Page 91 of Hypnotized By Love

Sighing, I sat up because Sierra could be very persistent. “So he immediately knew it was me when he saw me. He suspected that we might switch places because of how obvious you were being about winning the auction. We had Chinese food and watched an old movie and then we had the talk.”

“Thetalk?” she asked, crossing her legs and tucking them underneath her.

“He told me he loved me?” I didn’t mean for it to sound like a question, but it did. I kind of braced for impact, waiting for a big reaction from her.

After a couple of seconds, she said, “I’m sorry, did you want me to look for my surprised face? I’m pretty sure I left it around here somewhere.”

“Okay, okay.”

“No, really. Did you want me to say ‘I told you so’ now, or do you want me to wait until I’ve really had the chance to rehearse it?”

I lightly smacked her with one of my pillows while she laughed. “You were right,” I said as I put the pillow behind my back. “Is that what you want to hear?”

“It is. How did things end? Did you ask him about the rumor?”

Last night I had thought that Bridget might try to reach out to Sierra, but given the hopeful and excited look my sister was sporting, it was obvious that hadn’t happened.

“I did ask him, and there’s bad news. Not about Mason but someone else.”

She knit her eyebrows together. “Who?”

“There’s not really a way to cushion this, so I’m just going to tell you. Bridget was the one who started the rumor. She was with Mason the night that he saw Mr. Landry and me hugging, and she told me that she was the one who was actually hooking up with him. She created the rumor so that nobody would suspect her.”

All the color drained from Sierra’s face. “Bridget?”

“She confessed the whole thing to me. She apologized. She didn’t want her mom to find out because of how much it would hurt her. Which I get.”

“This whole time?” my sister said. “Bridget did that to you and just didn’t tell us?”

“Yes.”

“I need to lie down,” she said and lay on her side. “I mean, I get that people make mistakes and we all do stupid stuff when we’re young, but that rumor was so hard on you. My ballet teacher’s criticisms led to my disordered eating, so I’m living proof of how the comment ofone person can wreck your whole life, and you had hundreds of people being so mean to you on a daily basis.”

“Honestly? This betrayal doesn’t feel the same as when I thought it was Mason.”

“Really?” That seemed to surprise her. “But you love Bridget.”

“I do.” I nodded. But I had never been in love with Bridget.

I had been in love with Mason.

And I still was.

It was something I had realized last night when I was trying to fall asleep. Him saying he loved me hadn’t scared me like it would have had it been any other man. No, coming from Mason, it felt right.

The more I thought about how I felt in return, the more I realized that the things I had told him were true. It was very strange to go from hating him to loving him, only I suspected Sierra had been right about my feelings—that my hate had been so intense because of the love I’d always had for him. Even in my anger I couldn’t let go of him and hadn’t wanted to.

I’d called it a crush, but I was pretty sure that my feelings for Mason in high school were a lot stronger than that.

I wasn’t sure I was ready to tell him that, though. It felt too big to share. Even with my twin. I wanted more time to ruminate on it and wrestle all these whirling emotions of mine into place so that I could express them better.

Despite all of my clarity and consideration, there was still a part of me that was afraid to give him that much power over me. If I told him I loved him ...

What would happen if he broke my heart again?

I did consider the fact that he had handed me that kind of power over him by openly confessing his love and being vulnerable.

But I was still scared.

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