“You? Afraid?” He was moving again. “You’re the one who kept me from weeping like a baby while we were locked in that stairwell… Not sure if I started falling in love with you then, or the moment I came into your classroom and you glared up at me for interrupting your solace.”
“You wouldn’t have wept.”
“Oh, no, I was weeping inside.”
Collette remembered. He’d gone pale that day, his breathing had been uneven, but he’d kept most of his emotions in check.
And then she remembered.
“I fell in love with you when you kissed me.” She’d tried to deny it, even to herself, but she had.
She really had.
“So it’s all about the kissing?” Teasing sounded in his voice. But she wasn’t going to limit her confession to how she felt about his kisses. If she was going to die, she was going to tell him all the things she loved about him first.
“I love that you see me differently than anyone else does. How you see me… better than I am.”
“I just see you.”
“And I love that you make jokes, even when you’re pretending to be serious. I love that you’re true to yourself, despite the expectations of your position. And I love your stories.”
“You haven’t read them.”
“But I have. Most of them. I went back and bought the entire collection the day after you showed them to me.” It had put a sizable dent in her savings but she couldn’t help herself.
Silence fell where he’d been working. “You read them?”
“Just the first three so far. And I love them. They paint the most vivid pictures, and your characters come to life on the page. Albert is simply wonderful.” His protagonist lived the life of freedom that Addison could not. He’d traveled the world, fought off villains, and met distant people.
“You don’t hate them?”
Because they were his, even if they’d been boring and staid, she likely would have read them. And she could never hate anything he created.
But she was able to answer truthfully. “Not at all.” She smiled. “And I am not just telling you that because I love you.”
Saying the words to him was a freedom in itself.
She wished she could see his face in that moment, and yet there was a certain intimacy to talking with him in the dark like this.
“All right. I’m going to lever this up and when I do, pull your foot out.”
If he moved the wood, more could fall. “What if it sends everything else crashing? Addison, be careful for yourself. Please. If it fell on you—"
“It won’t. I won’t let it.” He sounded so confident that she almost believed him.
She wished he could kiss her first. One last time, just in case.
“I’ll kiss you properly when we’re out.” Oh, but how he knew her.
“All right.” She squeezed her eyes together. “I’m ready.”
“On three.”
“On three,” she confirmed. He was going to get them out of this.
“One… two… three!
Collette tried bending her knee, but her ankle caught on the wood and spikes of pain shot up her leg.
