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Nadia’s teasing expression softens. “Can’t really picture Wyatt like that, but I’m glad he was that for you.”

“He really is.” I sit back in my chair, thinking about how much has changed in such a short amount of time. “I don’t know. I think when this started, I had this idea of who he was because everybody does. He’s fun and reckless and always flirting, and nothing ever seems that serious to him. But that’s not really him. Or it is him, but it’s only one part.”

Nadia studies me. “Oh?”

“Yeah.” My stomach gives a nervous little flip because this is the part I haven’t told anyone. “He told me he loves me.”

For once in her life, Nadia has absolutely nothing to say. She just stares.

I wait.

“You’re fucking with me.”

“No.”

“Wyatt told you he loves you?”

“Yep.”

“When?”

“A few nights ago.”

“And you’re only telling me now?”

“It’s been a lot.”

“No shit.” She leans forward. “How do you feel about that? I mean, do you love him back?”

I’ve been circling that very same question for days, thinking about Wyatt telling me he loves me, about the way I felt when he finally opened up about Wayne and everything that came after. I think about how natural it’s become to spend half my time at his apartment, how weird my own bed feels when he isn’t in it, and how many times a day something happens and my first thought is that I want to tell him.

“I do.”

Nadia’s expression changes completely. “Quinn, this is a huge deal.”

“I know. I think I’ve been falling in love with him for a while,” I admit. “I mean, I’ve always had a crush on Wyatt. You know that. But that was different because it was just a crush. He was hot and funny and completely off-limits, and I could fantasize about him without any of it actually meaning anything. Then somehow, only a few weeks into actually being with him, I was already halfway in love with him. I just didn’t realize that was what was happening because everything with Wyatt happened so differently from what I expected.”

“How did you expect it to happen?”

“I don’t know. More slowly? More sensibly?” I give her a helpless shrug. “With someone who didn’t kiss me on a Ferris wheel because I thought I was about to die.”

“That does sound less exciting.”

“But that’s the thing. I thought Wyatt would make my life more chaotic, and he does, but somehow being with him doesn’t feel chaotic at all. It feels easy.”

I think about it for a second. “I don’t feel like I have to be different with him. I don’t have to pretend I’m more experienced than I am, or cooler than I am, or that I’m not overthinking something when I obviously am. He sees all of it and still looks at me like…” I trail off.

“Like what?”

I smile despite myself. “Like I’m his favorite person in the room.”

Nadia’s expression goes soft.

“And I think he might be mine,” I add quietly.

For once, she doesn’t tease me.

I look down at my hands. “The other night was hard for him. Really hard. He told me things about his brother that he’s barely talked about with anyone, and then the next morning he told me more about what happened to his family afterward. His parents split up, he barely speaks to his dad, and he hasn’t really gone home in years.”