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“I’m sure I would be happy to see you, too, if I could reretfully I know it’s true When I couldn’t sleep last night, I went through es I found about athat she return to Caberra Our text conversations hadShe’s pretty funny I can see why I liked her
She’s shaking her head now “Why are you still in bed? It’s 9:00 am”
And she’s looking at ly I narrow my eyes
“If you try and tellto know that you’re on drugs There’s no way that’s true”
Reece laughs “Heck, no I won’t even try it I’m actually surprised that you haven’t thrown a pillow at my head yet”
“Don’t think I haven’t thought about it,” I tell her “But since we’re justto be on my best behavior”
She laughs again “You’re the same Mia, even if you don’t remember,” she tells ot it That’s important, I think”
“It is?” I stare at her “I don’t think my mother thinks so”
Reece smiles “You and your mom… you’ve been at each other’s throats since the day I e”
“We have?” I ask with interest “She’s trying hard to make me believe that I’ve always been perfect… perfectIt didn’t really seem in-line hat I feel”
Reece laughs now, a tinkling sound in the sunshine offor air I findat her
“I don’t think it was that funny,” I tell her wryly
“Oh, but it is,” she gasps “If you could only remember You would just die about that”
“I s out of bed Reece looks at me and sobers up
“No, of course you weren’t,” she tells me quickly “You were just feisty And you didn’t take crap from anyone And you definitely didn’t try to be perfect for your mother She has her own ideas about how the perfect fareed with You’ve never wanted to pretend to be someone that you’re not I’ve always loved that about you”
I sigh
“It’s so good to hear you say that,” I admit to her “Gavin tells me that I should just fall into rank and do what I’m told because it’s easier that way And he should know- he’s in the saht I don’t want to try and change who I ae But apparently, that’s sort of exactly what I was doing before It see out of my way to be the opposite of what my parents wanted me to be I don’t really want to do that either I just want to figure out who I really am and be that”
Reece is looking at me sympathetically and I don’t like that
“Don’t feel sorry for me,” I tell her “Please I seriously hate that”
She tightens up her expression and leans over to give
“In that case,” she answers “I’s to do and people to scare”
I laugh and she smirks
“That’s so you would have said once upon a tirin
“Well, then, let’s go scare some people”
I get dressed and Reece and I go downstairs for breakfast When alk into the kitchen, Dante and Quinn are lounging at the table with freshly squeezed orange juice
Together
Which seems odd to me
Quinn grins lazily at ainst hio over so well, so I restrain myself
Dante turns and his entire face lights up when he sees me
“Mia!” he says happily
He gets to his feet and I look hiht he would be…like a fashionkhaki slacks and a button-up shirt with rolled up sleeves The very picture of casual elegance But he’s sexy as hell with that dis me
“It’s good to see you,” he tells me quietly “I’ve been so worried about you ever since I heard”
“It’s good to see you too,” I tell hi that I will soon”
“You will,” he tellswill be fine”
Dante has an air of calious I feel comforted by his presence, like all will be well because he says it will be I like that
He pushes out the chair next to him for me and Reece sits next to Quinn I can tell that there is no animosity there at all, they’re as comfortable as old friends can be And Dante is perfectly secure with their relationship As he should be It’s apparent to anyone in a five mile radius that Reece is cohts she ever had about Quinn are long gone
“How long are you hos elegantly
“We don’t really know yet,” he answers “As soon as we heard about the quake, we knew that we needed to come and help with the cleanup, especially e heard about you We talkedhe’ll let us stay”
“How can you ain
“If we’re here too long, we’ll just finish out the year here I’m not that worried about it”
I know that Old Mia would be very happy to hear this And I’m sure that New Mia will be too Eventually Soon
Stupid vague words
“Reece and I have to go see ,” Dante tells us “But this afternoon, we’ve volunteered to help with a clean-up effort in town Would you like to join us?”
“Of course,” I say Quinn is nodding too
“I’d be happy to,” Quinn says He ets hot I don’t knohy I’ood reason And also, I think he wants to coood reason, too