“I handled it,” Jamie said.

“You shouldn’t have had to.”

Those words cracked at something inside her that she had tried to ignore for a long time. That on some level, she had wished that someone would do all those things she said she didn’t want, no matter what she told them. It wasn’t fair. Not at all. But it didn’t stop her from having those feelings.

She couldn’t expect somebody to guess. She couldn’t expect older brothers who were busy with their own lives, and a father who was contending with everything that Quinn had been through, to guess at what she needed.

But a part of her had wished that they would. A part of her that had done its best to stay hidden away. But it felt exposed now, and it hurt. She didn’t want to hurt. This was a nice moment and Wyatt was being nice. She didn’t want to bring bad stuff into it.

“It’s okay,” she said.

Because it was. In the sense that it had to be. The way that she’d always had to be.

There was no sense in telling Wyatt that no matter how tough she acted, he should have damn well kissed her boo-boo.

She hadn’t had enough insight into herself to know that was what she wanted. Why should her teenage brother have known?

She was finding all this out for herself now. And she had to find out a way to move forward with it, not just tie it all to the past. It was part of that same realization she’d had about Gabe a few weeks ago. There could be a fight. And the old her would have gone right in for it. But...she didn’t want to fight. She didn’t want to be right. She didn’t need desperately to prove a point. She wanted closeness. She wanted it in a way she hadn’t ever had it. And the only way to do that was to take a step forward.

Not steps back.

She wrapped her arms around Wyatt and gave him a hug. “You made me who I am. The way that I admired you, the way that I looked up to you, is why I’m here. Don’t waste any time wishing it could’ve been different. I don’t.”

Mostly.

She released her hold on him and took a step back. “Now, can I have my boyfriend back?”

“Boyfriend, huh?” Wyatt’s lips lifted in a rueful smile, a heavy sigh shifting his shoulders up and down.

Jamie shrugged. “He’s never called himself that. I don’t know. But I didn’t want to say like...lover to you.”

Wyatt’s face contorted. “Please don’t ever say it again. I’ll go get him.”

Gabe returned to her, just in time for the finish of the song, and for the beginning of an up-tempo one, which saw Jamie tripping over those high heels, braced only by Gabe’s strong hold.

She was dizzy. Dizzy from his touch. From the strange, surreal fantasy that seemed to wind itself around them tonight.