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“And you’re gonna need better luck if you’re ever going to beat me at Trash,” Jason says, voice and eyes full of mischief.

Griffin and I burst out laughing, and he ruffles Jason’s hair. “You two better get inside out of the cold,” Griffin says, and Jason scampers off.

In one smooth movement, Griffin takes my hand and pulls me closer as he leans in toward me. He places a soft kiss on the sensitive skin just below my ear, evoking an involuntarily gasp.

“Thanks for coming over today,” he murmurs. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”

It’s a question he already knows the answer to. Still, I nod a yes.

Inside, I lean against the door for a moment to let my heart calm down before facing Jason. When I walk to the living room, he’s there playing with his Lego set.

“Did you have fun today?” I ask him. A question I already know the answer to.

“This was the best snow day ever!” he yells, flinging himself at me. I catch him in a hug, rubbing his back.

“Hey, we probably need to talk about how we’re going to handle sharing about our snow day at school tomorrow,” I say.

Jason leans back to meet my eyes. “What do you mean?”

Wow, this is a hard concept to explain to a nine-year-old. “Well, Mr. Griffin is really famous, right?” I say. Jason nods. “And sometimes famous people kinda like to keep some privacy so people don’t know everything about their lives. Since Mr. Griffin and I have only gone on one date, we maybe shouldn’t tell other people yet that we’ve been spending time with him. Does that make sense?”

Jason’s face furrows. “You mean, like a secret?”

“Not exactly like a secret,” I say, contemplating how to explain. “Here’s the thing—you remember the first week back to school when you were telling everyone about how you got to meet Mr. Griffin and the other players at camp, and one of the other kids said some not-nice things to you?”

Now Jason’s face falls. “Yeah, I remember.”

“Well, that boy might have felt like you were bragging about it, and he was probably a little bit jealous that you got to meet someone famous. So he said some mean things to try to make himself feel better about it. We don’t want to brag about being friends with Mr. Griffin right now. At least, not until he and I are a little more serious about our relationship,” I say.

Jason cocks his head at me. “You mean, you’re not serious about liking each other?”

I blow out a breath.Wow, I am really screwing this up.“No, it’s not that we aren’t serious. I doreallylike him.”

“He really likes you too. I can tell,” Jason replies with a grin.

I smile back at him. “Yeah, we do seriously like each other. But I’d still like to keep our relationship private for a little longer. Do you know what I mean?”

Jason nods solemnly. “I do. I won’t say anything at school, I promise.”

“Thanks, bud,” I say, pulling him to me for one more hug. “I really love you, you know? With you one hundred percent, forever kind of love.”

He squeezes me harder. “I love you too.”

And now I’m crying.

Chapter twenty-one

Griffin

ME

Which question are you answering today? Favorite book or favorite flower?

DANAE

Asking a reader to name their favorite book is considered cruel and unusual punishment. We could never choose.

ME