I make a spur of the moment decision before I can consider the risks.
“Do you, uh, maybe want to meet her? She’s here for three nights.”
DeeDee’s eyes get even wider than they already were, and her mouth shapes itself into a shocked ‘O.’
Shit. Too much.
“I can meet Hope?” she says on a gasp.
“Uh, I mean, only if you want to. No pressure. I just thought it would be fu—”
“I’m going to meet Hope!” DeeDee woops. “Mon dieu, I can’t believe it!”
I let out a nervous laugh. “You sound like she’s some kind of celebrity. I like my sister, but she’s notthatinteresting.”
DeeDee shifts her eyes down, cheeks flushing. “I just, ah, you tell me all those stories, and I kind of feel like...”
“Like what?” I prompt when she trails off, rubbing a hand along her arm to reassure her.
“It’s stupid, but I feel like your whole home town is this story book, and now I get to meet one of the people in it.”
The lump in my throat rises even higher.
“That...I didn’t—I didn’t know you felt like that.”
She shrugs. “I know it’s stupid.”
“It’s not stupid.” I give her arm a squeeze. “DeeDee, that’s...that’s one of the sweetest things you’ve ever said to me.”
She still won’t look up, so I press my lips to her forehead and let them rest there for a moment. I hear her sniff, and I’m about to ask if she’s okay when she smacks my chest. Hard.
“You dork! Why didn’t you tell me she was coming? This is big news!”
I pull back, and she glares up at me.
“Well, it was kind of a last minute decision, and you and I weren’t...”
“Oh.”
A weight settles in the room. For all that happened last night, we still haven’t actually had ‘The Talk’ yet—the ‘what are we doing and where is this going’ talk. Part of me wants to just let it be, to stay in this bed forever and not worry about what comes next. After hearing everything DeeDee’s been through, the last thing I want to do is put her through more.
Only this conversation seems to be forcing itself on us whether we want it or not. The questions are always there in the back of my head, and I see them in her eyes sometimes when we look at each other.
I don’t understand how what’s between us can feel so strong and so fragile all at once, but I do know that this weight seems like it could crush us if we let it, and ignoring it only seems to make it press down even harder.
“DeeDee, I know that we moved kind of fast, maybe too fast, and—”
“Non.” She shakes her head, her chin tilting up with determination. “I needed it to move fast. I needed to feel...I needed to know...”
She reaches for my hand and twines her fingers through mine before bringing them to her heart.
“And now I know, but...I’m still scared. This is a lot. It’s so good, but...but it’s like the more good it is, the more I worry I’m going to mess it up.” She drops her gaze and murmurs the last part.
“DeeDee.” I cup her cheek with one of my palms. “DeeDee, you’re amazing. All of this, it’s...like you said, it’ssogood. You couldn’t possibly mess this up.”
Her lips pull up into a sad smile, and I want to wipe it off her face. I want arealsmile.
“This doesn’t have to happen overnight,” I assure her. “There are no rules for what this has to look like. It can be whatever we want it to be, and it can take as long as we need it to take.”
