Page 81 of This Is Love (The Light to My Darkness 3)

"Nice slippers, Summer."

I smiled up at him. Yes, he used to hate me. Yes, we were friends now. But what Miles didn't realize was that I was hopelessly in love with him. Every time I thought about him, my heart raced. Every time I saw him, I was momentarily speechless. I loved the way he smiled out of the corner of his mouth. And the way his brown eyes lit up when he talked about the stars. For me, it was love at first sight. It was like all the fairy tales I read about. Despite what Julie said, it was real. Now I just had to wait for him to realize he loved me back. It would happen one day. There wasn't a doubt in my mind. That arrow was coming his way.

"What are you staring at?" He pushed his shaggy brown hair off his forehead.

"Nothing." I laughed awkwardly and looked down at my slippers. Bunny slippers were always a good choice. I knew it. "How was soccer practice?"

"Fantastic." He lay down on the blanket in the center of the tree house and put his hands underneath his head. "I get to be a striker in the first game tomorrow."

"That's awesome." I really had no idea what it meant, but I knew he had been wanting it, and therefore I was just as happy as he was. I lay down on the blanket next to him and looked up at the stars. That was the coolest thing about Miles' tree house. It had no roof. Every night that the sky was clear, I'd sneak out of my room and meet him in his tree house. We never had a set plan or anything. It's just how it was.

"You're coming to my game tomorrow after school, right?" he asked, breaking the silence.

He wants me at his games. I smiled up at the stars. "Of course. I'll ask my parents if it's okay once they get home."

"I thought I saw Julie's car. Did you annoy her to no end tonight?"

"Not to no end. Just until she fell asleep."

He laughed.

The sound made my insides flip over.

"My parents can drive you home after. We'll probably get dinner somewhere if we win."

It wasn't a date. But he technically had kind of asked me to dinner. Maybe he reciprocated my unspoken feelings. I thought about what Julie said about her new boyfriend. She had asked him out. It wasn't exactly how fairy tales went. But she certainly seemed happy.

"I got you something," Miles said as he sat up.

He bought me a present too?

He pulled something out of his pocket and then put both his hands behind his back. "I got it from that quarter machine at the grocery store. I thought you might like it." He put both his hands out in front of him with both his fists closed. "You have to guess which hand it's in, though."

So he hadn't actually bought me a present. He probably tried to get something for himself and failed. But he thought of me when he opened it. That counted for something.

I looked into his eyes. He had always been really hard to read.

A smile spread over his face, like he already knew I was going to choose wrong.

I slapped his left hand. He opened it up. It was just an empty palm.

"You're lucky that we're friends." He opened up his other hand and tossed a small object at me.

I caught it and opened my hand. It was a small keychain with an arrow on it. Sagitta. "I love it."

"Thought you might." He lay back down, not reading into my words at all. "Can you see it tonight?"

"See what?" How much you love me back? My eyes were glued to the arrow keychain. It was the perfect present.

"Sagitta." He pointed t

o the stars.

I lay back down and looked past his index finger at the arrow in the sky. The constellation was as bright as could be. I nodded.

It was like he knew my response even though he couldn't hear it. He dropped his hand on the blanket between us. Without thinking, I slipped my hand into his.

And then I held my breath. For one second. My heart is going to beat out of my chest. For two. What did I just do? For three. Should I say it was an accident? For four. He's never going to speak to me again. For five.

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