Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 114(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 114(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
She chuckles. “I have no complaints and neither does he.”
I keep my voice quiet, not wanting it to carry in the restaurant. “But you were alike in the experience department?”
“I don’t follow,” she says.
I finally force myself to look at her. “I’m not. I don’t. I’m...you know.” I’ve never been ashamed of being a virgin. But what if it’s a turn-off for Micah?
Beside me, Peyton sends Cassie a look. Finally, understanding crosses her expression and I could hug Peyton because I’m so grateful she didn’t make me say it out loud in this crowded diner.
“He just seems a lot more experienced than me,” I offer. What was Abby’s mom like? Were they in love when they got together? He never talks about her, and it worries me. What will he tell Abby one day when she’s older?
“I thought that about West,” she says. “I thought there’d be this huge gap and there wasn’t much of one at all. And I really don’t want to be thinking about my brother like that. But come on, the man eats the same thing for dinner every night and still buys the same brand of toothpaste that he did when we were teenagers. He’s not likely to have...experience with lots of women.”
I blow out a breath, my stomach still tight. “I know that. It’s just, I really like him, Cassie. Like rearrange your whole life plans like him. Like seeing your entire future differently. Like wanting to dream new dreams, dreams that scare you.”
“You’re in love with him,” Peyton says.
As soon as she says the words, the rightness of it hits me. I am in love with Micah Kringle, and I don’t know if the thought should terrify or delight me. All I know is it’s too late to protect my heart now.
5
CHLOE
“Mom, Mom. We don’t need pictures. This isn’t a high school dance,” Micah tells his mom. Not that it’s stopping her. She’s insisting on taking photos of everyone together. Cassie, Peyton, and I got ready at his parents’ house with Mrs. Kringle clucking over us the entire time. From hairpins to clear fashion tape, the woman thought of everything.
Now we’re all in the living room along with our dates for the evening. The whole space feels crowded with so many of us here. Mr. Kringle is even here. He’s in a recliner in the living room and he’s baby talking with Abby. He’s clearly enamored with his granddaughter and not for the first time, I wish I had a big extended family. A lot of people who surrounded me with love and affection. What would my life have been like growing up if it hadn’t been just Mom and my siblings?
Mrs. Kringle pulls down the camera which is trained on me and scowls at her son. “You never went to any of the dances. I have no pictures of my son all dressed up and taking a pretty girl out to a dance.” She points to the fireplace mantle where she has photos of a young Ledger with Peyton on his arm and West with a very young, flushed Cassie smiling up at him adoringly. “Now, Micah Jonathan Kringle, you can give me one phony smile for the cameras.”
He scowls back at her but it’s obvious from his expression that he adores her. I’m pretty sure he’s going to give her whatever she wants. He sends her flowers every week. A pretty wildflower bouquet that sits on her kitchen counter. That’s just one of the many things she told me about her son while I was getting ready. The woman is an encyclopedia on him. But I noticed there weren’t any stories from before he was a teenager. It makes me think he was adopted late in life and that makes me sad for him.
“I never went to any of my school dances either,” I tell Micah.
He finally relents. “One photo, Ma. Just one.”
“Come on, give the woman what she wants, and we’ll be out of here faster,” Ledger tells Micah. He has his arm around Peyton’s hip in a possessive gesture. She said he’s been acting weird all night, ever since he saw her in that dress.
“Five more minutes, Mom,” West warns. He’s been looking at Cassie like he’s about to call this whole thing off, take her back to their home, and tear that dress from her body.
“Now just one group shot and one of you together and one...” His mom continues talking, but I can’t pay attention to her anymore. Micah has squeezed next to me for the group photo.
“Sorry about this,” he murmurs in my ear, his breath hot against the skin of my neck.
I fight a shiver at his nearness. Can the rest of his family tell how much he affects me? Can they sense the feelings I have for him? I’ve been trying so hard to maintain my poker face around everyone.