But the warmth doesn’t fade from his eyes. “If you don’t want me to like you in that way, then I won’t.”

“Seriously?” I twist around in my seat to face him, my relief mingling with surprise. “How does that even work? You can’t just switch your feelings on and off. You don’t decide to like someone; you simply do.”

“What can I say? It’s a tough skill to master, but I’ve mastered it,” he says with a shrug. “This may be very hard to believe, seeing how totally cool and in control of my emotions I am now, but I used to fall in love way too easily. Like, I would fall in love with the attendant who helped add ice to my drink in the airport lounge. I’d fall for a stranger who held the door open for me once, or a guy in my class because he waved at me in the halls, or a cute girl handing out flyers for the local animal shelter, or a waiter who swatted a fly away from my meal and smiled when our eyes met. And I would act on it. I’d ask for their number and buy them flowers—I didn’t have any game like I do now, just stupid sincerity.” He looks away, out at the blurred sweep of trees, and turns quiet.

“But they never loved me back, and you kind of get sick of the whole unrequited love thing after a while, you feel me? There are only so many angsty, depressing love songs you can listen to before you start feeling a bit pathetic. So I got my shit together and stopped falling so deep that I can’t help myself up when I need to. I still have my little crushes because it keeps things interesting, but I don’t actually, like, like anyone until I’m certain they’ll like me too. And I was never certain with you.”

My heart pinches. Even though this is the confirmation I was after, I still can’t help imagining him years ago, offering up his heart on open palms to people who dropped it or tossed it aside.

“What about the prince?” I ask.

“Right, yeah. That guy.” Oliver glances back over at me and makes an unimpressed face. “Forgot to mention the part where he was after my dad’s money because he’d spent all his royal savings on a massive emu farm, and then he got bitten by an emu and decided he wanted nothing to do with them anymore. Not really what I’d consider boyfriend material, let alone husband material. Plus, he wasn’t even that hot.”

I wrinkle my nose. “You can do so much better.”