“Only because someone wouldn’t tell me.”
“Weird. I wonder who that was?”
“That was you, Delaney.”
“How was I to know you would really be into those kinds of things?”
“My love of fantasy, mythology, science fiction, and monster movies didn’t tip you off?”
“Maybe that was a phase.”
“I don’t do phases. I love what I love. Forever.”
I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry, my chest warm. “Forever, huh?”
“Forever.” His voice had gone low and warm. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to touch him. I wanted to marry him.
I wanted to marry him so much.
“Well,” I said, the word coming out too breathy. “Well, that’s…well.”
He chuckled, and it rolled through me like electricity. I was lit up, alive from just the sound of him. Just the nearness of a simple phone call. And it was this man, only this man who had ever made me feel that way.
“I want to marry you,” I blurted out.
There was a slight pause, the click of his breath taken too quickly. “I want to marry you too,” he said. I could hear the humor in his voice and also the confusion. “But let’s get rid of our monster hunter before she catches wind of it. I am not inviting her to our big day.”
“Who would we even seat her next to?”
“Bertie. Because I would trust her to dispose of her body quickly and silently.”
I laughed and wished I could see him better though the window. But he was pacing near the wall, and the angle of shadow and sun on the glass hid him from my view.
“Bertie wants you in the Show Off.”
“What?”
“She wants you in the talent show.”
“What?”
“Did I break you? She wants you to play piano as the closing act of the talent show.”
“What?” he sounded a little panicked this time. “Why?”
“She says there haven’t been enough entrants, and she wants your gorgeous face up there making people happy.”
“She said my face is gorgeous?”
“I might have extrapolated. But yes. It’s you she wants.”
“I don’t… I haven’t played piano in years.”
“Well, you have until tomorrow to practice.”
“That’s not going to be enough.”
“The armpit farter won last year, Ryder. It’s not exactly a high stakes sort of competition.”
