Rune opened her mouth only to realize she didn’t know what to say.
“I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t know that wearing a designer dress to the Outer Wards was announcing just how out of reach you were to the rest of us?”
Out of reach?
“I was thirteen,” she said. “I’d never been past the city center. Alex was the only person I knew from the Outer Wards.”
They reached the wooden gate leading into the Wintersea gardens.
“I was so excited to meet you,” she murmured. He glanced sharply at her. “But you wouldn’t even shake my hand.”
As she opened the latch and stepped through, Gideon fell behind.
“I had never done it before.”
She turned back. “What do you mean?”
“Only aristos shake hands when they greet each other. I … didn’t know what you were doing. It felt like you were condescending to me. Or trying to keep your distance.”
Rune’s mouth opened and shut like a fish.
“You didn’t know,” he said, as if plucking the words from her lips. “I see that now.”
“You could have given me the benefit of the doubt.”
He sighed roughly. “Sure.”
“Sure?”
“What is it you want from me? An apology?” He threw out his arms beneath the glittering night sky. “I’m sorry I was rude to you, Rune Winters. Even at fifteen, I was an intolerable ass.” Lowering his arms, he studied her. “Will that suffice?”
“That’s not … I didn’t—”
“Then why is this important?”
“I don’t know!” She balled her hands into fists. “I guess it hurt. I wanted you to like me.”
Rune suddenly felt more naked now than she had on the beach.
Gideon fell quiet, considering her. Wishing she could put the words back in her mouth, knowing she was giving him too much ground, Rune quickly turned and made her way into the gardens. She heard the gate swing open and shut behind her. It took him no time at all to catch up, matching her pace.
He stayed quiet for a long time as they walked between the hedges.
“I remember the sound of your laugh,” he said as the back door of the house came into view. “It pulled me like a magnet toward the beach, where I found the most beautiful girl in the world standing on the shore.”
Rune’s footsteps slowed as they approached the door.
His stopped altogether.
“When I saw Alex at your side, I knew exactly who you were: Rune Winters. The girl Alex never shut up about. A girl who was entirely off-limits, because my little brother found her first.”
Rune frowned, irked by these words.
“That’s not the way friendship works,” she said, turning back to him. “Alex didn’t find me. He doesn’t own me.”
Gideon’s gaze dropped to her mouth. “I’m not talking about friendship, Rune.”
A shiver rushed across her skin.
Lifting his thumb to her bottom lip, he dragged it slowly across. His touch was like a switch, turning on an electric current that flickered through her.
“What about you?” he asked.
His eyes were bottomless pools. If she stared long enough, she might fall into them and never climb out.
“What about me?”
“You thought me the rudest boy you’d ever met.” His voice was low. Rough. “Is that all you thought?”
Rune swallowed. No. No, it was not all.
She remembered watching Gideon jump from the cliffs that day. The way his body arced through the air like a shimmering fish. No crowing bravado, only the quiet self-assurance that came with competence.
“You were … impressive.”
“Impressive,” he murmured, the corner of his mouth approaching a smile. “Anything else?”
Rune bit down on her lip, not wanting to admit the rest. She remembered that same boy encouraging the younger kids who weren’t brave enough to jump alone, climbing down from his heights to jump with them.
“Everyone admired you,” she confessed. “It was impossible not to. But you weren’t cocky about it, even though you could have been.”
He drew back, as if her answer surprised him.
Is this still the game? she wondered. Or is this real?
That she couldn’t tell unsettled her.
In the silence, Rune became intensely aware of him: the shadow of stubble on his jaw, the smell of the sea on his skin. He’d pulled his shirt on as they walked, and she stared at the buttons now.
“Do you still think I’m foppish?” she whispered.