Page 58 of The Pact

MILA

“Would it give you comfort to know I’ve been waiting for this since you returned?”

I turn to Grady. Is he serious? He expected that to happen?

“No.” My voice is higher than usual.

He just chuckles. “Really? What did you think would happen when the same old sassy Mila, with a hot body, returned to three sixteen-year-old guys who only think with their dicks? Of course, they’re going to fight over you. They had to make a pact at the age of ten to stop fighting over you, and that was before you got all…” He waves his hand at me. “Sexy.”

Well, now that he put it that way…fuck.

To be honest, I didn’t have much time to think about it when I was on the plane. I didn’t think about how much I had changed…or they had. Instead, I remembered all the good times.

I smirk at Grady. “You think I have a hot body and I’m sexy?”

He groans and shakes his head, but I can see the smile on his face. “You’re just as bad as them, Mimi.”

I laugh. “You know, you’re pretty wise for someone who is only a year older. Where do you get all your wisdom from, oh wise one?” I prop my hand under my chin and gaze up at him from the middle console, a playful smile on my face as I bat my lashes.

He looks down at me and snorts. “I hang around smart people. You should try it.”

I laugh again. “You know…I used to have a big crush on you.” I sit back and watch his expression. I’d never told him, or anyone, about my crushes. But, for some reason, I want him to know now.

“Really? I had one on you too.”

I blink and gape at him. What? He had a crush on me? When? How?

“Why didn’t you say something?”

He shrugs and glances at me briefly before looking back to the road. “What, like I would’ve ever had a chance. You had three best friends who’d been in love with you since the day they met you. I knew I couldn’t compete with that, and that’s okay. A childhood crush is just that—a crush.”

“You might have had a chance?” I say, though it comes out as a question.

He shakes his head. “Hell, Mimi. You gave them all their first kiss. You never came to see me that day. You never asked me for your first kiss.”

I toy with the strap of my bag as I watch the houses go past, thinking about what he’d said. I didn’t go to him. But that’s because I thought he didn’t like me. Or had I known, deep down, that he wasn’t for me?

“You told me I was like an annoying little sister you never wanted. You made me think I was like a sister to you. I cried for three days, Grady. My dad didn’t know what was wrong with me and wanted me to see a doctor. But I was just heartbroken that the boy I had a crush on for a whole year thought of me as a sister…an annoying one, at that.”

Neither of us speak for the rest of the drive. He pulls into my driveway, and I unbuckle myself. I don’t look at him. “Thank you, for the lift,” I whisper.

“Stop, Mila. Look at me, please.”

I glance over under my lashes to see Grady has taken his seat belt off and moved closer to me. My eyes widen at the sudden change, and the air in the car seems thicker somehow. Or maybe my throat is thick with emotion.

“Mila, I told you that because I didn’t want my heart broken. I thought if I told you that you’re like an annoying sister that you would stay away from me. Hate me. Because if you hated me, there was no way you would find out I was actually in love with you. I was scared you would laugh at me, and that was a worse fear than you hating me.”

My heart drops at his admission. I never would have done that to him. But he couldn’t have known that.

“Grady…” I reach out and take his hand.

Fuck, today has been a clusterfuck of emotions. I hadn’t expected the car ride to go this way when I got in. Or that confessing my crush on him back then would result in Grady admitting that the feelings were mutual.

“I’d just turned thirteen,” he says. “My body was changing, and I didn’t know what to do with all my feelings or the hormones. I was a stupid teenage boy, with a crush on his younger brother’s best friend.

“I’m sorry I made you feel that way. I didn’t know. I thought it was one-sided. That you only saw me as Jace’s big brother. That you never thought of me as anything more.” He groans. “And when I heard about your first kisses two weeks ago, that cemented it. I was never on your radar, and it reminded me again how I never had a chance.”

He leans back into his headrest and closes his eyes, running his other hand down his face. Oh god. That’s how I felt when he said I was like a sister.

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