“Then why are you staring after him?”
She shrugs. “Because I still care?”
“Girl, there aren’t justmorefish in the sea—there arebetterfish, good fish, great fish, wonderful fish who will love you exactly the way you are. That’s the kind of fish you deserve.”
Isn’t it also the kindIdeserve?
I look at Stone. He’s laughing at something my dad said, eyes crinkling, warm and wide open. Then, without warning, he looks at me—and everything in me tightens.
I like him so much my body throbs with agony at the idea of him changing back, of letting him become the man who hates lambicorns.
The moment he remembers who he is, this all disappears—the laughter, Hercules, the way he touches my back.
“Are you okay?”
No, not even a tad. “Yeah. I’m fine.”
Cristina leans forward, and I smell the hops on her breath when she says flatly, “You are so cooked.”
My throat tightens. “You don’t think he’ll forgive me when he finds out?”
“Not easily. Not cleanly.”
I could live with him not forgiving me. But what if I can’t forgive myself?
Chapter 30
Stone
Soon as things settle down with Coco’s family, I grab her, and we talk until the party thins. The world feels new, like there’s a chance to experience it all at once, all over again.
I wasn’t lying before when I said Coco was an anchor. She secures the Stone ship, and I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her.
We talk during the short ride back to her cottage, all the way into the house, and even when I tell Hercules to lie down in his doggy bed.
Coco mesmerizes me at every turn—when she scrunches up her face while thinking, how she lights up a room when she walks into it, how she is a star in the night sky. Luminous.
When we’re in the kitchen, she grins up at me. “Thank you for tonight.”
“You sure about that? I thought you might curse me after your family showed up.”
A flash of worry flickers across her face before it melts into quiet acceptance. “No, they should have been there. My mom would’ve been upset if they hadn’t been invited. And this is a small town. She would’ve known about the party sooner or later, probably by tomorrow morning.”
She laughs, but it’s bitter. I ask, “Why do you think your sister is like that?”
A startled look crosses her face. “Like what?”
Coco knows what I’m talking about. I don’t understand why she pretends otherwise. “Brittany’s obviously jealous of you to undercut your happiness.”
“She wasn’t undercutting m—”
I wave away her protesting. “Did you hear her? It’s a happy day for you, and she brought up something that happened when you were three. She’s jealous.”
“No she’s not.”
I take a step forward and cup her cheeks. Coco’s breath goes still. She gazes at me like a deer in headlights, like she’s terrified.
She doesn’t know this new me, so of course she’s worried. But I know this new me, and I’m all in.
