Page 74 of Loving You

“We’ll catch up,” I say to the others and point ahead of us. “When you get to a fork in the road, go right.”

“Thanks.” Sully beams and takes the lead.

Cherry and Danny walk right by us, chatting away.

I’m not even sure they know they passed us.

After they are out of hearing range, Quinn speaks first.

“Was she telling the truth?”

As much as I might want to, I don’t try to deny it.

“Yeah.”

The glint in her eyes hits me right in the heart.

Fuck. I think I made her cry.

“You really left places in your own hometown because I was there?”

I nod.

“Wow. You hate me that much?” She tosses her hands up and starts to hike again.

“Wait, no, I don’t hate you. I never did, I just didn’t know you, and whenever I was near you … I just … I?—”

How do I explain this without making it seem like I’ve secretly been crushing on her all these years?

“You just what, Miles?”

“I just didn’t understand you, and it pissed me off because I fucking wanted to.”

She pauses to look at me.

“What?”

“You are everything the opposite of me, Quinn. It both scared and fascinated me, but at the end of the day, one thing never changed.”

“What’s that?”

“That you would leave. I never saw the point in us getting to know each other if you were going to keep leaving.”

“Oh.”

I run a hand through my hair.

“By the time I matured enough to realize how stupid that mindset was, I'd already sealed our relationship.”

She doesn’t say anything, but she also doesn't move, so I take that as a small sign that she isn’t going to hold this against me.

“Do you want to get to know me now?” she asks.

I nod. “Isn’t that what we’ve been doing since we started this?”

She shrugs. “A little. We’ve mostly been getting by to make everyone believe our story, but I don’t think it’s been the real us.”

I smirk. “The real us, huh? I don’t know if the real us is a good idea.”

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