Happily Ever After: A Day in the Life of the HEA (Rook and Ronin #3.5) by J.A. Huss Page B

me. She’s been the perfect girl for me since I laid eyes on her. And even though most of my thoughts growing up were about how to get her to join me in my delusional dreams of science fair domination at Saint Joseph’s, the past year or so I’ve been starting to think of what we might become instead of what we already are.
    We’re friends now, but somewhere in the back of my head, I’ve always wanted to marry her. Even if it was just the little-kid version of marriage. And now I’m leaving. Just as we get to the age where we might start imagining about the more adult version of our relationship.
    I’m going to lose her. I realize this. There is no way to make time stand still. There is no reasonable way to ask her to wait for me. There is no possibility of me not going to Oxford. And I don’t even want to stay, either. I want her, but I want to start moving forward too. I’ve been holding myself back just to stick around. But I can’t do it anymore.
    We have to grow up some time.
    “This was the best day of my life as well, Rory.” I mean it too. And she knows I mean it.
    She frowns a little, her face lit up by the brightly colored lights of the tree. “I’m gonna miss you so much, you know.”
    I nod. “I’m gonna miss you too.”
    “I know I play girl games with you. Pretending not to notice you looking at me. Or pretending not to look at you back. But Five, I’ve counted on you to be there for me my whole life. I cannot even imagine you leaving.”
    I feel a little sad all of a sudden. “I go away to school all the time, but I always come back, Rory.”
    She nods. “I know. But this is different. You were a kid. And you might only be fifteen, but you’re not a kid anymore, Five. You’re going to be thousands of miles away this time. There will be an ocean and so many time zones between us, we’ll never even chat on the phone. We can’t even text unless we figure out the time difference beforehand. It’s going to be different. Everything is going to change.”
    “We can just…” I sigh now too. “We can just make a pact, you know? Like, we’ll promise each other that we’ll talk all the time. Make an effort.”
    “I don’t want our friendship to be an effort. It’s never been an effort before. You were just there. You were always just there. And now you won’t be anymore. I’m going to be all alone.”
    “You have Sparrow. And Kate.”
    “I know.” She looks up at me, her sapphire eyes watering like she might cry. “But I want you.”
    I pull her into a hug, wrapping my arms around her tightly. “Don’t be sad, OK? I promise I’ll be back for Spring Break. And all summer too.”
    She shakes her head as she buries her face in my coat. “You always do geeky stuff in the summer. You go to special places for geniuses and think about things that will change the world. You’re going to meet people over there who are just like you, and you might even come back a few times, but then…” She looks up at me. “But then one day, you’ll be like, I’m too busy to go home this time. I’m just going to stay. And that will be it for us, Five. We’ll never recover from that. Because we’re still kids right now, but we won’t be kids forever. We’re going to grow up.”
    God, she’s so right. Everything she just said is right. And I’m not even sure there’s a way to stop it. Life just… goes on. I want to make it better. Make her stop being sad and be happy. Make her smile again. I don’t want her last memory of this day to be all the things we will regret in the future.
    So I lean down. My heart beats faster. I lean down and she leans up, and we are so close. Our lips are so close.
    “Rory?” A deep voice makes us pull apart unexpectedly. “Five? Oliver?” Vic Vaughn—Veronica’s older, massive, built-like-a-monster, and tatted-up-in-scary-ways brother—is looming over us with a scowl on his face. “I thought you guys were in Vail for Christmas? What the hell are you