Page 33 of Romeo

People who don’t say what they mean.

I stopped there.

Was that meant for me?

Maybe the problem wasn’t Jasper’s answers. Maybe it was that I wanted them to mean something.

I thought about the night at the resort and the way he’d looked at me while I sat beside him trying not to cry over Joseph Higgins.

Somewhere out there is your happily ever after, and when you’re ready, he will be waiting for you.

He.

Not I.

Jasper had left himself completely out of it. At least, I’d thought he had. Now I wasn’t so sure.

Had he chosen those words because I was seventeen and upset and he hadn’t wanted to push? Or had he simply been comforting a heartbroken girl while I’d spent weeks turning one kind conversation into something bigger?

Both explanations fit.

I hated that.

My phone buzzed.

Jasper: You still there, Cher?

I smiled before I could stop myself.

Me: Yeah. Just thinking.

Jasper: About?

You.

The answer came so quickly in my head it scared me.

Me: Nothing important.

Jasper: Liar.

I bit my lip. Maybe Nash was right. Maybe I could stop dissecting every word and simply ask Jasper what I wanted to know.

My stomach immediately knotted.

Nope.

Apparently, I wasn’t that brave.

Because what happened if I asked and all those little moments I’d been collecting meant nothing to him?

Or worse—what if he was gentle about it?

I could survive Jasper laughing at me easier than I could survive pity.

Me: Goodnight, Jasper.

Jasper: Sweet dreams, Ma Belle.