Ryan’s room used to be his brother Luke’s. It couldn’t have been more different from David’s room. No maps of Middle Earth, for one thing, and not many books. There was a flatscreen mounted to the wall, and a gaming station. Ryan had been in the middle of some basketball game, but he crossed the room and turned the television off.

“So do you want to talk?” he asked, sounding a little unsure. “Or are you here so we can . . .”

He trailed off, but his gaze slid behind me to his bed.

“Talk,” I said firmly, sitting on the edge of the mattress. “For one thing, it takes too long to get this dress off and back on.”

That made him smile and took a little bit of the disappointment out of his eyes. “Okay. Can I at least do this?”

Sitting next to me, Ryan took my face in his hands and lowered his mouth to mine. Even as I reached out to clutch the front of his T-shirt, I was thinking of that first kiss on the swings at the park. The way my heart had leapt into my mouth, how every hair on my body seemed to stand on end.

It was only natural that Ryan’s kisses didn’t make me feel like that anymore. We’d been together for two years now. Those kind of sparks only belonged in new relationships, didn’t they?

Or was Mary Beth right? Was I holding on to Ryan because he was another thing for me to have? Another achievement on Harper Jane Price’s list of accomplishments? 4.0 GPA, SGA President, Homecoming Queen, Haver of Best Possible Boyfriend.

“Um, Harper?”

Ryan pulled back, his hands falling from my back. His eyes were kind of hazy, but he was starting to frown.

“What?”

“It’s customary to kiss back when a guy is kissing you.”

Ugh. I’d done it again. “Sorry,” I said, ducking my head in my best attempt to seem apologetic. “I was thinking.”

Sighing, Ryan sat back. “Of course you were.”

“You’re right. Things are weird right now,” I said. “It’ll be better after Cotillion.” That was becoming my mantra. Problem was, I wasn’t sure if that was actually true. Whatever was going to happen at Cotillion, Saylor said it would change things. Would it be for the better?

Ryan reached out and took my face in both hands, a mix of exasperation and love on his face. “You always say that,” he said, his thumbs tracing my cheekbones. “It’s always going to get better someday. Sometime in the future, things won’t be so crazy.” Leaning forward, Ryan dropped a kiss on the tip of my nose. “But the thing is, Harper, we can’t see the future. So how can you have any idea if it’s going to get any better?”

Irony, thy name is Ryan.