Page 61 of True Blue

“If you say so,” I sigh, though I’m laughing now when he tickles my side.

After a few quiet minutes, the mood shifts again. Teddy sobers first, his smile fading, something heavier settling over his features.

“I promise, I didn’t know she was coming. I haven’t spoken to her in years, since⁠—”

“High school. She’s your high school sweetheart, after all.” I say, and even to my own ears the words sound bitter. “You’ve just never really talked about her.”

“Because there’s nothing to talk about,” he snorts. “We dated through senior year and broke up before I left for college.”

“Hm,” I hum, twisting Ellie’s headwrap tighter in my hands.

He studies my face in the dark.

“You’re not…” he tilts his head. “Are you jealous?”

“I’m not jealous of her. I just don’t like being taken off guard, and I really don’t like the way your mother was talking about the two of you like it was still some kind of possibility.”

High school sweethearts.

Childhood best friends.

Reunited again.

“Wouldn’t happen. Not in a million years,” Teddy shakes his head.

The words make me feel a bit better.

“I just…” I look down at the cap twisting in my hands. “I’ve told you everything, Teddy. I’ve never told anyone about my parents but you. I’ve told you things I’m still deeply ashamed of. So I guess it feels strange that there’s this whole part of your past I didn’t know about.”

Teddy is quiet for a beat, then sighs.

“I just didn’t think it mattered,” he says. “She was my next-door neighbor and my best friend when we were kids, but that was mostly because there weren’t a lot of options. Our moms were best friends, so she was always at the house.”

“And then you dated in high school.”

“For, like, six months,” he says with a shrug, like it means nothing.

My mouth twists.

“Did you…”

“What?” he asks.

“Did you guys have sex?”

His face screws up immediately. “No. Ugh, God, no.”

Relief moves through me, but I still ask, “Why?”

“It didn’t feel right,” he says simply. “I didn’t want to.”

I study his face; even in the darkness, I can see that it’s honest and open. No hesitation in his answers, no deception.

“Okay,” I say softly.

Teddy lifts my hand again and presses a kiss to my knuckles.

“And any feelings I ever did have for her are a drop in the fucking ocean compared to what I feel for you, honey,” he says. “I love you so much.”