Page 41 of Damaged Boys Don't Fall For Bubbly Girls

It’s one where he and I sit at his dining room table, working on the 3D tiger shark puzzle. It was taken right after I accidentally dropped it and we had to start all over.

“Ugh, I still cringe at how clumsy I was,” I say.

“I’m glad you dropped it and we had to start from scratch,” he admits.

“What?”

“Because I love working on projects with you.”

My heart flutters. “I love working on projects with you, too.”

“Thanks.” He puts his attention back on the photo and touches our faces. “Look how focused we were. We were determined to let the shark live.”

“And it still lives.”

His head snaps up. “It does?”

“Yeah, I still have it.”

I hurry to my closet, where I stashed a box full of stuff I couldn’t part with. On top of all the other things is the shark. When I return to Brock, his face lights up as he lays eyes on it.

“Wow, it looks like it’s in amazing condition.”

I hand it to him and he studies it, his face growing soft as he takes in all the features. I love watching Brock as he marvels over sharks. He’s so passionate about them, just like I am about all sea creatures. The main reason I clicked with him immediately when we were kids was because he loved sharks. And alsobecause he didn’t try to put bugs or gum in my hair, like some of the other boys at school.

“We did some fun puzzles together, huh?” I say, playfully pushing his shoulder.

“Yeah, we did,” he says, pushing my shoulder back.

“I actually haven’t done a puzzle in a long time—” I suddenly sit up. “Oh my gosh. I totally forgot about it.”

“What?”

The memory flashes in my mind. Oh, wow. I wanted so badly to give Brock a present after he gifted me the blue whale keychain, but nothing seemed good enough. But I may have the perfect thing.

“Come.” I grab his hand and pull him down with me all the way to the basement.

“Oh, your basement.” Brock shivers. “It scared the crap out of me when we were younger.”

“I know. I had to practically bribe you to come down with me,” I tease him.

“We all can’t be brave and fearless like Lexi West.”

“You bet your butt you can’t.”

Still grasping his hand, I lead him downstairs. We mostly use it for storage, though there are a lot less stuff now because Mom and I cleaned it out. I don’t remember seeing the thing I’m looking for, which means it’s somewhere I didn’t search through yet. How the heck am I going to find it?

“So why are we here?” Brock asks.

“I can’t tell you. It’s a surprise.”

I move to the area Mom and I haven’t gone through yet and search for a large item. I hope Mom didn’t throw it away.

“Wow, you have some really old stuff here,” Brock says as he rummages through the boxes. He picks up an ancient-looking doll. “This has definitely lived through a few world wars.”

“I think that was my great-great-grandmother’s first doll or something.” I gently move things around because I don’t want to accidentally damage it.

“Wow, that’s awesome.” He puts it back down and checks out some of the other old stuff we have down here.