Page 91 of Falling

Of course she had. There was no way she’d made the trip out here—even if it was only a detour on a visit to her family, like Miles had told me—if they weren’t serious about him. She definitely wouldn’t have planned to come back.

“Oh,” I said, in my best surprised voice. “Well, I knew they would. When do you start?”

Miles looked at me. My heart was pounding so hard in my ears that I couldn’t decide what the look meant.

I was losing him. I was about to lose him.

Now that the moment was here, I felt as though the floor was collapsing under me. I’d psyched myself up to be so gracious, so happy for him, whatever my feelings might have been. I was going to be the perfect supportive friend, because dammit, Miles needed the perfect supportive friend.

With him standing in front of me, though, I was learning first-hand about the road to hell and what the flagstones there were made of.

You should give him all the information. You’ll regret it if you don’t.

Seth’s words came back to me as though he was sitting on my shoulder like the better angel of my conscience. As was usually true with him, he was right.

Even if it’s as a parting gift.

He was right, and this might’ve been my last chance. If I didn’t tell Miles how I felt, I’d regret it.

Miles opened his mouth to speak. Probably, I should have let him. But if I didn’t speak up now, I might never find the courage again. Once he confirmed he was going, I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to tell him.

“The thing is, I’m in love with you.”

“—turned it down,” Miles finished.

I took a breath to apologize for talking over him, then registered what he’d said.

“Wait,” we said at the same time, staring at each other.

“I turned it down,” Miles repeated, voice tiny. As though he was waiting for me to scold him.

I almost did. Why balanced on the tip of my tongue for a heartbeat before I bit it off.

“Turned it down,” I repeated, still processing. I hadn’t considered the possibility. The way he’d talked about it, his excitement, all the research. It’d seemed like a done deal.

Miles nodded, biting his lower lip.

I stared at him. I wanted to say something, anything, but the buzz of static in my brain was so loud I would have expected it to come out of my mouth if I opened it right now.

Miles looked down at the bar, running his thumb over a tiny scratch in the finish. “Did you, umm. Did you say you loved me?”

He glanced up at me from under his eyelashes.

Miles was always beautiful—I’d thought of him as being like a wild deer before, and that was still true. There was something fragile about him. Right now, he gave the impression of an otherwise skittish animal rolling over to show someone their belly.

Me. To show me.

“Yes,” I said—croaked, more like. If Miles was a wild deer, I was a big, old toad.

“Did you mean it?” he asked, turning his face up to look me in the eyes.

Hope. There was hope there. Uncertain hope, the edges of it shimmering with disbelief.

“Yes,” I confirmed. Miles’s hope, somehow, had gotten into my voice. It wavered with nerves, but it was there. “I meant it.”

Miles broke into the biggest smile I’d ever seen on him. At least, I thought he did—I only caught sight of it for a split second before he grabbed my collar, hauled me forward over the bar, and kissed me.

Our noses collided, our teeth clicked, and it was the best kiss I’d ever had.