“Hey.” He lifts my chin, wipes the new tear gently with his thumb before tugging on a curl. “You are like goodness incarnate, Evie Riley. You are a fucking literal ball of sunshine. I was dreading everything about this year, thinking how incredibly fucking stupid I was getting myself sent to boarding school, and then you rolled into that orientation you shouldn’t have been at and made me laugh. Do you know how many people here make me laugh?”

I open my mouth to answer, and he adds, “Intentionally?”

“Oh. Probably not a lot.”

“No,” he says, sweeping my hair behind my ear, “not a lot. And then you just kept on finding new ways to be such a cute fucking weirdo, and I fell so damn hard for it. Hell, I’m still falling. You are magic to me, Peach, and the best person I know.”

“Most of the people you know are terrible,” I say with a sniffle.

“I didn’t say it was a high bar.” His hand lingers on my skin, so warm and gentle as he swipes away another tear. “But even if you’d known about Heather, there’s a difference between doing something shitty and being someone shitty.” He cracks a grin. “Kind of like doing something slutty and being someone slutty. And if I recall correctly, you’re the one who ripped me a new one over not getting that.”

I know it’s supposed to make me laugh, but all I can do is look up at him in wonder and, if I’m being honest, a little confusion. “That’s it? You’re just … cool with it?”

He shrugs. “I mean, unless you’re still into him?”

“Oh, hell no,” I say with such certainty that Salem laughs, and I take his hands and squeeze them. “No, no, no. I am very firmly in the Salem Grayson cheering section. But if you’ve had feelings for a while, why didn’t you say something?”

“Do you not remember how firmly you said that you had no interest in being with any guys when we established that ridiculous pact? Because you were pretty damn clear. And then Jenna came by and flirted with me, and I guess I just … also wanted to be with someone who wanted me back. She clearly wasn’t taking it seriously, and I figured it’d help me get over you, but.”

“My charm was too much to resist?”

“Something like that.” He wraps his arms around me and pulls me onto his lap, and he feels so warm and so good, more solid than you’d think considering his skin-and-bones build. “I wasn’t a hundred percent honest about what Jenna said when she ended it.”

“She didn’t say she thought you were into me?”