it anyway, but he didn’t, and then he told Jenna, too. Oliver kept bugging me about it, so him too, so his maybe-maybe-not boyfriend too, obviously. Hazel—”
“Whodoesn’tknow?”
I laughed awkwardly. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say no one.”
She pursed her lips. I shifted.
“If you’re mad at me over that, I’m gonna need you to say it upfront.”
“Just…” She hugged herself, looking down. “Why… me?”
I fussed with my hair, a nervous energy bouncing around in my chest. “I mean, why me? You, um… however you feel about me now, you cared about me before, didn’t you?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.” She scratched the back of her head, turning back to the window—looking anywhere and everywhere except at me.
“Love is just like that, isn’t it? All I know is that you make me happy, and, um… and I like the person I am when I’mwith you. And I like the things that we do together. And I like everything about you. That’s the only thing that matters, right?”
