Page 153 of Feels Like Forever

With wide, pretty blue eyes, she replies easily, “No, she’s not allergic to anything.”

Oh, thank God.

But, man, I’m disappointed that the first words to pass between us in all this time weren’t ones like,‘I miss you.’

Or,‘Can we please stop being so far from each other?’

Or,‘Landon, I love you and I can’t pretend I don’t anymore.’

Or—

“Why are you freaking out about food allergies?” her song of a voice cuts into my thoughts.

I blink and realize she looksamused.The high, messy knot she has her hair pulled into really shows off her face, which means heramusementis in plain sight.

Oh, hell yeah.

And seeing her even this little bit lighthearted doesn’t only make me happy forme—it helps calm my nerves about Rae, too.

I let out a soft laugh as I admit, “It’s not allergies exactly. I’ve just been worrying she won’t have fun with me. So, you know, my mind went from me maybe being boring to me maybe being the worst kind of idiot.”

Even though she hides her lips from me with a hand, I know she’s smiling.

Aw,Christ, I’ve made her smile.

When she lowers that hand, she’s composed again, but the smile is in her voice now. “You have nothing to worry about. You’ll do a great job.” After a beat, “You’re her hero, remember?”

If I don’t distract myself right this second, I’m going to be cheesing my way through,‘Please let me be yours, too,’or some other cringe-worthy shit, purely out of desperation to hear her say she wants me back.

I push her red carnation through the space between us instead of elegantly presenting it to her like I wanted to.

Oh well.

Pleasant surprise illuminates her face just as Rae bounds into sight.

“Landon!” she shrieks gleefully.

My happiness heightens and I grin at her. “Hi!” With a gasp, I add, “Oh, wow, darlin’! You look so beautiful!”

“Thank you!” Her face glows as she pats the sparkly silver headband tucked into her simple hairstyle. Then she does a twirl. “Do you like my dress?”

“A thousand percent! You look like a princess!” And she does. There’s a sheer layer of glittery dark blue over what looks like plain silver fabric. Her little shoes are silver, too.

She’s beyond delighted by the compliment, and her corsage only adds to it. Her eyes are full of awe as I tie it around her wrist, and when I’m done, she shows it off to Liv. “Annie, look!”

Liv is delightedforher and can’t hide her smile this time. “I love it, Rae! What a thoughtful gift!”

“Yeah!” Rae turns her sunshine back on me. “Thank you for being thoughtful to me!”

“You don’t have to thank me,” I tell her. “You deserve thoughtfulness.”

Liv murmurs now, “Yeah, she does.” Then, “Well, I hope the dress glitter doesn’t get everywhere.”

I’m not concerned about it. “Eh, I’ll live if it does.”

“I guess so. We got a great deal on it, didn’t we, Rae?” She plucks at the slightly-puffy short sleeves. “Great deal on all of it, really: dress, shoes, and headband for under twenty-five bucks.”

I whistle. “Highway robbery for a princess look!”

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