Page 91 of The Best Friend Power Play

"Huh?"

"That finally got you thinking you're in love with me?"

"No." He shakes his head. "It was the slow cooker fiasco. I thought to myself, if I don't nab this girl, some other lucky guy will, and I can't have that."

I laugh.

After a moment, he does, too.

"It hasn't been any one thing," he says. "It's been all of it. All the little things, like you mentioned. But I'm…" He drops his voice so low I barely hear him say, "scared."

"I'm scared, too. That's why I didn't tell you. But remember what you said to Maddie in the hospital?"

He looks up and smiles at the memory of that beautiful girl. "Something about not letting being scared be the reason you quit?"

"That's right."

"We have something special, Hannah. And I don't want to quit, but…" He looks down again and bites into his lip. "But you deserve to be with a great guy. I want that for you."

"I want that for me, too."

"I just don't know if I'm?—"

"Don't say it. You are." I push off the rocking chair and crouch down in front of him. "You are," I repeat, taking his big hands in mine.

He lifts his chin up, stares at me with those adorable puppy dog eyes. "My life is a mess."

"I'm completely lost."

"My body is falling apart."

"I'm a terrible cook."

"I don't know what my next steps are going to be."

"I don't know either."

He chuckles.

I smile.

"We have each other, Culver. And that's all that matters."

He doesn't look away, staring at me more intensely than he ever has before. "You're right. That is what matters."

"Good." I bounce on my feet. "Wanna go inside and make out like teenagers?"

We're on the couch in less than ten seconds.

16

Culver

"Well, that rehearsal was a ginormous waste of everyone's time," Hannah grumbles, climbing into her Jeep and starting the engine.

I buckle my seatbelt. "I don't know. I feel so much more confident about my performance now."

She rolls her eyes at my sarcasm as she reverses out of the parking lot. "At least I got to prove to Doyle that I'm capable of not flinching for an entire five minutes."

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