Page 55 of Meet Me in Aveline

We got into the truck and drove in silence over to The Baking Tin. I ran in and grabbed some of the pastries and donuts from earlier that day—comfort food—and went to Green Gables, securing the Avonlea room. Evelyn was gone for the night which meant we could shut the door for privacy since Bev didn’t know about the open door policy. I lay back against the headboard and Lettie followed, laying her head on my chest and looking up at the ceiling.

I waited for a moment, watching as her chest rose and fell with her breath before I finally asked, “Do you want to talk about it?” I stroked her hair until she sat up, wiping her eyes.

“Same thing it always is. My mother.”

I followed and sat up, taking her hands in mine. I waited for her to continue.

Lettie leaned her head back and groaned. “Ugh! She’s making me go to the deb ball with Theo Martin. I never even asked him to go. I wanted to ask you. But my mother just assumed that because Theo and I are ‘dating’ that we would automatically go together, and she put it in the program.In the program!”

She was talking so fast that I was just trying to keep up. Something about her mother and the deb ball and then she’d said the words, “Theo and I are dating,” and I was pretty sure I felt my entire body go numb.

I pulled my hands from hers. “I’m sorry, you and who are dating?” I asked, my words spilling from my mouth in slow motion.

Lettie gasped and reached for me again. “No, oh my gosh. We aren’treallydating, Tuck. It’s fake. We are just pretending so I can keep coming here to Aveline and my parents won’t question it. He’s my alibi.” She covered her eyes. “I can’t believe I didn’t tell you. I’m sorry. I didn’t think anything of it because I haven’t seen or talked to him since so it’s not like we were really dat–”

“Lettie. It’s okay that you didn’t tell me. I’m not mad at you.” I furrowed my eyebrows. I felt the familiar twinge of jealousy and a bit of anger at whatever this Theo guy was trying to pull. “But what does he get out of it? Because if I know anything, it’s that guys don’t usually do something like that for a girl unless they are A, getting something out of it or B, in love with her.”

“Oh, I’m his alibi too. He is playing guitar in pubs around our town. His parents wouldn’t approve either so we are basically just helping each other out. It was win-win until my mother went and added us to the program.”

I leaned my head against the headboard. “And I’m sure this was his idea, wasn’t it?”

I felt it in my stomach first and then in the way my fists were clenched at the thought of someone else with Lettie. I’d known I wasn’t going to be taking her to the ball thing, but I hadn’t really thought of the fact that someone else would. Someone else would be holding her hand and dancing with her, taking photos and getting her drinks. I wanted to be that person for her, and whatever was stirring within me was unfamiliar, a feeling I wasn’t used to. There’d never been anyone I’d been really interested in, but as I sat there thinking of another guy with Lettie, the feeling grew stronger.

“Yeah, but it was a good idea. It kept my parents from asking too many quest—Ohhh, wait a minute. You’re jealous?” she said with a hint of a question in her tone.

I cough-laughed, trying to figure out how to be honest without being a jerk. Trying to figure out how to tell her that Iwasjealous because I knew that I could never be with her the way this other guy could. I would never be accepted by her family, her peers, her community. I would be an outsider where he would be welcomed. How could I tell her that the thought of someone else being with her in the way I wanted her made my skin crawl?

“No. Of course not. I don’t get jealous,” I replied, lying through my teeth.

Lettie bit her bottom lip and squinted her eyes. “I don’t believe you.”

“Well, I love you,” I blurted, knowing that it was the only way I could ever tell her even a morsel of what I was feeling. “So, I guess you’re right. I am jealous. I’m jealous because I am so in love with you, Lettie, that I can’t breathe when you’re not around. And honestly, it scares the hell out of me.”

I watched her eyes fill with tears and one of them fell to her cheek before dropping to her lips. I wiped it away with my thumb and let my touch graze her lips before she leaped over and kissed me. I could taste a mix of chocolate from the donut and salt from her tears.

“I am so in love with you,” I repeated, my words coming out exasperated after being held in for so long.

She pulled away and moved her body closer to me. She had one leg on either side of me, straddling me, her hands on either side of my face. “I love you too, Tuck. I love you so much.”

I kissed her softly, and I knew at that moment, Lettie and I would be connected forever, in one way or another.

FORTY-THREE

LETTIE

Tuck loved me.He really loved me, and when he’d said those three words, I’d felt the entire world start spinning. I couldn’t stop kissing him. I wanted to keep my mouth planted on his for all of eternity, and when we both lay back and he hovered over me, his biceps flexed holding up the weight of his body, I realized that this was the exact moment I had been waiting for.

I pulled away, my lips throbbing. “I want it to be you. Tonight.”

Tuck sat and helped me up as well. “We should talk about this,” he replied. “I don’t want you to rush into anything.”

“I’m not. I promise. I want my first time to be with you, here, in Avonlea. I can’t think of anything more perfect.”

I watched his throat bob. “Trust me, Iwantto do this, so badly. I have wanted to pretty much every day for the last few months together, but I don’t want you to think you have to just because we said we love each other. Okay? That’s not why I said it. I can wait.”

Tuck was looking at me with a passionate gaze. I had never had anyone look at me in that way before. I had always wondered what it would be like, to have someone desire me in the way that Tuck seemed to in that moment. I thought I might feel awkward or embarrassed, but I didn’t, not with Tuck.

I felt safe.

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