Page 75 of One Last Chance

She sighed, turned to him. “I know she’s not here, okay? I’m not actually losing my mind or anything. Sometimes I pretend she is here, okay? Because, you know, I see her every time I look in the mirror. So it’s not super hard to have an actual conversation with her, because I know how she thinks.”

Right.He hadn’t thought about the fact that she actually looked at the likeness of her lost sister every day.Wow.

“Okay. I’ll just . . . go sit over here, and you can tell me when you . . . two are done fighting.”

His parents had set up Adirondack chairs overlooking the river, and he settled into one. “Carry on.”

She stared at him. “Now it’s weird.”

“I have news for you—it was always weird.”

Her lips pursed.

He leaned forward. “Okay, fight with me. I’ll be Kennedy.”

“You can’t be Kennedy.”

“Why?”

“Because, tough guy, we’re arguing about you.”

“Perfect. Because I’ll be on my side.”

She stared at him. “Okay, here’s the thing. You might be Jack and everything, but I’m Rose.”

“And we’re back toTitanic.”

“It’s always aboutTitanic. Jack and Rose. And how they couldn’t possibly have lived happily ever after.”

“Why?”

“Because it wasn’t real. They lived in different worlds . . . Their romance was just . . . for the moment.”

“Looked real. Felt real.” And maybe he wasn’t actually talking about the movie, because he’d seen it when he was about twelve, on DVD, and thought it was overdone and way too dramatic, but then again—he’d been twelve.

And then, as she went quiet, real frustration in her eyes, he realized . . . no, she wasn’t talking about the movie.

“What’s going on here, Sparrow?”

“Don’t call me that.”

He had cocked his head at her.

“Because it just . . . makes me . . . like you. Too much. And I lose my brains, and I can’t do that, Jack.Axel.”

“Lugnut, if that works better.”

She raised both her fists, shook them. “Stop being . . . charming.”

“You saw the reality show. I can’t help it.” He smiled.

“This . . . thing. This attraction . . . this?—”

“Undeniable passion? Unbreakable connection? Unrelenting desire?”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. It . . . can’t work.”

Oh.From her tone, she wasn’t kidding. And that took the wind out of his smile.

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