He stared at me for a long time, as if trying to read my sincerity. His breath touched my lips. It took everything in me not to close the distance between us. When his lips brushed against mine, I let out an involuntary gasp. Had I done that?

“Am I reading you wrong?” he asked.

I shook my head no. I couldn’t find my voice, couldn’t dare to believe this meant what I thought it meant.

He let out a slow breath of air that smelled so familiar. “I was going to tell you that.”

“You were going to tell me that you wanted to kiss me?”

He nodded. “Is this going to change everything?”

“I sure hope so.”

He smiled and his gaze went from my eyes, to my mouth then up to my hair. He tucked a piece behind my ear. “You’re so beautiful.”

My cheeks heated. “Aren’t we supposed to do this at the fence?”

“No. I don’t want this to be in our alternate reality. I want this to be in our real one.” He met my lips with his. My heart felt like it had just been put through sprints; it raced to life. I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him closer. Against my lips he added, “But we can do this again tonight at the fence if you want.”

I smiled. “Wait. What about Amber?”

“What about her?”

“I thought you and she . . .”

He pulled back, his eyes going wide. “What? No! Your brother is all over that.”

“Gage?”

“Yeah, they got together while you were gone. He didn’t tell you?”

“No.”

“You thought . . . me and Amber?”

“Yes. You were hanging out with her. And on the couch the other day, you scooted closer to her to make room for me.”

He looked up, thinking back. “Oh. That’s because you looked super annoyed with her. I thought I was saving you from having to sit by her.”

I let out a single laugh. “Stop reading me.”

He curled his lip. “Amber? Come on, Charlie, give me some credit.” He gripped a section of my T-shirt at my waist. “She wears sparkly words across her butt. You told me not to date anyone who did that.” He pressed his lips to mine again. “What about Evan?”

“Yeah, no.” I traced the words on his T-shirt with my finger. “It would be hard to be with someone when I couldn’t stop thinking about someone else.”

“That night by the fence, when you thought I was going to tell you that I liked you . . .”

“You don’t need to explain.”

He shook his head. “No. I do. I did like you. But I had convinced myself I couldn’t tell you that. I didn’t want to ruin our friendship. So you caught me off guard because it wasn’t what I was going to tell you that night. It freaked me out a little that you knew I liked you anyway. I wasn’t sure how you would take it, how your family would take it.”

“And now?”

“And now I’m still not sure how your family will take it, but that night, you were so hurt, it made me hopeful that at least you would take it well. I thought maybe you were telling me that night that you liked me too, and for the first time it gave me reason to think that it wouldn’t ruin anything.”

“I don’t know how my brothers will react, but my dad loves you.”

He buried his face against my neck. “Gage already knows.”

I tried to push him away so I could look at his face. He wouldn’t budge. “What did he say?”

“He’s mad.”

I finally managed to push him away and look at him. The first thing I saw was the black beneath his right eye. “Wait. Did Gage do that to you?”

“What?”

I ran a finger lightly along the black.

“Oh. No.”

“So it was a golf ball, then?”

He shook his head no. “It was . . .” His eyes looked around me but not at me. “My dad.”

I sat up quickly and my head went light. “Your dad hit you?”

He smiled, which seemed like the opposite reaction to my statement. “Yes. I finally confronted him. He hit me. My mom kicked him out.”

“Braden! Why didn’t you tell me? Are you okay?”

“Yes. For years I’ve wanted her to kick him out. I didn’t realize it would take him hitting me for her to finally do it. I should’ve confronted him a long time ago.” His face was still lit with a smile, but I knew him. I saw hurt in his eyes. He didn’t want his dad to leave. He wanted his dad to love him enough to want to change.

“I’m sorry.” I ran a hand through his hair, and he moved his head to my lap. We stayed like that for a while, his head resting on me, my fingers combing through his hair. “So why is Gage mad at you?”

“You’re his sister, Charlie.”

“That makes no sense. He didn’t get mad at Evan.”

“I think he knows you were never into Evan.”

“But he thought I was into you?”

“I don’t know. He probably thought I’d have more potential to seriously hurt you. But I won’t. I promise I won’t. . . . I love you.”

My heart slammed against my ribs and my breath left me. I lowered my lips to his. “I love you too.”

Chapter 36

“I will still kill you in football,” I said, looking down where he lay in my lap as if he never wanted to move.

“What? I don’t get boyfriend perks?”

Hearing him say the word boyfriend made my heart burst with joy. Then I immediately felt guilty for being this happy when I’d just found out about my mom. I stared at the cloudless sky.

“Is this too weird? Too fast?”

I took his hand in mine. “No.” He was my happiness right now. I wasn’t going to give it up.

He reached up and traced a line between my brows, and I wondered if I was scowling.

“I just feel guilty.”

“Because of your mom?”

I nodded. “I feel like I should be in mourning or something.”

“Charlie, you’ve been in mourning for ten years.”

“True.” The sunlight touched the tips of his dark hair, and his hazel eyes looked brown today.

He gave me a lazy smile. “What?”

“We kissed.”

He laughed and sat up, moving behind me. He wrapped me up from behind, pulling me back against his chest. “Am I a better kisser than Evan?”

“Hmmm . . .”

He let out an indignant grunt.

“Is this a competition?”