“But…our first Christmas together as a couple,” I said, pouting. Not that I’d expected us to cavort through multicolored light displays while having a snowball fight and drinking hot cocoa as carolers regaled us, but, well…okay, I had been imagining something like that. Something romantic. Him being a hundred miles away kind of threw a wrench in that plan.

“I know, I know. Believe me, I’ll be having a worse time than you will be,” he said. “But I’ll be back for New Year’s.”

I groaned. That was more than a week away. What the heck was I going to do?

The truth was, I shouldn’t have complained. Earlier in the week, I’d reminded myself to count my blessings. Although Declan might have been destined to have a bad time and my week would be boring, I knew someone who’d be having an even worse time. Luisa’s dad’s heart attack had been pretty severe, and he’d lost a lot of oxygen to the brain, which had put him in a coma. He’d woken up three weeks later, permanently brain damaged, to the point that he couldn’t communicate with his family.

Luisa and her family had always gone on extravagant vacations for the holidays, but this year, they’d canceled their Mediterranean cruise. I hadn’t asked her what they were doing instead, because I hadn’t wanted to pry, but every day, she’d come into school, her eyes red-rimmed from crying. She avoided her friends, and Kane said that she’d been avoiding him too.

“What will we do on New Year’s?” I asked.

“I’d say it’s an intimate get-together at our place. But you know Kane.” He imitated an explosion with his hands. “He wants to do a speakeasy theme.”

“Speakeasy? You mean, like, Roaring Twenties? Gatsby? He hated that book.”

“Yeah, but the extravagance is right up his alley. And our parents will be out of town. You’ll come, right?”

I nodded, wondering how I’d find a flapper dress. But there was no place I’d rather be.

My eyes drifted to the gift, carefully wrapped in red foil paper, in my hands. I gnawed on my lower lip. The box was the size of an engagement ring, but I didn’t think Declan was that crazy to propose to me when I was sixteen. “I really have to wait until Christmas?”

“Hell no. I only did that to torture you,” he said, grinning. “Annnd I see it worked. Open it.”

Within seconds, I’d ripped off the paper. I lifted the lid to reveal a tiny silver heart. There was a diamond in the center. “Oh!”

“Do you like it?”