Then he steps back, gives me the softest, saddest, most determined look I’ve ever seen on a boy’s face…
…and walks away toward the cliffs.
Like some tortured British literary hero in a coat and Santa hat.
I stand frozen.
Shani whispers, “Holy shit.”
Tristan clutches his chest. “I thinkIjust fell in love.”
Even Aunt Susan fans herself, swooning.
“Honey… I don’t like what happened… but even my old heart is pounding over here.”
I don’t answer.
Because my pulse is still racing from a boy who refused to kiss me…
…and somehow made that the most romantic thing I’ve ever experienced.
Chapter 20
LEO
December hitsRoyal Oaks like a glitter bomb detonated inside a snow globe.
Every doorway’s smothered in wreaths the size of car tires, garland choking the lampposts like they're being assaulted by holiday spirit, and bows so big they could double as parachutes. The cold slices through campus walkways, that classic New England wind that makes your face feel like it’s committing treason against you.
And in the middle of all of it?—
Jade.
Not flinching.
Not shivering.
Not acknowledging the circus she now commands.
She’s leaning against the stone archway between the quad and the arts building, coffee steaming in curls around her face, eyes half-lidded, calm in a way that pisses me off because I’m anything but.
People are orbiting her.
Teachers. Students. Freshmen. Seniors. Even the bitter, jealous elite.
Not out of fear.
Respect.
“Jade! Bryan!” some lacrosse guy yells from across the path, phone raised. “You see the new post? They’re calling you a legend!”
She doesn’t even lift her eyes.
Just sips her coffee.
“Cool story.”
I’m standing thirty feet away dying.
