But I give him nothing. Because I can’t get the words out. If how he feels about me is based on the old Parker, would his feelings stand strong with the new me?

“I wish I had told you that night under the bleachers. I was planning on it,” he says. “But I was chicken. That’s the truth. If I had known I was going to lose you the way I did, I would’ve tried anyway.”

I squeeze my eyes shut. Fitz has no idea the extent he lost me. That’s what’s so heartbreaking.

“You’ll never know how I wish I could’ve been braver. I can’t change what happened, even though I’d give anything to do that. It’s my greatest wish to go back and do what was right.” His warm breath tickles my lips when he sighs. “I’d like to give a go at the future with you. You know this already. But I need you to believe it. And maybe I don’t know what you went through, Parker. But I know it was a lot. And if you need forever to talk to me about it, I’ll give it to you.”

Bringing my hand up, I find his cheek before I open my eyes. “I don’t need forever,” I say quietly. “But I do need a little time.”

It’s the truth. I need time for the Griffen family’s lawyer to look through what I sent him. I need to talk to Cam and see how he can help and what that might mean for me when it comes to my plans for the convention.

But I need to give Fitz something now. “And I want to try too. I mean it.”

“Good.” He presses his lips to mine. “But I have conditions.”

An astronaut could see the playfulness on Fitz’s face from the moon.

“Name them.”

Fitz rubs his hand up and down my waist. “You’re going to homecoming with me.”

My eyes widen. “Homecoming?”

He hums. “Yes, homecoming. I go back every year for it.”

“The dance?”

“The game.” He laughs. “I think if I started showing up to high school dances as an adult, someone would call the cops on me. But damn, if I had the chance to take you, I would. I’d love a re-do.”

“A re-do? What do you mean?”

“I guess it’s not a re-do since we never had a first time, but I tried.” He smiles at the clear confusion on my face. “I always wanted to dance with you. And maybe junior year I got a week’s worth of detention because Mr. Gibson caught me stuffing the ballot box.”

I gasp. “Is that the reason I won?” Honey had died only two months earlier. It was the beginning of my spiral. I showed up blasted to the dance. “Did you steal the election for me?”