Page 61 of Fake It Till You Break It
I felt like Jake could see right through my brain, scrambling to figure out a coy answer. And failing miserably.
He let out a short laugh as he reached out to touch my arm. “To be honest, I want a lot of things. But at the top of the list is that I always want to see you.”
Oh, God. When did Jake get so darn swoony? It was like he was taking lessons from my favorite K-dramas.
My arm buckled a bit from his touch and slid off the slide. I was inches away from smacking the side of my face against the metal side before Jake jumped up and grabbed me.
“Are you okay?”
I waved my hand. “Yeah, just lost my balance. The sun was in my eyes. Made me dizzy or something.”
He glanced up at the sky. The clouds were so thick that we could barely see where the sun was. Then he tugged on my hand until I came closer to his side. “Uh, sure, why don’t we sit on the swings instead?”
Nodding, I followed him to the swing set on the other side of the playground. There were two little infant ones for the daycare and four regular ones.
Jake stopped right by the ones for the babies. He held out his other hand. “Do you need a boost? I don’t want you to topple over again because I’m so handsome…”
I glared at him and knocked his hand away. “Ha ha. Did I ever tell you how funny you are?”
He blinked innocently at me. “Nope. Not in the fifteen years we’ve known each other.”
“Good. I don’t like to lie.”
Snorting out loud, Jake waited until I sat on one of the normal swings before sitting on the one to my right. He sat the opposite way though so that we faced each other as we swung.
Our legs pumped back and forth as we got higher and higher, perfectly in sync. That’s because we’d been on these swings a hundred times before. Racing to see who could get higher. I was lighter, but Jake’s long legs gave him an advantage.
“About our breakup.” My heart sank at the word, and Istared down at the ground. “I know we were supposed to do it today, but—”
With wide yes, I glanced over at him. “But?”
He slowed down until his swing almost came to a complete stop. “I was hoping that you wanted to, maybe, forget about it? Just continue dating… for real?”
“Do… do you really want to giveusa try? For real? Would we even work out?”
“Maybe not. The odds are definitely not in our favor. But…”
Hope crept up my stomach. “But?”
He looked down and let out a deep breath. “But what I learned these past few weeks is that I’d rather go through the craziness and arguing with you than a quiet boring life without you. It’s not the same when you’re not around. I’m notmewhen you’re not around.”
His words melted away any insecurity I felt. All of the reasons why we shouldn’t be together disappeared just like that. They felt insignificant and small. I think I knew in my heart that everything he said was true. That I felt the exact same way. I just needed to hear him say the words.
“Gee, you’re not so bad, either, Jake,” he said in a high-pitched voice. “Don’t have anything to say?”
With a laugh, my foot kicked out in his direction. “You already said everything that needs to be said.”
The expression on his face turned a bit serious. “And whatabout you? Have you said everything that needs to be said? Have you talked to Ben?”
I winced. “No, I tried, but I keep getting his voice mail. Andthisisn’t exactly something I wanted to explain over text.”
The metal rungs squeaked as he turned. “And what exactly did you want to explain to him?”
My toes dug into the sand until the tips of my flip-flops were buried. “You’re really going to make me spell it out? The kiss. Us. About how we…”
“We…?” He grinned. “I’m just messing with you.”
I smacked my forehead with the palm of my hand. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Why the heck do I like you? You’re still neurotic and crazy sometimes.”
