Page 112 of Always You (A Lilac Bay Novel)

To my surprise, he grabbed my arm and pulled me into the foyer of Town Hall. The walls were glass, so people might still be able to see us, but at least they couldn’t hear.

“You don’t get to decide what I regret, Andrew.”

“You were scared to death. I heard you and Jenny!”

“You heard a single sentence of a pretty long conversation! Yes, I was scared. I was allowed to be! I was confused, Andrew, because it’s a really big deal.You’rea really big deal, to me. If you had stood there for another minute you would have heard me say that to Jenny. You’re the only thing in this whole world that I can count on. So yes, the thought of screwing that up is scary. But you had no right to decide that my being nervous meant everything just had to stop. That wasn’t fair and—”

“I love you.”

I sucked in a breath, sure that I hadn’t heard him correctly.

“What?”

“Do you remember that race in third grade? At field day?”

Wait—now we were talking about races? I stared at him, open-mouthed, having zero clue what in the hell was going on.

“You beat me. I had beat everyone else, all the boys in our class, and then you came up to race me, and I laughed. You were this twerpy little girl with long spider legs, and I didn’t think you had a chance. But you destroyed me, Riley. You left me in your dust. Do you remember that?”

“I—I don’t know. I think so?”

He smiled. “I’m pretty sure that’s when I fell in love with you.”

“What—Andrew, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that I’ve loved you forever. I loved you when we were kids. I loved you when you left to go to school. I loved you when you came home. You’re the only thing in my life that I’ve ever really wanted, Riley.”

“But—” I couldn’t seem to make sense of his words. “But youleft. We slept together, and you took off.”

He shook his head, his face so miserable I thought he might actually cry. “I panicked. Do you have any idea how many times I dreamt of that happening?”

“I don’t understand.” There was something about this that was wrong, something that didn’t make sense. “I’ve seen the way you are with women, Andrew. You go after what you want. You don’t run away.” A tear slipped down my cheek. “But you ran away from me.”

“I thought…I don’t know. I guess I thought maybe it was time to prove that I could be reliable, that I had a little ambition of my own. Maybe if you saw me working for my dad, having some responsibility, you might change your mind about me.”

“I’ve never wanted you to work for your dad, Andrew. And why in the hell would I need to change my mind about you?”

“Because I know I don’t deserve you, Riley! I’ve never deserved you. Why do you think I didn’t do anything about it all these years?”

“Andrew, that makes no—”

“You ask anyone on this island to describe me, and they’ll tell you the same thing.” His face twisted in a grimace. “Andrew Powell. Good for a laugh, good for a game of ball. Not much ambition. Not a lot of drive.” He shook his head. “That’s the opposite of you, Riley. And you deserve someone so much better than me.”

“I can’t believe this,” I whispered. “Is that seriously why you never told me how you felt? That’s why you left?” He started to answer, and I pushed him again, even more pissed than before. “How about this, Andrew? How about you ask the only person on this island whose opinion matters, huh? How about you askmeto describe you?”

He looked like he wanted to argue, but I barreled ahead.

“Andrew Powell. Always there when I need him. Makes me laugh. Makes me feel safe. Never lets me win, because he knows I hate that. Takes my cat to the vet. Loves my sister. Loves his family. Works hard at anything I ask. Takes care of me.” I was really crying now, and he was just staring at me like he’d never seen me before. “Best kiss of my life. Best friend I’ve ever had. My very favorite thing about this island.”

“Don’t cry,” he whispered, but there were tears in his eyes too.

“I can’t help it. I love you so much and you can’t see it.”

There was a pause during which I don’t think either of us breathed. “You do?”

“Seriously?” I cried, throwing my arms up. “Did you listen to any of that? Of course I love you, you idiot—”

I had a few other choice insults I would have liked to have thrown at him, but I had to stop—because he was kissing me, lifting me straight up off the ground, the only guy I knew tall enough to pull that off, holding me so close I almost thought I could melt into him.