Page 113 of Feels Like Forever

He looks up to her, then over to me, then back to her, then down again.

“The question is on the inside,” she informs him in a shy voice. Her awkward fingers twist together in front of her as she shuffles her feet.

She almost looks like she isn’t sure how he’ll react.

The backs of my eyes are definitely stinging now.

He draws the exact same unsteady breath I do, then opens the card and reads it to himself.

It seems like he goes over it two or three times before he looks at her and says, his tone no longer level, “Let me go get a pen, okay?”

A pen?

She nods. He stands and walks off, then comes back with a pen in his hand. He clicks it, puts the card flat on the wall, and scribbles emphatically on it. I try to see what he’s writing, but I can’t.

When he hands the card back to her, she takes it, looks at it…and starts crying.

My heart falls in horrified confusion. What—what—?

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” she squeaks as she jumps up and down.

I stare at her for a long, blank moment before I realize she’s crying out ofjoy.

My heart lifts again, and not just to its home in my chest—I feel like it goes all the way to the ceiling.

She bounces over to me, excited eyes wet, and holds the card up. “Annie, look! Look!”

I take it from her and process what her messy kid-writing says.

‘Will you please go to the dance at school with me? I know you aren’t my daddy, but you are the most special person to me except Annie. I hope you won’t mind that you aren’t him. I don’t mind because I love you just like I love her more than my mama. It will make me so happy if you go with me. Please circle yes or no or you will think about it. Love, Rae.’

And at the bottom where she listed his choices, the black ink of his pen scribbled out both‘NO’and‘I WILL THINK ABOUT IT.’The answer‘YES’has several big circles around it.

Of course he didn’t tell her no. Of course he didn’t.

My heart is in the sky, actually.

“Oh, wow!” I say, out of breath with delight. I grin so big at her that my cheeks hurt. “Yay! I’m so excited for you, Rae!” I bend down and hug her quickly, then let her go so she can go back to Landon with the card.

He’s grinning, too, as he accepts it from her. “I can keep it?”

“Yes!” she says.

“Thank you so much!” He runs his empty hand through his hair and laughs as he looks between her and me. “Holy ice cream, I’m happy!”

“Me, too!” She starts twirling around and singing a made-up song about just how happy she is.

I’m happy, too—that he’s committing to this with bright eyes instead of uncertain ones, that Rae has him to trust and make memories with, and that he…well, that he is who he is.

I manage not to shed any tears, but I can’t keep from stepping over to him and holding my arms out. I’ve just realized I’ve wanted a hug from him for days.

The one he pulls me into is so strong and cheerful it nearly lifts me off my feet. It’s the perfect embrace for this perfect minute. Wanting him to think that, too, I reciprocate the best I can.

He murmurs where only I can hear him, “Damn, it’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to seeyou,” I murmur back.

And it’s good to feel him. Good to smell him. Good to hear his voice in person, not over a phone line or in my memory.

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