She pauses. “I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do. You just don’t want to say.”
Chelsea lets out a long sigh. “Fine. It was Tim.”
I lift my eyes in surprise. That wasn’t what I thought she was going to say. “Tim? But…”
“It makes the most sense, Brooke.” She tucks a strand of wet hair behind her ear. “Shane’s right—Tim’s the only one who had the opportunity to go up there and do it. And he was the one who was cuddling up with Kayla all night. Shane barely knew her.”
“But…”
But it can’t be Tim. Not my first best friend. My first kiss. The guy I’ve known all my life, who would do anything for me. I touch the snowflake necklace, remembering how pleased he looked when I opened the box.
“And he dated Tracy Gifford,” she reminds me. “What’s up with that? He had a bunch of dates with a girl who turned up murdered, and he figures he doesn’t need to mention that to anyone? That is hella suspicious, Brooke.”
“I know, but…”
“Plus, he’s frustrated,” Chelsea adds. “Because you’re dating Shane, and of course, he wants you for himself.”
I swivel my head to stare at her. “What are you talking about?”
She lets out a dramatic sigh that lasts several seconds. “Come on, Brooke. You must realize that Tim is madly in love with you.”
I snort. “No, he’s not. We’re friends.”
“Right. You think of him as a friend, and he’s in love with you.” She cocks her head to the side. “I thought for sure you knew. You really don’t see it?”
I reach for the charm on my necklace again, my fingers shaking slightly. Is Chelsea right? I always thought Tim and I were on the same page about our relationship. I mean, yes, he used to talk about us getting married back when we were little. But we were children.
And yes, we kissed that time. But it was just once, even though it lasted twenty minutes. And we were practicing. It wasn’t like it meant anything…
Oh God.
She’s right.
Tim is in love with me.
Chapter 36
PRESENT DAY
“Okay,” Tim says, “I’m going to need you to rate this birthday compared with all other birthdays you’ve had in your life.”
Tim and I are in the car driving back from the restaurant. After my freak out over the snowflake necklace, we ended up having a wonderful time. It was nice just the two of us. We could be as affectionate as we wanted without worrying about freaking out Josh. And Tim is very affectionate. Especially after a glass of wine.
“Rate it on a scale of one to ten?” I ask. It’s hard to break my habit from nursing school of rating everything on the visual analog pain scale.
“No.” He grins at me as we come to a stop at a red light. “I mean how does it rank compared to your other birthdays? Like, are we talking top five…？”
“Top ten,” I say.
“Top ten!” He looks affronted. “I told you that you should have gotten the lobster. That would’ve definitely taken it into top five.”
I laugh. “Stop it—the chicken was great.”
“I just feel like…” He rests his right hand gently on my knee as he starts driving again. “I mean, you don’t remember your first, like, five birthdays. So really, top ten isn’t that good.”
“It’s pretty good.”