Page 177 of One Wrong Move

“This is incredible.”

“I was hoping you’d think that,” he says, smiling crookedly. “I’m sorry I waited a few days to come tell you this. I wanted to make sure I got the numbers right. But I love you, Harp. And I want you in my life.”

I reach for his hand again and grip it between both of mine. “There’s something I need to tell you, too.”

“Yeah?”

“I love you, too, Nate.”

He blinks once. “You do?”

“Yes. It crept up on me slowly, and then faster and faster, until it’s all I could feel. These last few days… they’ve been awful. Terrible.”

“The worst,” he murmurs. “You love me?”

“Yes. You’re everything I never knew I needed. I think that’s why I got so scared with the whole money thing. If I’d cared less, it wouldn’t have hurt this much.”

“I understand.” There’s light in his eyes that I can’t look away from. Happiness. It glows from within and sets off my own until I can’t help but smile at him.

He smiles back.

“Are we gonna do this, then?” I ask.

His smile breaks into a chuckle. “Yes, baby. We’re going to do this.”

He leans over the table to kiss me, and it feels like distilled sunshine, like coming home. Like taking a leap into the void but knowing you’ll be caught before you ever hit the ground.

Like new beginnings and adventures yet to come.

Nate, two weeks later

Harper lies halfway on top of me. Her bare right leg is thrown over mine while dappled sunlight shines down through the tree canopy above us. The blanket we’ve spread on the lawn of my garden is soft beneath me, but a few sharp blades of grass have poked through. One is tickling my ear.

“Keep going,” she says.

I refocus on the list I’m holding and run my right hand along her back. “Get a tarot card reading. We never did that.”

“No, but there’s time left. I found someone on Brick Lane who seems good.”

“Seems good,” I repeat. “What does good mean here? Do they have great Yelp reviews? Like what’s the metric here.”

She chuckles and nods, her finger tracing patterns on my chest. “Yes. Four-point-five stars and over three hundred ratings.”

“A guaranteed psychic, then.” I move on to the next point. “Stay out all night… spend an entire day in bed. Both checked off. Try archery, checked off. Visit the Louvre. Checked off, too. We were really busy there.”

“We were,” she says.

“You checked off number thirteen,” I say. Look at the tiny red check mark she’s drawn with pen. Sleep with someone who is wrong for me.

She smiles. “Yes. Although now, I suppose, technically, I haven’t.”

“Oh?” I raise an eyebrow. “And why’s that?”

“You know why. Because you’re not completely wrong for me. You’re actually completely right.” Her eyes dance with amusement. “But I don’t want to uncheck it.”

“I don’t think you should, either,” I say. “Your list, your rules, right? Besides, baby, I was wrong for you at the time.”

“I suppose you were. Off-limits. My ex’s best friend.” She rolls her eyes. “I can’t believe that ever bothered us. It feels like such a nonissue now.”

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