Kyle follows me straight out the front door, all the way to my car. He grabs my door before I can shut it. “I know where you were last night.”
I stop trying to shut the door and fall against the seat. Here we go again. “Your girlfriend has a big mouth, you know that?”
He leans against the door, staring down at me with his arms folded across his chest. “She’s worried about you, Ben. We all are.”
“I’m fine. You’ll see. I’ll be fine.”
Kyle stares at me silently for a few moments, wanting to believe me this time. But I’ve promised him I’ll be fine so many times, it falls on deaf ears now. And I get it. But he has no idea that this time really is different.
He gives up and shuts my door without another word. I know he’s only trying to help, but he doesn’t need to. Things really are going to change. I knew that for a fact the moment I laid eyes on Fallon today.
? ? ?
I walk up to her front door at approximately 5:05 p.m. I’m early, but like I said . . . she’s leaving for New York and I’ll never see her again. Fifty-five extra minutes with her isn’t nearly as many as I want.
The door opens almost as soon as I knock on it. Amber grins at me and steps aside. “Why hello, Fallon’s boyfriend whom I’ve never heard of.” She motions to the couch. “Take a seat. Fallon’s in the shower.”
I glance at the couch and then at the hallway that leads to Fallon’s bedroom. “You don’t think she needs my help in the shower?”
Amber laughs, but then just as quick, her face falls flat and serious. “No. Sit.”
Glenn is seated on the couch opposite the one I’m being forced to sit on. I give him a nod and he raises an eyebrow in warning. I guess this is the moment Fallon warned me about.
Amber crosses the living room and takes a seat next to Glenn. “Fallon tells me you’re a writer?”
I nod. “Ben the Writer. That would be me.”
Right before she fires her second question, Fallon suddenly appears in the opening to the hallway. “Hey. Thought I heard you out here.”
There are no signs of her actually having just taken a shower. I turn back to Amber and she shrugs. “Can’t blame me for trying.”
I stand up and walk toward the hallway, pointing at Amber but looking at Fallon. “Your roommate is sneaky-sneaky.”
“That she is,” Fallon says. “And you’re here an hour early.”
“Fifty-five minutes.”
“Same thing.”
“Is not.”
She turns around and walks backward through her bedroom door. “I’m so tired of fighting with you, Ben.” She heads toward a bathroom off the side of her bedroom. “I just finished packing. Haven’t even started getting ready yet.”
I resume my spot on her bed. “No worries. I’ve already made myself comfortable.” I reach over and pick up the book sitting on her nightstand. “I’ll just read until you’re finished.”
She peeks her head around the doorway of the bathroom and eyes the book in my hands. “Careful. That’s a good one. It might change your mind about writing a romance novel.”
I scrunch up my nose and shake my head. She laughs and disappears back into the bathroom again.
I open the first page of the book, expecting to skim over it. Before I know it, I’m on page ten.
Page seventeen.
Page twenty.
Thirty-seven.
Jesus, this is like crack.
“Fallon?”
“Yeah?” she says from the bathroom.
“Have you finished this book yet?”
“Nope.”
“Well, I need you to finish it before you move to New York so you can tell me if she finds out he’s really her brother.”
She reappears in the doorway in a flash. “What?!” she yells. “He’s her brother?”
I grin. “Gotcha.”