“I want to tell you this, okay?” Game or no, he wanted her to hear it.

She rearranged the pieces she won back on the coffee table and studied the puzzle—longingly, he thought. Like she’d much rather be left alone to finish it. “Well, okay then. Tell away.”

He plunged in before he chickened out. “When my mom first got sick. I didn’t understand much about what was going on, but I knew it was serious. I remember crying a lot, not being able to sleep, not being able to do my schoolwork. So my dad took me to see her at the hospital. I was relieved she was alive.”

“Oh, Leo.” She put a hand on his arm. “You were so young.”

“She knew I was upset. And how hard it was for me to see her sick. She said we might have to be separated but I would never be separated from her love.” His voice cracked despite himself.

“Leo. No.” She was getting choked up, too. This game night was not exactly going as he’d planned.

He forced himself to finish the story. “She reached out and touched my cheek and said, ‘Leo, I want you to keep smiling.’ She said it would break her heart if she looked down from heaven and saw me devastated by her death. I had to go on, and I should do that by looking up and seeing the brightest side. That life was beautiful and full of love, and I shouldn’t let my sorrow prevent me from seeing the beauty in it.”

Tessa swiped at her eyes. “Leo, that’s—that’s really sad. But also very beautiful.”

He tapped a puzzle piece on his palm. “She believed that we’d be together again one day, and until then, she told me, she’d always be with me, watching me. So I had to live my life to the fullest and show her that I would keep my chin up and be happy.”

Tessa shook her head. “I’m really sorry.”

He realized in that moment that no matter what she had to say about the scholarship, he already knew who she was. And he’d been wrong about her. So wrong.

“So you tend to smile and be as upbeat as possible because of a promise you made to your mom?”

He shrugged. “In reality, I’m a real grouch.” Then he grinned.

She rolled her eyes. “You can’t even say you’re grouchy without smiling. That’s sick.” She tapped a finger against her lips. “Or maybe there’s something else going on here.”

“Nope. Nothing else.”

“I mean, something you might not even be aware of.”

Okay, this definitely wasn’t turning out the way he’d planned.

“Maybe you keep things light for another reason. Because it hurts to go deeper.”

“You lost me.”

“Like, in a relationship. How many have you had?”

“I’ve dated lots of women.”