Page 131 of To Love or to Lose
He smiles while he runs his thumb across my chin, pretending I have something there when I know I don’t. “I’d be a fool not to believe you.”
“I’ll walk you to your door.” Jameson tells me, getting out of the car after me.
I would tell him he doesn’t have to, but I not-so-secretly don’t want to let him out of my sight yet.
While I desperately tried to save his white button down with my stain remover stick when he spilled pistachio ice cream on himself, there is still the hint of a green stain right over his right clavicle.
I’m just glad I didn’t stainmyclothes.
Jameson carries the tulips he got me as we walk up the driveway, while I’m trying to focus in on the windows near the door to make sure Gwen isn’t standing there when I walk inside.
“Did you enjoy yourself?” Jameson asks.
I take the steps up to my porch and stop in front of the door. He does the same, and we’re standing with only a few feet between us—our frames illuminated by the porch light.
“I did,” I reply easily. “Thank you, Jameson.”
“I’m happy to be in your company anytime, Genova.”
I almost blush, but I keep my composure.“Well,” I turn to open the front door. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
He turns to walk back toward the Uber, but I stop him. “Jameson?”
He turns back. “Yeah?”
“How did you know tulips are my favorite?” I’m gripping the door frame as I stand in the entryway of my house.
“Call it a lucky guess.”
He’s smiling when he turns back to the steps, and I’m smiling as I shut the front door behind me.
Chapter Thirty-Five
105 days until graduation
Deciding to go back to London after spending half of the year in Fairwood was one of the hardest choices I’ve ever had to make.
As I look around my bedroom, as empty as it was when I first got here, I remind myself it’s the right thing to do.
For months, I have been attempting to devise a plan that would allow Genevieve to be Valedictorian without having to give it up myself. Now that the opportunity has arisen for us to both get what we want, I know what I have to do.
I’m going back to London. I’ll enroll in prep school there, finish high school, and become first in the form without stepping on anyone’s toes.
Meanwhile, Genevieve will be here—in Fairwood—making history as the first solo, female Valedictorian at Fairwood Prep.
She will be able to do it all by herself.
This is her dream; this is what she has always wanted. If I stayed, and she found out that I had the opportunity to make her dream come true, she would never forgive me.
“Are you sure about this?” I hear Mae ask.
I turn in the doorframe, seeing her standing in the hall behind me. She has tears streaming down her face.
“I’m sorry, Mae.” That was all the answer she needed before she broke.
Sobs rack her body, leaving me completely wrecked. I pull her into a hug, her body shaking in my hold. Mae already has an older brother, and yet from the moment I got here, she welcomed me with open arms. She never treated me any different from Logan; none of the Callaghans have.
