“The ones you ordered in the library with me weeks ago and the ones…” he scowls “…your dad ripped apart.”
My pulse accelerates. “How?”
He rubs his neck. “A while back, I took a picture of your book wall so I could read those books.”
Inching closer to him, I ask, “Why?”
His gaze flickers to me. “So I could know you better.”
“You do.”
“There’s still so much more that I need to know.”
Handing me the cutter, he lets me open the boxes. When I turn over the flaps and see the books nestled inside—the ones I lost—my heart drops into my stomach. With shaky hands, I reach for them and take them out.
The spine isn’t creased, the pages are filled with annotations and the cover is brand new.
They are not mine. But I can make them.
With my arms full with the twenty books, I walk over to the bookshelf and neatly arrange them on the shelf.
Just seeing them makes me happy.
“Rose, you’ve got other boxes, too,” Heath reminds me.
I unpack the rest of the boxes. By the time, I slide in the last book, two whole shelves are entirely filled and something warm and flurry replaces the despair that I felt for losing my books that night.
Enclosing my arms around me, I try to make myself small, to contain this huge feeling that starts consuming me.
Ilovebooks..
“It’s okay,” Heath comes behind me and wraps his arms around me. His face burrows in the side of my neck. “You are okay.”
I nod, as I stare off at the shelf.
“I’m going to fill the rest of the shelves, too.”
I lean into him and shake my head. “This is enough.”
“No fucking way.”
“How will I ever repay you?” I whisper.
Our eyes meet at the same time and it feels like time slows down. Everything around us disappears. It’s just the two of us that exist.
“Go on a date with me,” he says in a hoarse tone, voice thick with emotions.
“Date?”
He nods slowly, his eyes locked on me.
“Okay,” I give him a sweet smile.
His lips twitch, until he can’t hold in his smile.
23
HEATH
