“I’ll be warm inside,” I said, pointlessly.Obviously, I’d be warm inside. What kind of a writer was I if I was just going to stand here in front of this beautiful boy and state the obvious instead of writing him poetry in the air?
I’d never really been good at poetry.
Kieran laughed, apparently not as dismayed as I was, and tugged me toward the cabin again.
* * *
“Haveyour pizza tastes changed at all?” Kieran asked, getting his phone out as we piled through the cabin door, relief washing over me at the warmth. My hands werefreezing.
“No pineapple,” I said. “Otherwise I’ll eat more or less anything.”
Kieran smiled so the corners of his eyes crinkled as I went to grab the hoodie I’d stolen from him. If I’d known the temperature was going to drop ten degrees as soon as the sun set, I would’ve brought it with me.
But it’d been sitting near the heater, and it was oversized on me, so the cozy warmth of it was a welcome blessing.
“Trust me? As far as pizza goes?” Kieran asked, glancing up from his phone.
“I trust you,” I said, because I did, and because he was trustingme, and if the pizza was gross, there was always toast.
“Good. Prepare to be blown away,” he said, tapping his phone a few more times and then shoving it back in his pocket.
Silence fell between us.
After everything we’d said this afternoon—everything Kieran had confessed—I had no idea whatelseto say.
Iwantedto be normal around him. One of my characters would have picked this moment to crack a joke, but I wasn’t nearly as funny in real life as I was in my books. I was better atwritingfunny.
… which gave me an idea.
“Hey, uh. Did you maybe… wanna see what I’ve got? Of this book so far?” I asked.
Maybe he never intended to read it. Maybe I was being stupid.
But it was the only thing I could think of to talk about.
Kieran’s eyes lit up like I’d offered him a trip to the moon. “I’ve only read the first six chapters of the first book, though. Is it gonna spoil stuff for me?”
“Umm.”
Was it? It’d been so long since book one that I could barely remember what was in it.
“Only that Alex eventually figures his powers out? That’s kind of a given. It might be, like, a glimpse at an older Alex. He turns eighteen in this book. It’s only six thousand words and they’re almost all fighting and dialogue.”
Kieran grinned. “I love your fight scenes,” he said.
He couldn’t possibly know how good that felt to hear.Ihadn’t realized how good it’d feel to hear, coming from him. Coming from someone I wanted toimpress.
“Thanks,” I smiled, sticking my hands deep in the pockets of my stolen hoodie. “You wanna…?” I jerked my head toward the couch.
Kieran didn’t lose any time making himself comfortable on it, kicking off his work boots and propping his feet up on the edge of the coffee table as I handed him the laptop.
“Here,” Kieran said, unlocking his phone and passing it to me as I made myself comfortable beside him. Nottooclose, but close enough to feel the heat of his body.
For warmth, I told myself. I was just borrowing his warmth.
“Pick whichever photos you like,” he added, which explained why he was passing me his phone.
I opened up the photo app and scrolled through to today, chewing on my lip as I looked through the photos Kieran had. Some of them were blurry—some of them werejustblurs—but a few of them…
