Page 288 of Small Town Firsts

“Depends.” I lean forward and twist around to look at him. “Did you bring coffee?”

“Yes.” He places another tray, though this one’s smaller, down onto the table separating the two chaises. “And cookies, too.”

My eyes widen and my belly sings at the sight of a fresh sleeve of Oreos on the tray. “My favorite.”

“Would it be weird if I confessed to already knowing that?”

I snatch a cookie and shove it in my mouth. I nod as I chew. “Yes, very.”

“The pantry was always stocked with them when I’d come to visit Rob, but he hated them. So, that left you.”

“Okay, not so weird.”

“So, tell me something,” Sterling says.

“Tell you what?”

He sips from his still-steaming mug. “I don’t know. Anything. Something true, something meaningful.”

I don’t know what possesses me to say what I do, but the words topple from my lips before I can think better of them. “I wanted to die. After, I mean. I wanted so badly to stop breathing, to stopbeing.But coming here, it’s my fresh start... my salvation.”

Sterling swallows roughly and looks away from me. Immediately, I worry I said too much, that he didn’t mean it when he said I could talk to him.God, I’m such an idiot.

“I’m glad.”

Tears prick my eyes. “Glad about what?”

“That you’re here. Alive, breathing, in Georgia, next to me.”

“Do...do you mean that?”

He hesitates ever so slightly before reaching out and grabbing my hand. “Yeah, Emmalyn, I do.”

CHAPTER 24

EMMY

“So,Sterling is meeting us at the game?” Stella asks, her back to me as she digs through her closet.

We’re in her room getting ready for our first game of the season. Well, she’s getting ready—I’m spinning circles in her desk chair, questioning my entire existence.

“Emmy!”

“Huh?” I plant my feet, halting the chair’s rotation.

“Are you even listening to me?”

“Nope,” I say.

“I asked if Sterling was meeting us at the game?”

“Oh, I’m not sure.”

“He should tailgate with us. Text him.”

“Uh, I don’t have his number.”

“Really? It’s not on your syllabus?”

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