Page 103 of The Recovery Coach
“I would bet anything he wanted to.But there was one obstacle too insurmountable.”
“Yeah?What’s that?”
“He loves me too much.”Valentine grinned.
She poked the dimple in his cheek that had every teenage girl in the world creating Tumblr-style edits of him.“God, he really does adore you.He would have wifed you up so fast if you were into him.”
“Oh, I know.”He laughed.“But I was never an option for him.He knows that.”
“He told me you kissed once.”
Valentine’s cheeks turned pink.“That bastard was supposed to keep that story to himself.”
“I won’t tell a soul.”They made a pinky promise.Then Olivia asked, “Was it good though?”
He abruptly changed the subject.“Daisy has this friend.Patrick.”
Olivia squinted at him, trying to decipher where he was going with this.“Patrick Mills.Connor has told me about him.I was relieved when he and Beanie stopped being such bitter rivals.Some of their fights got scary bloody.”
“Daisy thinks Patrick is her platonic soulmate.”
“That’s adorable.”
“Hazy is mine,” he said.
Olivia laughed.“So…horrible then?”
Valentine slapped a hand over his eyes.“It wasn’t his fault.It’s just that when his lips touched mine I gained a very clear understanding of my sexuality, and Hazy is not my type.”
She did her best to seem unfazed by this news, wanting to make him feel comfortable.“I could see you being soulmates though.You guys click better than anyone.Connor has been close friends with Jayden for over twenty years and they don’t get along as well.”
Valentine got an evil glint in his eye.“Maybe Jayden was Hazy’s first boy crush.”
She untangled her hand from Valentine’s hair and smacked his forehead.“He wasn’t.”
“Hey!”He rubbed at the spot she’d hit.“It could have been.You don’t know.”
“Yes, I do.”
“How?”
“I asked.Fourteen-year-old Olivia was terrified the love of her life would marry her brother.”
“That’s messed up.”Valentine snorted.
“We dodged a bullet.”
“Were you the first person he told?”
“I think so.I’m not sure he’d fully figured out his sexuality when he told me.But he knew he liked both boys and girls.We were so young.Everything felt big and unmanageable.”
“Everything still feels big and unmanageable to me.”
Olivia agreed.
“I think it’s time for the next phase of the plan,” Valentine said.
“What’s the next phase?”
