My heart is a mess.It trips over itself in my chest, stumbling in a way that should terrify me more than it does.Because I know what this is.I know what’s happening.
I’m falling for him.
I always thought love was supposed to unfold slowly, like pages turning in a book you’re meant to savor.But with Alexander, there’s no slow build.I’m just falling and falling, with no idea when I’ll hit the ground.
Now that everything is out in the open—now that I know he’s wanted me for six years, that every cold dismissal and professional distance was him trying not to cross a line—I feel lighter.Like I’ve been carrying a weight I didn’t know existed.
But I’m also terrified.My heart is unsteady, and he’s all I can think about.When I wake up, when I fall asleep, in every moment between.Alexander with his devastating smile and his careful hands and his absolute certainty that I belong to him.
He kisses my cheek, soft and almost sweet.“I need to discuss something with you.”
I blink, trying to shift gears from the emotional chaos in my chest to actual conversation.“What?”
His hand stills on my hip, his expression going serious.“It’s not a tasteful topic, but I don’t want to surprise you.”
I look at him suspiciously, searching his face.“Okay...”
“The party at your uncle’s house,” he says carefully, watching me.“It’s Amber’s proposal party.”
I stiffen against him.“What?”
“They’ve kept it hush-hush, but that’s why Amber was so desperate to get you back to town.She wants to—” He pauses, his jaw tightening.“She wants to make a spectacle of it.To humiliate you.”
For a moment, I don’t feel anything.Just a strange, hollow numbness where hurt should be.Then anger floods in, hot and sharp.
“I’m not surprised,” I say flatly.“That sounds exactly like something Amber would do.The grand proposal in front of everyone, and I’m supposed to stand there and watch.Let the whole town see if I’ll crack.”I shake my head, disgust curling through me.“It’s pathetic.She’s still so obsessed with proving she won that she can’t even enjoy her own engagement without making it about me.”
“Olivia—”
“I can’t get out of it,” I continue, my voice hardening.“It’s not just the town.Half my family is coming.My cousins, my aunts and uncles.If I skip it, everyone will think she got to me.That I care.”
“I’m not going to let her humiliate you.”
I twist to look at him properly, frowning.“Alexander?—”
“I have something planned.”
My frown deepens.“I told you I don’t want to waste energy on them.They’re irrelevant.I don’t want to give them the satisfaction of thinking they matter enough to react to.”
“You’re right,” he says calmly.“But I’m not going to sit by and watch my girl get humiliated, even if she doesn’t care.Amber and Chase have hurt you repeatedly.They’re still trying to hurt you.So I intend to take revenge.”
My girl.
The words hit me straight in the chest, fierce and protective and everything I shouldn’t want but desperately do.
“What do you have planned?”I ask warily.
His mouth curves slightly.“I want to tell you.But I also want to surprise you.”He studies my face, his thumb stroking my cheekbone.“It’s your choice.”
I think about it.Part of me wants to demand answers, to know exactly what he’s going to do so I can prepare.But another part—a bigger part—trusts him.Trusts that whatever he has planned, it won’t make things worse.That he’ll protect me the way he’s been protecting me since the moment we arrived in Silverbell Hollow.
“I want to be surprised,” I say finally.
His eyebrows rise slightly, like he wasn’t expecting that answer.
“But,” I add, narrowing my eyes, “will it be a bad surprise?”
“When the time comes,” he says carefully, “you can decide.”He pauses, searching my face.“If you’re worried, I can tell you now.”
