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“Oh,” I said. Such a small insignificant word that encompassed so much.

I stared down at my phone as if it would explain to me how this could have happened.

“You’re Bibliofile?” I had to have her confirm it again.

Bren nodded. “And you’re Melliferal.”

“Bees are called Apis Mellifera. I just tweaked the word a little.” I’d thought it was so cute and clever at the time.

Bren nodded slowly. “That makes sense now that you say it. Feels obvious.”

“I can’t…I can’t believe this is happening. That you’reher.” Two people I’d developed feelings for were really just the same person. Two sides of Bren and I’d fallen for both of them.

This was a disaster of epic proportions.

“And she’s you,” she said slowly. Bren wouldn’t look directly in my eyes and I realized why.

“You didn’t want to tell me.”

She shook her head slowly and met my eyes. “No. I didn’t. This was exactly what I was hoping to avoid.” Bren let out a long exhale and pressed her lips together. She’d been upset about finding out that I was Melliferal.

She was angry and I was both stunned and excited.

“What are you going to do now?” The shock of finding out was wearing off and other emotions were jostling for control.

Bren hadn’t planned on telling me and her plan had been to avoid me. To hope that she could cut off contact with both me and Melliferal and I’d just go away and leave her alone. So she could be alone.

No. I wasn’t going to let that happen.

I crossed my arms and waited for her to speak.

“I don’t know,” she said, running her hands through her hair. “I don’t fucking know, Honey. This is all…it’s too much. It’s way too much.”

Too bad.

“I know what you want to do. You want to push me away. To pull back and hope that if you ignore me, eventually I’ll go away. It’s the reason you didn’t want to talk about anything personal with Melliferal.”

Anger flashed through me and I didn’t know how to push it away.

“You are so scared of letting anyone know you, Bren, but it’s too late. I know you and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

I breathed hard, as if I’d just run up the stairs and I’d moved closer to her. Bren’s eyes went wide.

“If you want to get rid of me, you’re going to have to work pretty damn hard.”

“Honeyyyyyy,” Ellie called. “Can you help me?” I didn’t know why Ellie chose that moment to need my attention when Archer, Ember, and my parents were here, but I stepped back from Bren.

Lifting one hand I pointed at her. “Iknowyou, Bren Hendrix.”

And there was nothing she could do about it.

Chapter Twenty

Bren

That did not gothe way I hoped it would. I couldn’t even go one entire day ignoring her while I was working. Most of the time I’d been doing my best not to look at her while also finding my eyes drawn to her as if my body couldn’t help itself. Her confusion and frustration came at me in waves, feeling almost like a physical touch. A painful one.

I was almost out of the woods when she came at me with those big sad eyes leaking tears and begging me to tell her what she’d done.