Falling Like Leaves (Bramble Falls, #1)(61)

“You want me to be mean to you?” he asks, confused.

“I want you to stop bringing me cookies and lattes. I want you to stop saving me when I fall off ladders or taking horseback rides with me. I want you to stop pulling all-nighters just to help me. And I want you to stop making me bacon!”

He tries not to smile, but he can’t suppress it. “No bacon. Noted.”

“I’m serious, Cooper. If you’re saying this isn’t happening, then fine, I’ll respect that. But I want you to stop making me fall for you.”

His smile fades. “Okay. Fair.”

“Okay.” I nod. “Then consider it forgotten.”

He huffs out a breath. My heart is crumbling, and he’s relieved.

I blink back tears as a voice to our left calls for Cooper.

“Sounds like they’ve sent out a search party for us,” he says.

“Yeah. I guess we better get back.”

I brush past him, hoping the memory of his lips on mine somehow gets lost in these dark woods.





Chapter Twenty-Six




“Sloane, wake up.” My cousin grumbles as I shake her.

Her eyelids flutter open. “What? What time is it?”

“Three a.m.”

I tried to keep playing the game. I tried to pretend like nothing happened. But that proved to be impossible, and ultimately I trekked the two miles back home in the freezing cold after everyone was searching for the ghost after me.

“Three a.m.? Go away, you psycho,” she says, throwing a pillow over her head.

“I need you,” I tell her, trying to keep my voice from breaking the way my heart is.

She bolts upright, making me jump as she throws the pillow off her face and swings her legs over the bed, suddenly wide awake. “Let’s go.”

“Um, what? Where?”

“I googled how to get rid of a body years ago, specifically for this occasion. I’ve got you, girl. No questions asked.”

Despite my shitstorm of a night, a deep laugh unexpectedly rumbles out of me. “Shut up.”

“I’m not kidding. I’ve got three pretty legit ways and two questionable ones. I’m willing to try any of them.” She worries her lip. “One way might require more Mountain Dew than we have on hand, though.”

I lay my head on her shoulder, unable to stop the embarrassing snort-laugh that escapes. “I don’t need to get rid of a body. Well, not yet, anyway.”

“Okay… Then why are you waking me up at this hour? What do you need?”

I lift my head and look at her. “Can I sleep in here?”

“Um, okay?” She draws her eyebrows together as she scoots back into bed and pulls the comforter over her.

I crawl in next to her. “Sorry. I just don’t really want to be alone right now.”

“You gonna to tell me what’s wrong?”

My eyes follow a crack in the ceiling until it dead-ends into the wall. “You were right.”

“Of course I was.” She pauses. “But about what?”

“About Cooper.” I swallow. “About me liking Cooper.”

“I knew it! But why’s that bad?” She gasps. “Wait. Did something happen?”

“You could say that.” I turn my head to face her. “We kissed.”

She screams, and I slap my hand over her mouth. “You’re going to wake up our moms.”

“Sorry,” she whispers. “But also, oh my god!” She throws her pillow over her face and squeals into it. “Okay,” she says, putting it back under her head, “I’m ready. How was it?”

I don’t have to think about the answer. “Perfect.”

“So what’s the problem? Or did you just wake me up to tell me about it? Because I am here for it. Spill.”

“He told me to forget it happened.”

“What?” She sits up. “Why?”

I tell her about his Jake concerns. And, as she settles in next to me again, I explain his reluctance to let me break his heart a second time.

“He has a point,” I say. “I am leaving soon—it’s been part of why I was trying to talk myself out of liking him. But he’s going to school in the city next year. In less than a year, we’ll be living in the same place again. This doesn’t have to be some monthlong fling where everyone ends up hurt.”

“Is that what you want? Something serious and long-term with him?”

“I… think so.” The reality of that slams into me like a tsunami. He’s the exception to the rule. I lay my head on Sloane’s shoulder. “I really like him.”

“It sounds like he really likes you, too.”

“Maybe, but it doesn’t matter.” I sigh. “He doesn’t want to be with me.”

“I’m sorry.” She leans her head against mine. “But there’s still time—you don’t leave for another month. Maybe he’ll change his mind.”

“Yeah,” I say. “Maybe.”

But I know he won’t.

Sloane takes my hand beneath the blanket and holds it. “It’s his loss, cuz.”

I close my eyes and try to tell myself she’s right.