Page 83 of My Best Friend's Sister

She balled her fists at her sides. “Please stop agreeing with everything I’m saying and tell me what the heck is wrong with you.”

“I don’t know how to be that happy,” I said, raising my palms to the sky. “Okay?! That’s what’s wrong with me.”

She blinked at me. “What?”

“I don’t know how to be as happy as you made me, okay? So I freaked out.” I clenched my jaw and ran a hand through my hair. “Falling for you was changing me, and I don’t know if I can be the guy I was turning into.”

Her lips parted like she was going to say something, but she closed them again and stared at me some more.

“It’s not that I don’t want you,” I said, my guts twisting with every word as I imagined dragging my lips across hers. But her body language was wary, like a stray cat that’s been hosed before. “I’ve wanted you forever. I still want you.”

Tears pooled in the bottom of her big eyes, but they grew defiant, as if she’d rather die than let me see her cry. “You were falling for me?”

“Is that a serious question?” I asked. “I wrote a rap about fashion for New York’s most reputable barbershop quartet!”

“I thought you said your assistant organized everything.”

I shook my head. “More lies.”

“Wow, Quinn. They’re really stacking up.” Her head fell to one side. “How am I supposed to believe anything you say?”

“I let you win,” I said. “The night we played poker.”

Her neck drew back. “What?”

“It wasn’t about the money. I just didn’t want you to take your clothes off in front of everyone. In front of me, yeah, but…not like that.”

She closed her eyes, rubbed her temples, and took a breath so deep I feared she was going to time travel on me.

“That’s everything,” I said. “That’s the whole truth.”

She opened her eyes and lifted her face.

“I swear if you’ll give me a chance to make things right, I’ll never lie to you again.”

“You could’ve let me have the poker win.”

“I’ll do you one better,” I said. “I’ll let you challenge me to a rematch—just the two of us—and this time I won’t go easy on you.”

One side of her mouth rebelled towards a smile.

“I thought I was better off without you, Maddy, but I was wrong. Everything is shit without you.”

Her pink cheeks rose with a bright laugh. “Don’t be so dramatic.”

“I’m not being dramatic,” I said, tilting her chin up. “I’m being honest. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

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