Page 259 of Reverse

“See you in a little while?” She asks, giving us both an out.

“See you there,” I say with a wink before turning and taking the stairs up to the bungalow.

“Nate?”

Glancing over my shoulder, I see Stella’s already at the foot of the stairs, her eyes lowered. Her fearful expression has me walking back down to stand in front of her.

“Yeah?”

“I can’t believe this happened—this is happening, has been happening.” She lifts her grey eyes to mine, and in them, I see a glimpse of the girl who kicked open my office door with sharpie lyric scribbled Converse before roller-skating her way into my heart.

“Yeah, it’s pretty surreal,” I agree.

“Fate really did its thing, didn’t it?”

“Sure,” I say, rolling my eyes up.

“Oh, please,” she scolds playfully. “Fateis why you became a writer. I’ll always remember the story of how you got started.”

“I know. I read your book.”

Mouth parting, eyes wide, she gapes at me.

“Stella . . . speechless,” I buff my nails on the breast of my tux. “I’ve definitely still got it.”

“You read it?”

“Yeah, I did,” I say, as our own memories continue to trickle in. Memories of a different life. “A copy materialized on my desk last year.”

“Oh,” she says, her expression clouding with anxiety.

“I’m glad I read it,” I admit.

“Yeah?” She prompts, hope lighting her eyes.

“Yeah, I am,” I say sincerely. “Kind of hard to hold onto any grudge when your ex-fiancée introduces you as asexGod someone forgot about.”

“Pretty suresexwasn’t the preface—”

“You have your interpretation. I have mine. But . . . to be honest, I loved your interpretation.”

“Really?”

“Really. It fit.”

“Well, that’s . . . shit . . . Nate.” Her eyes water over again as she inhales a deep breath, her voice shaking when she speaks. “Even if this was hard to accept at first, it’s . . . kind of beautiful, isn’t it? Thatourlove story led to theirs?”

“Yeah, it is, truly,” I agree as we fully relax our guards. “You raised a good man, Stella.”

“I think so, too,” she says with pride. “And Natalie is . . . she’s absolutely beautiful, Nate. The spitting image ofyou, too, in every imaginable way.”

“I know,” I smile with my own parental pride as she playfully slaps my chest.

“Ughhh, still an egomaniac.”

“Some things never change,” I muse.

“Good,” she whispers, “and I hope some things never will.”

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