Page 87 of Say You'll Never Let Go

Her nerves misfire at his raspy, deep tone, and her comeback stalls on her tongue.

“Hey, play a game with me?” he says quickly, suddenly awkward and far less confident, as if his own behavior justcaught up to him. “Get your mind outta the gutter. I know you. Not playing doctor.”

She gasps, pulling back with false offense. “I’m not the one in the gutter.”

“Mhmm.”

“What’s this very clean, respectable game you want to play?”

“Twenty questions.”

“Really? You want more random facts about me?”

That’s not what she expected at all.

He shrugs, clearly feeling some sort of way about this choice. “I just…I dunno, we don’t reallytalkmuch. We never have. Sometimes I feel like we know each other better than anyone ever could, and other times it’s like I know nothing about you. And no, this ain’t the same as you giving me random facts I couldn’t make up myself.”

“You do already know me better than anyone ever has.”

“Maybe. But I don’t know all the little things. Not really. I know the big stuff and that’s different.”

He wants toknow her.There’s not a chance in hell she could deny him. “Okay. You go first. Ask me anything.”

He falters, having to consider his options before picking the right one. “What would you have done career-wise if you never joined the army?”

“Something that would have let me travel like this. See the world. Feel free. What kinda job would that have been? Tour guide?”

“Pilot?”

She grins. “You didn’t say flight attendant. You went right for pilot.”

“Nothing wrong with being a flight attendant, but you’d definitely have to fly the plane.”

“So you’re saying I have control issues?”

He laughs. “That wasn’t common knowledge?”

She nudges him gently with a roll of her eyes. “ Okay, my turn. What do you think of before you fall asleep?”

“That’s…different.”

“I asked someone that a long time ago. We were talking about insomnia. He told me he thought of football. Specifically, throwing the ball across the field over and over again until he fell asleep.”

“Sounds like a douche, so it has to be that stalker from fucking Paradise Falls.”

She wrinkles her nose. “You might be right. I’ve always felt you can learn a lot about someone based on what they think of at night when they’re stuck with their own thoughts. What comforts them enough to fall asleep?”

He hisses through his teeth. “This is getting deep.”

“You started it.”

“Fair enough. You’ll think it’s stupid, though.”

“Is it football?”

“No.”

“Then I won’t.”