“I think that you do pity us,” she said, reading his mind. “Which annoys me no end because, in case you’d failed to notice, I’m an exceptionally independent person. My job is important and satisfying. Dylan and I are doing fine. We don’t need necklaces or graphing calculators or art supplies or hubcaps or phone calls to deans. My affection can’t be bought. So, please. No more.”

His temper stirred. “I was trying to lend a hand.”

“But you didn’t ask me first before involving yourself in something that pertains to my brother.” She drew herself tall. “I’ve been taking care of him for a long time, and you can trust that I will continue to take care of him. We don’t need your intervention.”

“Everybody needs the help of others sometimes, Leah.”

“I don’t need help from you. At all.”

Sebastian crossed his arms and said nothing.

“Well?” she said, clearly waiting for him to tell her he was sorry.

For making a phone call for her brother’s sake? He wasn’t sorry. “If you think I’m going to apologize, I’m not.”

Without another word, she stalked from the alley and down the sidewalk.

Seething inside, he watched her go.

Turn around, Leah.

She didn’t.

She was leaving. She was going to get in her car and drive back to Misty River. And he was irritated with her, so her departure should be okay with him.

It should be. But it wasn’t. He set his jaw to keep himself from calling out to her and asking her to stay in Atlanta with him for another few hours, months, centuries.

Leah pointed her car toward home.

As the miles passed, the city dropped away. She drove into the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and then higher as her brain chewed on the events of the weekend the way she’d chew on a piece of taffy that had been mostly delicious but ended with a surprisingly bitter finish.

Fabulous Saturday, with their Halloween dinner at a sky-high restaurant that had as its carpet the lights of Atlanta’s buildings. Their servers had been dressed in costume, and she and Sebastian had shared a dessert named Death by Chocolate.

Wonderful Sunday with church and museums, a movie night at Sebastian’s apartment, and kisses that incinerated the air.

Rocky Monday, which had started out with promise and finished with the realization that Sebastian had been meddling in her affairs.

In her lifetime she’d received one huge advantage—her years at the Program for the Exceptionally Gifted at Clemmons. She’d had no qualms about accepting that gift. And, had she been able to take Princeton up on their offer, she’d have had no qualms about accepting that gift, either.