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306 pages, Paperback
Published June 25, 2021
Our eyes lock as her laughter fades, and I can’t help but hold on to her gaze when it stops completely. I’m suddenly aware of how we appear to the dozens of eyes on us. We look like two young people doing a shit job at pretending not to like each other. We look exactly like what we are.
We’re Hannah and Dustin, same as always yet nothing like we were. It seems too light to call what we have “dating,” and we’re not “seeing each other” or any of those other bullshit terms people use to describe high school relationships. That’s not what this is. I won’t belittle Hannah’s and my connection with something so fleeting. We’re an evolution. An inevitable result. Fated, I guess.
This family is all I need. It’s the only thing that has ever seen me through to the next day. And right now, Hannah is the one piece holding me together.
Most of me knows letting her go is what’s best for her. But then…she looks at me. And I know nothing.
I want to scream that I’ve always loved her. That she is the one person I can confide in, the person I run to, and the only thing that keeps me from following in Colt’s dark footsteps. But saying that—laying all of my baggage and bullshit on her heart like that when I’m nothing—isn’t enough. I need to be worthy, to be the man she sees in me.
“I love you, Dustin Bridges. You did nothing wrong. And I love you for you. I love you,” I say. I’ll repeat these words until he believes them, until he hears them in every part of his body. I’ll say them to anyone who asks, to anyone who dares to question where my loyalty lies. I’ll pronounce my love for this boy in a court of law, in the face of death, at the line of fire. I’ll love him for always because I know, whether he can say it yet or not, he loves me back. He loves me, and I won’t let go.