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“You did! You called my dressfoppish.”

“Oh, that. Yes, I remember.” He rubbed a hand stiffly over his jaw. “The lace alone would have put three meals on the table of every kid swimming that day.”

Rune opened her mouth only to realize she didn’t know what to say.

“I didn’t know.”

“You didn’t know that wearing a designer dress to the Outer Wards was announcing just how out of reach you were to the rest of us?”

Out of reach?

“I was thirteen,” she said. “I’d never been past the city center. Alex was the only person I knew from the Outer Wards.”

They reached the wooden gate leading into the Wintersea gardens.

“I was so excited to meet you,” she murmured. He glanced sharply at her. “But you wouldn’t even shake my hand.”

As she opened the latch and stepped through, Gideon fell behind.

“I had never done it before.”

She turned back. “What do you mean?”

“Only aristos shake hands when they greet each other. I …didn’t know what you were doing. It felt like you were condescending to me. Or trying to keep your distance.”

Rune’s mouth opened and shut like a fish.

“You didn’t know,” he said, as if plucking the words from her lips. “I see that now.”

“You could have given me the benefit of the doubt.”

He sighed roughly. “Sure.”

“Sure?”

“What is it you want from me? An apology?” He threw outhis arms beneath the glittering night sky. “I’m sorry I was rude to you, Rune Winters. Even at fifteen, I was an intolerable ass.” Lowering his arms, he studied her. “Will that suffice?”

“That’s not …I didn’t—”

“Then why is this important?”

“I don’t know!” She balled her hands into fists. “I guess it hurt. I wanted you tolikeme.”

Rune suddenly felt more naked now than she had on the beach.

Gideon fell quiet, considering her. Wishing she could put the words back in her mouth, knowing she was giving him too much ground, Rune quickly turned and made her way into the gardens. She heard the gate swing open and shut behind her. It took him no time at all to catch up, matching her pace.

He stayed quiet for a long time as they walked between the hedges.

“I remember the sound of your laugh,” he said as the back door of the house came into view. “It pulled me like a magnet toward the beach, where I found the most beautiful girl in the world standing on the shore.”

Rune’s footsteps slowed as they approached the door.

His stopped altogether.

“When I saw Alex at your side, I knew exactly who you were:Rune Winters.The girl Alex never shut up about. A girl who was entirely off-limits, because my little brother found her first.”

Rune frowned, irked by these words.