Page 49 of Promised Secret
“No! I’m pissed because Jones fucking likes you too, and you let him climb all over you!”
Spitting out those words allowed me to release the built-up frustration.
Now that I was more clearheaded, I could think properly.
Jones implying that I liked Dan? The only sore spot the statement hit was the fact that I’d been so dense.
Me liking Dan had never been the question. It was the sudden callout that my feelings could be more than platonic, and howtrueit rang that stung. And the fact I’d realized it too late, since Jones had obviously confessed to Dan first. That fucking enraged me.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Dan yelled back. He sighed, then added, “Jones doesn’t like me. He’s so in love with Ryan, his eyes are basically hearts when they’re in the same room together.”
I couldn’t deny that. Jones might as well be a puppy, wagging his tail every time he was near Ryan.
“But in the room…he was hugging you so hard,” I said bitterly.
“He wascomfortingme.”
“If you needed comforting, you could’ve come to me,” I muttered.
Dan sighed again. He flipped up his armrest and turned so he was sitting sideways in his seat toward me. My hands were resting on my lap, palms facing up, and when he reached out to touch my palm, I wrapped my fingers around his.
“Why aren’t you saying anything about theother thing?” he asked softly.
“The other thing?” I repeated slowly. I knew whathe meant, but there was a frog in my throat, and I was buying time.
His pointer finger slid over my palm in a gentle caress. “You having feelings for me?”
“Oh, that. Well, you know,” I replied with a shrug.
“I really don’t,” he insisted, which was ridiculous. How could he not know how he made me feel?
“C’mon, Dan. It’s you we’re talking about.”
I lifted my armrest and turned toward him as well. Our knees brushed together in the tight space.
“Who wouldn’t like you? It’s the Dan effect,” I said jokingly.
I hadn’t met a single person who hadn’t been caught under Dan’s charm. When we were younger, it was the reason the termDan effecthad been coined in the first place, though it wasn’t being used much these days.
My words made him frown. “You know that’s not what I mean. I don’t care about some stupid term our classmates came up with when we were kids. I want to know howyousee me. Therealme.”
“Whether it’s the polished, perfect side you choose to show others, or the you who’s grumbling about working too much yet won’t take a day off, or when you fall sick from worrying too much over something, then insist the only thing that could cure you is being rolled up like a burrito and hugged, my answer will be the same. You’re pretty much impossible not to love,” I told him truthfully.
These were feelings I’d never had to consider beforebecause they were so natural, but that didn’t make them any less true.
A soft pink crept to his cheeks. He’d always acted so confident and proud, but he’d never been goodatreallyhearing nice things said about him.
“I, um, I wasn’t expecting that,” he stammered and pushed his bangs out of his face. They were long enough now to be tucked behind his ears. He looked down at our knees, and they tumbled down again.
“Don’t look away,” I said. I hooked my pointer finger under his chin, and it didn’t take much force to turn those beautiful browns back on me.
“I love you, too, you know? I always have.”
The words were a soft embrace that made my insides go all gooey. He nervously licked his lips, and his eyes fell onto mine too before quickly flicking away. My lips suddenly felt so dry.
“Though it’s not the same way you feel,” he added, shoulders drooped the tiniest fraction.
“How so?”
