I realize as I ask that I already know the answer. Because it started ages ago. Because even as everything was complicated and awful, it was also real and right.
Zoe smiles, and my heart skips a beat.
“Everything.”
Chapter 44
Zoe
I knew from the start that you and I were more than just Caleb’s little sister and Caleb’s best friend. I didn’t know what we were, only that we were more. From the very beginning.
—Zoe
“Why do you call me Pixie, anyway?” I ask. I never asked before because it didn’t feel right. But now... now everything is different.
It’s late morning now, and aside from a short visit to the bathroom, we haven’t gotten out of bed once.
Jase leans back and pulls me with him until I’m lying on top of him. He tenderly brushes a strand of hair behind my ear. “Do you remember the first time we met?”
I nod. As if I could forget!
“It was the first Friday after summer vacation.” His voice is smooth as velvet, and my stomach starts to flutter. “We had just moved here from LA, and I didn’t know anyone. But Caleb sat next to me in math, and we hit it off right away. That Friday, he invited me to your house after football practice. We were sitting in the living room when you came home from your ballet lesson.”
“I know. You were playing Mario Kart. He was killing you.”
Jase sighs and grimaces at the memory. “I was really bad. Anyway, you came back from your lesson, and you were wearing this green dress with narrow straps and a skirt that puffed around your legs. Your hair was down and you were...” He takes a deep breath and shrugs a little awkwardly. “Well, you looked like a little fairy.”
“Is that why you call me Pixie? Because I reminded you of a fairy?” I have to smile.
He actually blushes, which is pretty cute. “My fourteen-year-old self was obviously not very creative.”
“But your fourteen-year-old self was also extremely cute. I always liked it when you called me that,” I admit, because I want him to know. I want him to know everything. “It was always kind of...” I bite my bottom lip, and Jase stares at my mouth. “Caleb’s other friends were always nice to me. They were my friends too. He never excluded me. Still, to the others I was the little sister, first and foremost. It was different with you. You saw me.”
He turns us around, gently pressing me into the mattress and kissing me tenderly. “It was impossible to overlook you.”
“You too,” I say. It’s just the truth. I always saw him everywhere. Long before we started sharing our secrets.
Jase gazes at me silently, and it feels like a caress. He waits for me to continue.
“You were the only boy ballet dancer at our school.”
“Yes, and I was reminded of that every day.” Jase’s brow furrows. “Sometimes that kind of sucked.”
“Teenagers can be pretty brutal,” I reply, and a faint grin crosses his face.
“True words.”
“Always.” I slide underneath him, and all at once, his hips are right on top of mine. My legs wrap around his backside of their own accord.
“So that’s why I was so impossible to overlook? Just because I was the only boy dancer?” Jase asks, tilting his hips a little, just enough to make me catch my breath and send heat rushing through my veins.
“No. You were just different. Quieter than the other boys I knew. Caleb and his friends were all loud and very... present. You never talked much, you never made stupid comments, and you barely ever smiled. I wanted you to smile at me. You have a beautiful smile.” I tap the corners of his mouth with my fingertips. He smiles, and my heart makes strange flutters in my chest.
“I think you were the only one who made me smile.” Jase rolls off me, pulls us both toward the head of the bed, and pulls the covers over us. Everything smells like him—why does he smell so damn good?
“It always felt like a little victory to me when you smiled.” I turn onto my side so I can look at him, sliding a little closer.
“Does that mean that every time I smiled at you, I lost?” he asks with a grin.
