Page 115 of Icing Hearts

I nod. “Um, so remember how I told you I have an aunt? Well, I got in touch with her recently. Come to find out, it was my dad who cut off contact with her and kept her away from me.”

“He’s such a dick,” Tory growls.

I nod again. “I know. So, my aunt and I have been talking and…I’m going to move in with her. Do my senior year out there.”

Tory jerks back, as if my words have dealt a physical blow. “What—where’s ‘out there’?”

“Colorado.”

“No,” he argues. “You don’t have to do that. You can move in with me. My parents won’t mind.”

“Don’t you get it? That’s part of the problem.” I stand and pace a few steps in front of him. “I don’t want to be within a hundred yards of either of our fathers.”

Tory rises to his feet and takes my hands in his. “So, I’ll come with you. You don’t have to go alone.”

“I do. I have to do this on my own. For myself. I won’t allow you to become my crutch, and if you come with me, that’s exactly what will happen. I’ll rely on you for everything: to make friends, to take care of everything like you always do, and fight my battles.”

“But I want to do all of that.”

“And I love that about you. But I have to learn to stand on my own two feet. To exist as my own person and not just…an extension of you.”

He looks out the window. At the fading light. It will be dark soon. “I understand. Don’t like it. But I do understand.”

“Thank you.” I pull him toward me, looping my arm around Tory’s taut waist.

“Long-distance is impossible for a lot of couples, Clara. What if…what if…” He doesn’t finish the question.

“We won’t,” I say firmly. “I’m going to marry you, Tory.”

A wry smile breaks his otherwise downcast expression. “Are you asking?”

“Kinda.”

“But I wanted to.”

“You still can.” I rock back and forth, taking him with me. I tease, “But I beat you to it.”

“I’ll change my name,” he tells me.

“Don’t you dare. I love your name and I want to get rid of mine.”

“I love you, Clara Rachel…” He leans in, lips brushing my temple and whispers under his breath, “Amato.”

“Nice, isn’t it?”

“Very.” We sway a few more times, and he pulls back, eyeing me suspiciously. “Wait. Did you just basically propose to me right after revealing that you’re moving to trick me out of being sad?”

I raise my brows. “Did it work?”

“Kinda,” he admits. “But this is gonna suck. I don’t want to be away from you, I literally just got you. We’ve been through so much. I was really looking forward to things being easy.”

“Well, I don’t think life will ever truly be easy. But that’s exactly how I know we’ll make it. We’ve already been through worse, Tory.”

“We have,” he agrees, nodding emphatically. “Okay. This is fine. This will be a breeze in comparison.” Then he frowns. “A stiff breeze.”

“Easy breezy,” I say.

He quirks his head back and forth, humming for a beat. “More like a hurricane.”

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