Page 68 of Falling Backwards
The knowledge pulls heat into my cheeks.
Still unable to lie, I nod.
He copies me.“Me too.”
Now puzzlement piles in.“What?You would’ve felt—?”
“Don’t punch me, Maggie.”
I can’t questionthatbefore he’s stepping closer and settling his hands on my shoulders.The contact yanks a shocked breath from me, puts the twist-leap-fall feeling in my stomach, sets fire to every nerve ending I have because his grip is firm yet gentle and the straps of my shirt aren’t very wide, which means his skin is on my skin and—
“Don’t punch me,” he says again, his eyes arresting mine.“Just listen to me, okay?Listen to what I have to say and know that despite how it sounds, I’m serious about every single word.”
I can’t begin to name the fresh emotions coursing through me.
I certainly can’t move—not because he’s holding me still, but because my muscles refuse to pull away.
All they do is let me nod again.
He’s sorry for getting mad that I helped him with Ronald.
The random thought is a breeze through my mind.
“Okay,” he mumbles, “here we go.”
Distractedly, I mumble back, “One, two, three?”
He ponders that, then agrees, “Yeah, one, two, three,” even as his frown deepens.
His noiseless mouthing of the numbers helps me count with him before—
“I think Ishouldpretend to be your boyfriend.”
L U K E
Maggie and I both seem to have stopped breathing.
She looks up at me with astonished green eyes, and I look at her with all the solemnity in the world.
I’msoserious about this.
Worry gnawed at me all night and all the way up until a few minutes ago when I laid eyes on her and found she was safe.Then it came back when she mentioned the grocery store thing, and that sealed it—that was what made me feel sure about what I came over here to say.Before then, part of me wondered if my idea was hasty or an overreaction or just plain fucking senseless.
“What?”she breathes out.
She’s back to having working lungs.I get back to it, too, so I can give my little speech.
“What did you say?”she prompts me.
There’s something strangely and deeply sad about taking my hands off of her, but I do it anyway.I can’t believe I even put them on her shoulders in the first place; the urge arrived and overtook me fast as hell.
Her next breath seems to go deeper, but she doesn’t step away from me.
I don’t move either as I reply, “You heard me.”
She blinks, blinks, blinks.“You—you think that we should pretend to…be in a relationship?”
“Yes.”
