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“I never really liked San Diego,” she said oneabout the city he planned to move to

“No? Could you pass me the ketchup?”

She slid the ketchup across the table to hie There was a spark and a sudden heat and she blushed and he frowned

“It’s so crowded” She pulled her hand away and spun her e his mind “And expensive You’ll be totally shocked by the cost of rent You’ll be living in some student’s closet for about a million dollars a month”

“So where would you go?” he asked “Of all the places you’ve lived, where did you like the best?” He took a big bite of meat loaf and Julia considered the question while he ate He asked a lot of this sort of question, forcing her to think about her life and her wants in a way she never had With all of her answers she felt as though she gave away pieces of herself to take with him when he left

“I liked it in Hawaii” She smiled and he returned it, hishad snuck up on her the past few days “—I really like it here”

“New Springs?” He choked and put his fork down “You’re kidding”

“Nope” She shrugged away his horror at the idea “I like small towns and I like the heat and desert…well, I like the plants”

But it was more than that This was the first town she’d picked on her own The first place where she’d started to create what she needed out of what she had and it orking

“Well, I suppose if you never have to talk to anyone—”

“I really like the people,” she interrupted and looked directly at hi, of being able to keep hiht the whole town hated him “They’re not as bad as you think, Jesse And I don’t think people even remember all the stuff you did”

“They remember, trust me” His expression shut down, his shoulders hunched and Julia dropped the subject