Page 26 of One Small Secret

He tips his head to one side. “Whatever I want, meaning, for you to open your present?”

I laugh. “I guess. But you didn’t need to use your powers on me. I was going to open it anyway. It has been way too long since I opened a present I didn’t buy for myself. Getting packages to Vietnam was…tricky, so I told Mom not to bother.”

Ruben’s eyes slide to Axley again, and I bite my lip. I need to be more careful. If I really had fallen madly in love and had a child while in Vietnam, I didn’t want Ruben to think it was with some chump who didn’t even buy me anything.

I grab the present out of his hand and feel it. I’ve read enough books in my lifetime to know that’s what I’m holding. It’s a hardback of middling length. What kind of book would Ruben choose for me?

Hopefully one with at least a side plot of romance. I tear open the book to find a plain, black cloth-covered book with gold lettering. Dictionary of Difficult Words.

I look up in surprise. “You got me a dictionary?”

He raises an eyebrow. “Not just any dictionary. A dictionary of difficult words. I saw it in a bookstore and thought of you.”

“What bookstore?” I turn the book over in my hand. I don’t think it’s a recent edition. This is the kind of book you might find in a high-end shop, or maybe one that specializes in antique books. Rosco doesn’t even have a bookstore, and I’m certain he hasn’t left Rosco since yesterday.

His smile falters a bit, and then he waves his answer away. “It doesn’t matter. I got it for you because you like to be such a smart a—.” He breaks off the last word with a sidelong glance at Axley “Aleck.”

I smirk. “I really do like being a smart aleck.”

“I know.”

And the weird thing is, I love this present. I don’t even care that Ruben is doing his Teen Heartthrob smile on me again, because I’m flipping through the pages of the book and catching sight of some seriously obscure words. “Looks like this calls for a test of your vocabulary, Mr. Palmer.”

I’m supposed to call him by his first name, but at least Mr. Palmer is different from Ruben Palmer, and he doesn’t seem to mind. He does, however, shake his head. “No, I assure you, it does not. We both know you're much smarter than I am, and we don’t need to prove it.”

“That, my dear Ruben…” I throw his name out and his eyes flash. One side of his mouth quirks up. A strange lightness fills my chest. What in Mount St. Helen’s am I going to do with that? For now? Ignore it. “Is where you're wrong.” I flip the book open to a random page and, while keeping my eyes on him, run my finger down the page and stop in the middle. I look down. “Finifugal,” I say and cock an eyebrow at him.

Ruben runs a hand down his face. “I think I’d rather play cars with Axley.”

“Come on, give me a guess.”

He groans. “A…” He pauses and scrunches one eye closed. “...good-hearted lord, way back during times when knights lived.”

I press my lips together. “Nope.”

We’re silent for a moment. I wait patiently until his head lifts. “What? You want me to guess again?”

I lift one shoulder and my sweatshirt falls off of it. His eyes follow the movement and I stop breathing. I swallow hard and pull up my shirt. “Only until you get it.”

He shakes his head and leans forward and before I understand his intention, grabs the book out of my hand. I try to wrench it back, my left hand a vice grip on his forearm while my right thrashes in the air. Our legs become even more entangled because both of us are most definitely moving more than an inch. He holds the book higher. I could reach it if I stood, but then he would just do the same and I like how we're sitting. I drop my hands in defeat.

He warily brings the book down to his eye level, all the time watching me. He makes a big deal of scanning down the page until he finds the word. “Finifugal, adjective. Of or pertaining to shunning the end (of anything).” He closes the book and looks at me over the dark black edges. “I was close.”

“You weren’t close. I think you mixed up fugal and feudal.”

“I may have been thinking feudal, but I wouldn’t say I mixed them up. You made me guess a word that I'd never heard before. I said the very first thing that came to mind.”

“Lords and knights.”

“Yes, I’m always thinking of those things. That smile you like to talk about? I think my face looks like that when I am pondering what a knight wears under that thick, clunky armor.”

“I’m not sure they wear anything under there.”

“I’m pretty sure you're right.”

“So you're telling me that when you make that gorgeous face, you’re dreaming about knights' underwear?”

His face is the epitome of seriousness. “That’s what I’m telling you.”

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