Page 120 of Chasing After You
Yeah, Bailey is definitely on my shit list. I hate that he’s making her feel this way.
“I don’t think you did anything, Mira. It’s probably an extreme form of teen angst. He’ll work through it, and things will go back to normal.”
“Do you really believe that?” she asks, and the hope lingering in Mirabelle’s question breaks my heart for her because I don’t believe it. There’s something going on with him, and until he learns to let someone in to help him work through whatever this is, I don’t think things will go back to normal.
But I can’t tell her that.
I crane my neck at an uncomfortable angle to press a short kiss to her forehead. “I do.”
Her smile and the way it reaches her eyes make me feel a little better.Lying doesn’t always have to be a bad thing.
Silence envelopes us as I hold the woman I . . .as I hold Mirabelle.
Everything will work out exactly the way it’s supposed to.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Mirabelle
MY JAW DROPS as Henry pushes my pawn off the Sorry! game board and back at the starting place. “Sorry,” he says, and Kaitlyn erupts into a fit of giggles as my jaw drops.
“Please tell me I imagined that,” I say in disbelief, looking at all four of my pawns in the starting bubble.
Henry’s eyes are bright as he coughs to hide his laughter. “I said sorry. This is the whole point of the game.”
I purse my lips at him, crossing my arms over my chest. “No, the whole point of the game is to say sorry to everyoneexceptyour girlfriend. Penelope, can you believe this?” I ask, turning to face Penelope.
“I’m not getting in the middle of this. I’m trying to focus on my strategy.”
Chris isn’t playing, merely sitting next to Penelope on the loveseat in Henry’s hotel suite, resting his hand on hers, squeezing it momentarily. He’s a man of few words, something that has influenced Henry in some ways, but it’s his actions that show how much he loves her.
I’m definitely reading too much into Henry’s body language, but actions speak louder than words.
Like when he brushes my hair back when it falls in my face, holds my hand and presses a kiss to the back of it when I’m biting my nails, and pulls my bottom lip from my teeth so he can see my smile instead of letting me hide it. He does all of these little things, and maybe I just so desperately want him to love me back that I’m looking for it.
Penelope told me on the plane to New York yesterday our relationship reminds her of my parents’ relationship.
It meant the world to me because all I’ve ever wanted was a great love like theirs. You can tell just by how they interact that they love each other.
I want that with Henry.
I don’t think it’s too much to ask for, right?
I turn back to Henry, sticking my tongue out at him immaturely. “I don’t like you anymore.”
It’s infuriating he smiles in response, knowing how untrue it is.
Thankfully, the next time around the Sorry! board, I’m the one who ends up with the right card to bump one of his pawns back to his home base.
“It’s on the other side of the board as yours, Mira. It would have made so much more sense to bump Kaitlyn’s,” he complains.
“You keep bumping mine, so it’s only fair I get to bump yours.” I smile triumphantly, and he just shakes his head at me as Kaitlyn laughs. “Sorry,” I add, and Henry’s lips turn upward in a smile, but he doesn’t say anything.
“Just be glad Mom made me leave Yahtzee at home,” Kaitlyn adds, and Henry rolls his eyes.
“I don’t want to talk about that game,” he mumbles, and I reach over to squeeze his hand reassuringly. Chris clears his throat, and I look at him to see if he’s okay, but he’s staring at our touching hands.
I guess he’s not as okay with us as we thought.
