Page 120 of Say Yes to the Nemesis

She pulls back to look at me. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I’ve been half in love with you since college, Chirp. Watching you grow up, seeing you become this incredible woman, trying to convince myself you were off-limits because you’re Jay’s sister. The insane part isn’t that we’re having feelings for each other. The insane part is that it took us this long to do something about it.”

Her eyes widen. “Since college?”

“You remember that night freshman year when you came to visit Jay and we all went to that party at Delta Chi?”

“Vaguely. I was pretty drunk.”

“You were wearing this blue dress and you kept laughing at everything Jay said, trying to fit in with us. I spent the whole night watching you and thinking about how much I wanted to kiss you.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because you were barely eighteen and I was almost twenty-six. And because Jay would have murdered me in my fucking sleep.”

She’s quiet for a moment, processing this. “So all this time…?”

“All this time.”

“But you dated other people. A lot of other people.”

I shrug. “None of them were you.”

The simple truth of it sits between us. All those years of me convincing myself I was protecting her, protecting Jay, protecting myself. All those hookups and short relationships that never meant anything because I was always comparing them to a girl I couldn’t have.

“I was so stupid,” she whispers.

“You were a kid.”

“No, I mean now. This week. Pulling away from you after the hotel, trying to pretend it didn’t mean anything. I was scared.”

“Of what?”

“Of this.” She gestures between us. “Of wanting something I couldn’t have. Of getting my heart broken when you realized I’m not worth the complications.”

I cup her face in my hands, forcing her to look at me. “Hey. Listen to me. You think you’re not worth the risk? Wren, I’ve built my whole life around the wrong things because I didn’t think I could have you. You are worth every complication, every risk, every consequence that comes with this. You understand me?”

Tears pool in her eyes and she nods.

“I don’t care about Jay’s reaction or the cameras or Elena or any of it. I care about you.”

“Jay’s going to lose his mind.”

“Probably.”

“The show is going to milk this for everything it’s worth.”

“Definitely.”

“We could both end up getting hurt.”

“Maybe.” I brush my thumbs across her cheekbones. “But I’d rather get hurt loving you than spend the rest of my life wondering what if.”

She makes a sound that’s half laugh, half sob. “You can’t just say things like that.”

“Why not?”

“Because it makes me want to do stupid things.”