Page 97 of Something Forever

I furrow my brow. “Tulips?”

“In the living room. You got them for me. When?”

Is this why she’s upset? Have I crossed a boundary somehow?

I blink heavily and shake my head. “Yesterday. You said they were your favorite, so I thought… what, you don’t like them?”

“I love them,” she whispers. She closes her eyes, confusing me further, and when she opens them, any trace of anguish is gone. Her beautiful brown eyes are back to their usual brightness and warmth. She sets her hand against mine, pressing at it softly.

“Come on,” she says. “Let’s go get some pie.”

34

WHITNEY

Ialways thought falling in love would feel like, well… falling.

A sharp swoop, all at once. The force of gravity pushing rapidly against an object. I thought it would happen suddenly and swiftly. That I’d snap into a sort of clarity, a moment of assuredness. I’d know, all at once, that I was in love. I’d be certain.

It turned out that I was right.

It was sitting at the dining room table as my husband pressed his soft lips to my head that I knew, without a doubt, that I was in love. Liam had spent the day side-by-side with me in the kitchen, patiently answering all of my questions, and then he’d been so perfectly attentive all evening, so sweet and caring in every tiny gesture that my heart couldn’t take it. He only lingered for a moment before I lost his warmth, a realization hitting me so strongly that I’d lost all sense of time.

But it was what happened afterwards that really cinched it.

I was sitting in the living room, glass of wine in hand, one thought swirling in my mind — I love him, I love him, I love him — when I heard Lauryn’s voice.

“Wow, these are beautiful. I love tulips.”

Her words jolted me from my eureka moment as my gaze tugged to where hers had landed, at the small vase in the living room and the bundle of pink tulips sitting inside. How could I have missed them before then?

“They’re my favorite,” I murmured, my mind spinning.

I love him, I love him, I love him, I thought, over, and over.

“Whitney?” Abbi glanced at me, too perceptive for her own good. I felt myself standing, my feet moving without my control.

“Excuse me for a moment,” I managed before fleeing the room.

When I collapsed onto my bed, I tried and failed to keep my emotions in check, a wave of tears threatening to break through. As soon as those thoughts settled in me, that inherent truth that I now know I cannot escape no matter how hard I try, another settled right there next to it.

I’m scared, I’m scared, I’m scared.

This feels exactly like falling.

Now, Liam knows something is off. Since he found me in my room, I’ve managed to evade his concerned gaze. I don’t know how, because staring at his stricken expression felt like swallowing barbed wire. He clutched me with such gentleness, such care, that it sent more waves of unwanted emotion through me.

“Can’t you tell me?”

No, I couldn’t tell him. He was the one person I couldn’t tell because it would change everything. Ruin everything. I was the one who’d insisted that this was casual. For me to tell him… it would probably just confuse him.

I feel like such an idiot. My mom was right; I’m falling for this guy, and our entire relationship is fake.

But what if it isn’t?

“I’m going to explode,” Shatar interrupts my spiral from the couch, clutching her stomach.

Lauryn chuckles. “I knew you shouldn’t have had two slices.”

---