Page 42 of Damaged Boys Don't Fall For Bubbly Girls

I really want to give him this present, so I try to search through everything as fast as I can. I have no idea how much time passes, but it feels like forever. When I look at Brock, I find him sitting on an old rocking chair with a book that looks so old, its pages are yellow and falling out.

“A reader always knows where to find a book, huh?” I say with a wry smile. “It’s like you two are magnets.”

I have no idea if he heard me because he looks very into the book. I’m not crazy about reading novels, but I love how into it he gets.

“Is that book any good?” I ask him.

“Yeah, this is amazing.” He carefully turns the page and soaks in the words like they’re water and he’s parched.

“You know, with all that reading you might actually turn into a book.”

He laughs softly. “I wouldn’t mind.”

I’m about to give up in this area and look somewhere else, but then I catch the words on the box. Score!

I reach for the large box and try to hide it behind my back. It’s kind of hard to do that because it’s so big.

“I found it!” I announce.

“Nice.” He puts the book aside and looks at me. His brows rise. “Are you trying to hide that puzzle box behind your back?”

“Ugh!” I groan. “You’re ruining your surprise. Close your eyes.”

“Okay.”

After he does that, I move closer and hold out the box. “Open them!”

His eyes slowly open and focus on the box in my arms. His jaw falls open. “Is that a 3D puzzle of the Golden Gate Bridge?”

“Yes! And it has one hundred pieces. Look how cool it looks.” I pass him the box.

He smiles as he studies it. “It’s really cool.” His fingertips brush over the plastic on the box. “It’s not open. You haven’t done it?”

I shift to my other foot. “It wasn’t for me.”

He raises confused eyes at me.

“It was supposed to be a present for you.”

“Supposed to be…?”

“You kinda, um, left before I could give it to you.”

Understanding enters his eyes. I wanted to give this to him after Andy died, to make him feel better. But he left before I could.

“Do you want to do it?” he asks.

“If you’re okay with that,” I say. “Because if you’re not, that’s totally fine. You don’t have to accept it if you don’t want to. I won’t be offended.”

He doesn’t say anything, and I’m worried I hurt him. The last,lastthing I want to do is cause him even a small amount of pain. Maybe I should have thought this through. Did I make all the bad memories come crashing down on him?

He puts the box down on a nearby table and gathers me in his arms. “Please don’t ever apologize for being the amazing person that you are, Lexi,” he murmurs in my ear.

“I don’t want to hurt you.” Tears prick my eyes.

“You’re not,” he continues to murmur, his breath warm on my cheek. “Being your friend is the best thing to have happened to me. I’m so sorry for the way I treated you.”

“It’s okay. You already apologized. And you have nothing to be sorry about. I understand everything. I mean, I can’tunderstand what you’ve been through, but I understand that it was very hard and painful.”