Grace sighs and turns back toward me. “I don’t know exactly what I saw the other night, but I think it’s clear that you need to sit down with Kellan and figure that out. If you give him another shot, which I think you should, then I hope you are the one who ends up healing his heart and giving him what he needs. Because I can promise you, that man has a lot of love to give.”
“Are you sure?” I press.
“I’m positive. You have my blessing.” She rolls her eyes. “Not that you need it. You know he was willing to take a punch from Clay for you, right? Like I saw it in his eyes. He would have taken it and not fought back. That’s huge. He hated Clay last year. Instead, he practically begged him in his own way for his blessing to date you. Clay is the one who told him about your favorite flower, pizza, and ice cream. I only knew the candy.”
My heart hammers in my chest. I never considered that Clay was the one who told him. That Kellan asked Clay.
“I had no idea,” I murmur.
She smiles. “Kellan never loved me. You don’t love someone and treat them the way he did me. I don’t hold that against him, though. He had some growing up to do, but the Kellan we spoke with two nights ago? He wasn’t the same kid from last year.”
Her words echo the ones that Kellan said to me today. She could see the difference in him with one short conversation.
Maybe he really has changed.
“Clay gave his blessing, by the way. If you want to date him, we won’t stand in your way.”
“I love you,” I blurt out.
She laughs. “I love you too.”
“And I love you two. Now can we move on to something more interesting to talk about, please?” Peyton moans.
“Sure, are you ever going to tell us what’s going on between you and Beckett?” Grace quips.
Peyton gasps dramatically. “How dare you…”
I tune them out, my mind still on Kellan. I don’t know what our future looks like, but I really am excited to see what happens.
* * *
My hands shake as I walk up to her dorm room. Taking a deep breath, I knock on her door before shoving them into my pockets. Cora answers the door with a smile on her face, making my heart race.
“You look beautiful.”
She rolls her eyes, but her smile stays intact. “I’m in a sweatshirt and jeans.”
I shrug. “You don’t need to dress up to be beautiful. Are you ready to go?”
“Yeah.”
She steps out of her room, letting the door fall shut behind her, and wraps her arms around my waist. Before she can let go, I wrap my arms around her and bury my face into her hair and breathe her in. I don’t know how she’s done it, but in such a short amount of time, she’s become such an important part of my life, and it’s been driving me crazy not knowing where we stand.
Even though we talked Monday, she wanted to wait until today to go out. It was a long five days, but Saturday is here, and now I get her to myself.
Not that I didn’t text her every day, praying she would still text me back. Each time she did, I felt my hope grow.
“Come on, you promised me a date. Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” she says when she pulls away.
“Honestly, I thought we could go do something low-key like one of those trails. The leaves have started to change colors, but we can do something else if you want.” I rub the back of my neck.
Shit, I’m messing this up, and I haven’t even managed to right my last wrong.
Cora shakes her head. “No, that works for me. I love fall.”
“Okay, cool. Let’s go.”
I lead her out of the dorms, and we start walking through campus. Along the backside of the university, they have trails and shit for people to run between campus and the sports complex.
