Page 57 of The Marriage Negotiation

My cheeks suddenly felt very hot. Feeling a little bit embarrassed, I dropped my gaze down to my lap. "I might have watched you, too."

"Really?" Pure doubt laced Patrick's voice. "I didn't think you even knew who I was."

"Seriously?" There was just as much doubt in my voice. "You played on the football team and you ran track. You were president of the chess club, the math club, and the debate team. You were on the honor roll. How could I not know who you were?"

"You knew all that about me?"

My cheeks still blazing, I nodded.

"If I'd known that, maybe I would have gotten up the courage to actually say something to you in person instead of sending you a bunch of stupid love letters."

My jaw dropped.

"Although, if you liked me, too, why did you never reply to any of the letters I sent you?"

"You sent me a love letter?"

"Several." Patrick's brow flickered. "Did you not get them? I stuck them in your locker."

"I didn't..." I sucked in a sharp breath. "Did you sign them with your initials?"

Patrick nodded.

I jumped and pushed past Patrick and ran out of the bedroom. I heard Patrick call out to me, but I had one goal in mind. When I reached the spare bedroom, I knocked because Jackson was currently using it.

When he opened the door, I gave him a weak smile. "I need to get a box out of the closet."

"Of course." Jackson stepped back so I could enter.

I hurried over to the closet and pulled the double doors open. It wasn't a large closet, but we had a lot of boxes stacked in there, stuff we hadn't unpacked yet.

I looked around until I found the box I was after. I had to move a couple of boxes to get to it. I grabbed the box and carried it immediately out of the spare bedroom.

Patrick was just starting down the hallway when I walked out. He frowned when he saw the box. "Zaq?"

"Come with me."

Patrick didn't say another word as he followed me to the dining room. I set the box on the table and opened it up. I started pulling stuff out until I reached the small silver tin that I'd placed in there when I was packing up my old apartment.

I set the tin on the table and pulled the lid off. I pushed the tin toward Patrick. "Are these the love letters you sent me?"

Patrick took the letters and started looking through them. After a few minutes, he looked up at me in wonder. "You kept them?"

I grabbed one of the letters, pointing to the initials at the bottom. "Is this you?"

Patrick nodded.

"That son-of-a-bitch!" I dropped the letters and then sat down in one of the dining chairs. "I can't believe he lied to me."

"What are you talking about, Zaq?" Patrick asked. "Who lied to you?"

"Peter!" I snapped, and then felt guilty when Patrick winced. I sighed heavily and lowered my tone. "This is a box of stuff that I had intended to leave for Peter when I moved, stuff he had either given me or left at my apartment, but I never got around to it. I always thought once we got settled I'd mail it to him. I didn't want to give him any reason to come after me, especially him saying I kept his stuff."

Patrick snorted. "He would have felt totally justified in doing something like that."

That had been my thought as well.

I picked up a couple of the letters and stared at them. "I never knew in high school who had sent these, but I kept them anyway. It was the only thing like this that I had ever received and it felt nice to know someone wanted me, even if I didn't know who that someone was."

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