Page 55 of Love to Hate You

If he was wrong about that then what else was he wrong about. “Love, you scramble my brain.”

He could hear her shift onto her side, and scooch to the edge of the mattress so that she was as close to him as she could get without falling off the bed.

“I apologized to Autumn today,” she admitted.

“I wanted to ask you how it went but I didn’t want to pry.”

“She accepted my apology but didn’t really apologize back.”

“That must have hurt.” He knew that kind of hurt. Never once, after all the rejection and neglect, had his father ever apologized. Wes had overcome it, but Summer was so emotionally in tune with the world around her, such a people-pleaser—even at the risk of her own heart—he imagined it must have stung. “Is that normal?”

“Yes, but it never really bothered me until today,” she said. “I realized it’s a pattern between us that I don’t like. But I don’t know how to fix it. I mean, was I wrong last night? Shouldn’t a couple include the other when doing something as important as buying a house together? Or at least give their partner a heads-up before announcing the news at family breakfast.”

I would want my partner with me, but Randy and I are very different. He’s the grand gesture, I’m the steady day-to-day kind of guy.”

“There’s nothing wrong with steady.”

He took in her words and let them settle. His past girlfriends had complained that he was so stable and steady that there was no room for impulsiveness. He imagined that after a while Summer would come to the same conclusion.

“You and Autumn seem to be different in a lot of ways too.”

“That’s becoming more and more apparent every day. I just don’t want to get lost in the shuffle.”

Feeling as if she needed human contact at that moment, he held his arm up and was surprised when she took his hand. “I know what that feels like. When Randy was born my dad lost interest in me. Why dote on a bastard kid when you have the real thing?”

“I’m not sure how to even respond to that,” she admitted, giving his hand a squeeze. “My dad gave me all the love and support I needed, and I can’t imagine how it would feel to be robbed of that. It makes me mad that you didn’t have the same opportunity to experience love.”

He held onto her like she was his lifeline, a deep sense of understanding arching between them through the simple contact of holding hands.

He gave her hand a squeeze. “Did we just go from frenemies to confidants?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Isn’t that another foundation of a meet-cute: sharing secrets? Who knows? Next you might find yourself kissing me in the river.”

“You kissed me,” she argued, but her grip on his hand seemed to tighten. “But it doesn’t matter who kissed who and who kissed who back, it isn’t going to happen again, Wes. We have four days left of this trip, and then we go back to being enemies.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way.”

“Doesn’t it?” she whispered. “Right now, it’s easy to forget what’s waiting for us back home. It’s easy to pretend that the kiss wasn’t a mistake. But when we get back, I’ll still be in the shadows of your behemoth bookstore, and one bad month from closing my doors forever.”

“The kiss might not have been planned, but it wasn’t a mistake,” he said, hoping to god she recanted her statement. That kiss had been one of the best moments of his year. He’d felt more alive, more passionate, more adamant that he was headed in the right direction than at any time since he’d received the call that his father had passed—when he’d been, for the first time, the chosen one, only he hadn’t wanted to be chosen. Now, when it came to Summer, deep down in the depths of his soul that he didn’t like to acknowledge much, he wanted to be chosen by her.

“Summer, you can’t avoid this topic forever. At some point you’re going to have to be honest with me. And if I truly was a regret on your part, then I’m sorry. But I don’t think that’s the truth. And I don’t want to talk about it until you can give me the truth.”

“Good night, Wes,” she said, avoiding the question, but he noticed she didn’t let go of his hand straight away.

Chapter 18

fun and games

“Do I need a safe word?” Wes asked as Summer zip-tied their wrists together. She wasn’t holding his hand, just letting her wrist fall limp. But they were tied together for the next few hours, which meant she couldn’t escape a real conversation about that kiss and what it meant.

Like all the Russo women, she was dressed in a thrift-store wedding dress, complete with a train, tiara, and veil. Her shoes were red Converse, her hair in a ponytail that was invented for a man to grab and tug. His hands tingled just looking at the way it exposed the length of her neck. It was shocking how something as simple as a glimpse of a part of her that was usually covered could be a turn-on.

She had her contacts in today, and even though he liked the unobstructed view of her beautiful chocolate eyes, he missed the way her glasses were always perched on her nose, highlighting the smattering of freckles that had grown darker in the sun.

“I don’t know, maybe,” Summer said, side-eying her sister, who was grinning from ear to ear. “Never in the history of the infamous Russo Selfie Scavenger Hunt have we ever been tied together.” She looked pleadingly at her mom. “Is this necessary?”

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