“I’m falling in love with you,” I blurt out. Then I freeze, horrified by what I’ve just done. Blake’s mouth twitches and his eyes go wide. “I mean, I know it’s so soon. Too soon? And this isn’t the time. Or the place. But I just wanted you to know, and—”

Blake places a finger to my lips. We lock eyes. I don’t feel confident enough to breathe. I’m digging myself an even larger hole.

“I think I’m falling in love with you, too,” he says, voice quavering. He shakes his head. “No, I am falling in love with you.”

“You are?” I ask. His words feel like an uncomfortable jolt of electricity.

“Yeah,” he says, tucking a stray piece of hair behind my ear.

When he kisses me, his hands slip easily over the green silk of my dress to pull me close to him. The sturdiness of his hands on my hips feels like an anchor, even as my heart pounds dangerously fast.

The past sixty seconds are giving me whiplash. I dropped the L-bomb purely because I needed something wild to distract him. I don’t know why that was the first thing to come to mind. My only goal was to get him away from Stephanie—it hadn’t even occurred to me until this very moment that Blake might actually be falling for me. We’ve only known each other for a month. I had no idea that a person could fall in love so quickly.

And yet.

Blake has acted more tenderly toward me than any man I’ve ever known. He’s made me eggs most mornings this week, runny in the middle, just the way I like. It’s clear that he genuinely listens when I speak, rather than waiting for his turn to interject his own stories, like so many other guys I’ve dated. He triple-checks for cars before we cross the street together, muttering “precious cargo” under his breath as we walk hand in hand. Just two days ago, I caught him staring at me with a soft smile spread across his face. When I asked what was up, he simply shrugged and said, “I like you.”