“You’d come in the water by yourselfnexttime?”
I snorted. “Heck no. But if you gave me a piggyback, I’d do it again,” I said, letting my clutch of death go just enough so I could pinch his lean cheek. “Have I told you thank you today forinvitingme?”
He made a thoughtful noise. “Nottoday.”
With my arm back around his neck, I gave him another squeeze and whispered, “In that case, thank you forinvitingme.”
And Aaron squeezed my calves as he said right back, “Thank you for coming with me.” And then, “And thank you for writing me forsolong.”
This man owned me entirely, and he had no idea. “Don’t thank meforthat.”
He turned his head just a little, like he could see me out of the corner of hiseye. “Why?”
“Because. Trust me, you helped me out a lot more than I helpedyouout.”
“Nah.”
“It’strue.”
“No, it’s not,” he argued. “You don’t even know how much I needed your e-mails, Ruby.” There was a pause. “I didn’t even know how much I needed your e-mails.”
I almost gushed sugar out of my mouth, and I definitely had to ignore the warm sensation in my stomach reminding me I was in love with him. I had no business thinking that, especially not when there were so many things he couldn’t tell me. “You had like two other families, too. Don’t give me all the credit. I know howitis.”
Fingertips grazed my calves and I felt him sigh beneath me. “No, you don’t, and I hope you never do,” he said in a voice that sounded resigned or sad, or maybe both. “There are so many things you see and hear that you can never forget or get out of your head, no matter how much you try. It wasn’t until you that I heard myself laugh, Ruby.” That perfect profile tipped to the side and I saw the corner of his eye peeking at me. “You don’t know what that meanstome.”
I sniffed, touched by his words, and so freaking in love with this guy I wanted to make a potion that would make him fall in love with me so I could keep him forever. I’d keep spiking him for the rest of my life if I could. All so I couldhavehim.
But that wasn’t the way these things worked,unfortunately.
Instead, I hoped he could tell the difference in the way I had my arms around him and that he could notice I was trying to hug him instead of cling to him for dear life, and I said with my mouth real close to his ear, “You’re the best, Aaron not anasswipe.”
I was pretty sure that if anyone had been standing out on their deck that night, they could have heard us bothlaughing.
Chapter20
It wasstupid to think it, but I woke up feeling different the nextmorning.
Maybe different wasn’t the correct word to use, butIfelt…
I don’t know how the heck I felt exactly. After spending a lot more than two minutes out in the water, clinging onto Aaron like a spider monkey, something in me seemed changed. Maybe that was the thing about doing things you hadn’t thought you could do, you realized that maybe you weren’t who you’d always thought you were. There was more to me than even I’d thought there was. Despite everything I thought I’d learned the day before, I felt happier, more at peace, just… better, even though I was really tired after only sleeping fivehours.
Dragging myself to the bathroom that morning, I showered quickly and headed upstairs, yawning nonstop. With my usual bottle of water in hand, I made my way to the balcony and tried to clear my mind as much as possible. I tried to think of the things that made me happy and the way the air smelled. I tried to think of anything butAaron.
But like a high school girl with my first crush, almost every thought just went back to him in some way. How I was worried about him. How I was disappointed that he didn’t trust me enough. How I shouldn’t like him as much as I did, but I did. When I wasn’t thinking about him, I thought about what I was going to do when I got back home after visitingmydad.
The door of the deck slid open and there Aaron was, with his tray. There was some coloring beneath his eyes like there had been every other day, but he smiled at me warmer than he ever had before, and that was saying something in a language Ididn’tknow.
“Morning,”hesaid.
“Good morning,” I called back to him, watching as he made his way toward whereIsat.
He held out a plate toward me as he lowered himself into his same chair. On the white plate were two pancakes with what looked like chocolate chips in them. And they were shaped like MickeyMouse’shead.
I glanced up at him to see him smiling at me almostexpectantly.
“You like?” he asked, pulling out two forks from the pocket of his swim trunks and handingoneover.
I couldn’t stop the stupid smile on my face. “How did you makethese?”
