Page 95 of Tell Me It’s Right

He shrugs and smiles. “Of course. You know I’ve never been able to keep secrets from you.”

I smile back despite the absolute turmoil wreaking havoc inside of me.

I am the very worst human being to have ever existed. Truly. Right at the top of the pyramid.

Because he’s right. For better or worse, we’ve never kept secrets from each other. And now I’m sitting on an atomic bomb of one. I bite my lip, fighting against everything inside of me screaming to tell him everything.

But I promised Liam I would wait.

And Leo looks so happy right now. This was a moment for him to share something exciting about his life with me. I don’t want to derail that.

“I’m really happy for you, Leo. And I know you’re probably going to give godparent to Liam…but I am officially throwing my hat in the ring here.”

He snorts. “Gracie, shut up. You know you’re top of the list.”

I blink, suddenly a little teary-eyed over a kid that doesn’t even exist yet. “Really?”

“Of course.” He rises to his feet, and I don’t at all like that look in his eye.

“No—don’t!”

But it’s too late. He’s already launched himself at me. His arms wrap around my waist, and his momentum sends us both crashing into the water.

Chapter Thirty-Four

GRACIE

“You know, I actually really,reallyhate surprises.”

Carson huffs from the driver’s seat beside me. “Well, I love them, so stop complaining.”

She swats away my hands before I can mess with the blindfold again.

“Oh, silly me. Here I was thinking it wasmybirthday.”

“And if left to your own devices, you would’ve spent the day cooped up in bed reading a book.”

I mean, I don’t see the problem with that.

The car jerks as she hits a curb, and my hands fly out to steady myself against the door.

“Whoops!” she giggles.

We’ve already been driving for at least fifteen minutes based on the number of songs on the radio I’ve counted. She didn’t tell me anything about what she has planned for tonight. Just the time she’d pick me up.

I might be giving her a hard time about it, but it was actually pretty touching that she remembered the day, let alone wanted to spend it with me. We used to spend all of our birthdays together growing up, but it’s been years. And even though thepast few months of rekindling that friendship has been going well, it still feels like we’re finding our footing again.

Aside from a fewhappy birthdaytexts from my long-distance college friends, I wasn’t expecting much more than something small and casual with my family.

Well, until a text came in shortly after I woke up.

Liam:Outside your window.

Sure enough, when I pushed the hopper window aside, I found a small box sitting on a towel like he was worried about the package getting dirty.

I’d grinned like an idiot as I brought it inside, but that was nothing compared to when I opened it. The card alone would’ve been enough.

Gracie,

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