He looked down at the table for a moment, his thumb brushing absently along the stem of his glass. “My mom used to read them to me.”
Instantly, I felt my insides melting. In all the years we’d been talking, I’d never imagined this might be the reason.
Nate glanced up at me then, emotion swimming in those devastating eyes. “When I was a kid, that was our thing. We’d read a chapter every night, and when I found the books again after she died, they made me feel closer to her, I guess.”
The noise of the patio faded around us and I leaned forward across the table without even realizing I was doing it. “That’s why you joined?”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t even planning on talking at first. I just wanted to be there. To hear people talking about those characters and those stories the way Mom did. No one else in my house was talking about that and I didn’t know where else I could go, so I Googled it, found the Discord, and joined.”
And then I showed up like a hurricane and started picking fights. Since it was too late to change that now, I smiled slowly. “You must have loved me immediately.”
“I thought you were insufferable.”
My mouth dropped open. “Youagreedwith me. You even egged me on.”
“Yeah, that might’ve been because Ididlove you immediately.” He pumped his eyebrows at me, but that didn’t stop my stomach from flipping or my heart from skipping at the admission. “On the other hand, I might also just have loved the way you were shaking things up.”
“I felt so crazy, setting up that fake email account,” I said, feeling like I needed to make an admission of my own since we were clearly being honest tonight. “I can’t even tell you how much I questioned my own sanity while I was doing it. I mean, there we were, after exchanging a few private messages when I’d hopped online in a fit, only so I could tear the movies to shreds, and it led me to you.”
He let out a whisper of a chuckle, but the sparkle in those blue eyes was loud. Happy. Just to betalkingabout Emma.
“Yeah, I know how you feel,” he said, nodding slightly before giving his head a quick shake. “For a long time though, it was bliss, wasn’t it?”
I didn’t even have to think about my response. The truth was that talking to him like this was becoming easier and easierby the day, and in a way, the bond we’d formed online was something I had started to feel in person.
“It really was bliss.” I smiled. “It was my favorite part of every day, if I’m being completely honest. Even if it was also officially the dumbest thing we’ve ever done.”
“Agreed.”
I widened my eyes. “How did wenotknow?”
He rolled his lips into his mouth and shrugged. “I really, really don’t know.”
“We emailed constantly.”
“Yeah.”
“We talked on the phone.”
“Yep.”
“We literally fell in love,” I said, although my voice had been quieter there.
He gave me a look I couldn’t quite decipher. “Yeah.”
“And neither of us figured it out? How is that possible.”
“Well, we did buy different sim cards for our phones, so we weren’t using our own numbers.” He smiled slowly. “Also, you’re meaner in person.”
“I am not.”
“You are.”
I grimaced. “You’re bossier in person, and way quieter.”
He laughed, the sound so easy and unguarded that I started laughing too. As it faded, I picked up my glass and took another sip of my wine, a strange thought settling in my chest.
I could get used to this.
