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He nodded, his eyes so understanding that I feltup

I blinked those tears away, calling irl

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Jared and I ended up at the casino’s sports bar, betting on horse races, and drinking for free

He was great at cheeringenerally finding ways to cheer me up

I ell onthat had ain, but for a different reason

"If you need soet you whatever you need within tenabout that

"Jared, you need to knock it off with that stuff I’ to--"

"Anything you--"

"No, thank you Hard liquor is h for me You need to knock that shit off, Jared"

"We’re only twenty-one, sis Live a little We can be responsible and boring e’re thirty"

"That stuff is bad for you, Jared All of it Alcohol is bad enough You don’t need to be trying every crazy thing that you come across"

He waved that off "Don’t worry about it I like to party, but I knohat I’ that it was i stupid And I was the saripped one of my hands in both of his "Listen Whatever you think happened that night didn’t change just because of what happened before And Tristan may not express himself, but I know him better than anyone, and I can tell you that he’s never been like this, not with anyone He’s fallen for you, and seeing it, I think it’s the first tied to Natalie" My tone turned resentful just thinking of that other woo, and they were kids Every guy in the world thinks he’s in love with the first wo, what you should take fro blindly loyal, maybe too much so He made promises to her, and he kept every one of them She’s a piece of work for what she did to hi loyal to a wo to do for someone like you"

Tristan found us there hours later

We were clutching hands and giggling, drunk off our asses

We’d both gotten to the saying sweet things to each other’ phase of our drunk

"There’s nothing I want more than to be your real sis, Jared," I told him, eyes wide Somehow, in drunk mind, that was meant to emphasize my point "I’d adopt you if I could No bullshit"

He pattedcrazy wide "I’d adopt you back No bullshit But I have an even better idea Marry Tristan, and it’ll be legal Wouldn’t that be so aweso nods "Totally awesome," I whispered "If I could have one wish in the whole world, that would be it I love you guys I want you to be ripped my hand hard, his eyes and tone earnest "I want that too And we totally love you back Tristan ht not say it, but I know him better than anybody, and he totally does"

"I love you," I told hi on

"I love you back"

"Isn’t this sweet?" Frankie asked wryly, from somewhere behind us

I craned my neck and then whipped my head around to see where she was

She and Tristan stood at our backs She had her are s, but he also wasn’t lookingI’d just been telling his brother how much I loved him

"How many have you had?" Tristan asked sternly

For so our bellies

"Not ht," Jared said

"Less than three," I said at the same tiiggles again

"I’ve got Jared," Frankie told Tristan

He nodded "I’ve got irl Talk to you to down in front ofa warm hand on my knee

"Still mad at me?" he asked

I shook my head "Not ood"

He straightened, tugging an to walk, takingconfused

He’s such a guy, I thought "Yes Hurt That night ere together in the rain I thought it was special, and it wasn’t, and I feel like I lost soht that was special to me lost all of its special"

His other ar at the back of"I’ht was special, and whatever stupid fucked up shit I did before that can’t change how special it was"

That made me warm all over

I was so starved for any words from him that I’d take scraps and be happy