I have a week with Gavin in town, I don’t need Will confusing things.

“Look, Jessie.” He shifts, but doesn’t let me up.

I squirm under him and peer toward the outfitters store. Gavin isn’t even there anymore. Unbelievable.

“No. You look.” I shove my hand into his chest. I ignore the fact that it’s a surprisingly well-muscled chest. “Gavin and I are meant to be. Miss Erma predicted it.”

His body stiffens and he shakes his head, once, hard in denial. Of course he’d disagree.

“She’s. Never. Wrong,” I say.

His jaw clenches and his eyes narrow. “I. Don’t. Care.”

I push up on my elbows and lean into him. My chest presses against his and I bring my lips close to his ear, so he can hear every word.

“I’m going to do everything in my power to show Gavin we’re meant to be.”

I let the words hang between us. My lips are so close to him I could nibble his ear without moving an inch. I feel it the moment his heart picks up speed—it thumps against my chest.

He turns his head and his jaw brushes against my mouth. I pull back and he smiles. I stay on my elbows. He leans forward until our lips nearly touch. His hips press into mine and this moment is so similar to one of my nighttime fantasies that certain parts of me clench in anticipation.

“Promise?” he asks. I feel the heat of his breath against my lips.

I want so badly to span those few millimeters and press my lips to his. And that’s what makes me realize—he’s taunting me. Teasing me. Laughing at me. That’s what Will does. What he’s always done.

I remember when I was twelve, when he and Gavin finally came back to Romeo after four years gone. I saw Will outside this very bookstore. I thought maybe he’d changed. I asked him if he’d ever heard of Narnia and handed him a copy of The Horse and His Boy. I’d just bought it. I’d read it a dozen times at the library and I’d saved and saved for my very own copy. Will looked at me and then at the book.

“You can have it,” I said with a small smile. A friend was worth the weeks saving up for a book. I could save money again, but a friend was priceless.

Then his dad came around the corner. He was in a three-piece suit and shiny black shoes.

“Who is that?” he asked Will.

I blushed and looked down at my ratty, too small, secondhand tennis shoes.

“I don’t know. A nobody,” said Will in a strange crisp voice that made my chest hurt.

His dad frowned at me, so I looked down again. His suit had the brightest gold buttons. I wondered if they were real.