Page 59 of The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back

He let out a small laugh. "Sorry, I'm a little nervous. I've never really done anything like this before. I feel like all I keep doing is trying to explain myself to you. So I'm just going to put all my cards on the table. Good enough?"

So he was nervous. I nodded, not daring to breathe.

"Do you remember when I ran into you coming out of the bathroom at your house?"

Vividly. In Technicolor detail. Of all the things I had expected him to say, that was definitely not it. "Vaguely."

"You were taking a shower and we ran into each other in the hallway?" He looked a little embarrassed. Oh my Buddha, could he be any cuter? I wanted to melt.

"Anyway, I realized you were this like, hot chick, and it wasn't cool to lust after you when I was dating your sister."

"There was lusting?" my voice squeaked.

He had a cocky smirk. "There was definite lusting. Which is why I was a jerk to you. I had to keep you at arm's length. Especially since I also thought you were dating that Trent guy. It's not okay to move in on another guy's girl."

Jake thought I had been dating Trent? What? Before I had time to process that information, he kept going.

"But then you just, I don't know, got under my skin. I kept thinking about you, even when I didn't want to. You are the only girl who didn't do everything I wanted her to. At first I hated it, but then I kind of liked it."

His eyes were so, so intense. I hung on to his every word. "You make me push myself and you don't take my BS. You're smart and funny and pretty and into the same things as me. I really like you."

I was so flustered and excited I didn't know what to focus on. He liked me? He thought I was pretty? And smart? And funny? He was attracted to me? He wanted to be with me?

"Come here. I have something else for you." I only had one phone. What was he talking about? He stood up and held out his hand to me. I put my hand in his and got up. Electricity and warmth sparked between us where we touched. The tingles threatened to consume me.

I would have followed him to the ends of the earth. But he only walked me into another room, standing in front of two large sliding wooden doors.

"I wanted to do something to show you that I am all in."

He slid open the doors. There, in the middle of a long, wooden dining room table big enough to seat twenty, was a round birthday cake with candles. It took me a minute to realize what he had done. He had recreated the scene from the end ofSixteen Candles.

To say I was stunned and overwhelmed and amazed would have been selling the experience short. "I don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything. Just get up here with me."

The music I heard was coming from his iPod. It was a loop of "If You Were Here," the same song playing at the end of the movie. He helped me climb on a chair and then up on to the table. I sat down cross-legged and he sat across from me with the cake in between us.

I sat there, staring at his beautiful face, touched beyond words by what he had done. He really, really did like me to go through all this effort. I wanted to say something but couldn't think of anything.

"It was the best I could do on short notice." He looked boyish, like he hoped he had made me happy.

"Shut up. It's perfect. I can't believe you did this for me." I squeezed his hand, and he held it tightly. "But it's not my birthday."

"I know. But I'm doing something here." He let go of me to pick up a lighter. He started lighting the candles.

He was doing something all right. He was making sure that I would never possibly ever love anyone the way I loved him. This was beyond anything I could have imagined. I couldn't believe that I had almost missed out on this. I made a silent promise to myself to never let anyone else get inside my head. To keep my own insecurities at bay. To always believe in love and magic.

With all the candles lit, he looked back up at me. "Well?"

I smiled at him. "I'm all in, too."

He grinned back at me. "Make a wish."

I knew my line.

"It already came true."

"I'm glad you came over, Tilly."

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