Page 29

And now I was stuck with the man who was my first rejection.
My firstheartbreak.
This wasnotgoing to be a fun week.
FOUR
ALDEN
When I finished stokingthe fire, I expected to see Stella glaring at me. Instead, she was folded on the couch as if trying to be as small as possible.
I had to do a double take, just like when she’d apologized. Had I been sent back in time to when she was in middle school?
“Stella?” I asked.
Her eyes flickered to me. “What?”
“Are you okay?”
“Don’t pretend to care.”
My throat went dry. Ididcare. Far more than I should.
What Ishoulddo was let her have her privacy. Helping her might make her do anything else but hate me, and that was the last thing I needed.
Nick was going to have to kill me, because whenStella Summers was likethis, I wasn’t going to sit on my ass and do nothing.
“Amma mentioned you were in a bad mood. What happened?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay.” I didn’t blame her for her distrust, but I couldn’t keep my mouth shut as I saw her curl in on herself further. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Try to make yourself smaller because I’m here. Take up space. Be yourself.”
“You don’t like it when I’m myself.”
“Now I know I neversaid that.”
Her eyes shot to me, but I held firm. I remembered the exact words of my text. I’d replayed them for years.
“Fine. Then other people have.”
“Then they’re fucking idiots. All of them.”
“You think so?”
“Absolutely.”
Slowly, she smiled, and it felt like winning the Super Bowl.
“Fine. Maybe they were. But for the record, I thinkyou’realso an idiot.”
“Why?”
“Because you chose to be stuck with me.”