Troublemakers Mess With the Wrong Girls novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Price

Caleb's POV

We got as far as the corner before I lost my nerve.

Jo walked beside me in her father's old jacket, with her hands in the pockets and her breath showing in the porch lights.

She didn't help me.

She just let the silence run, which she had learned from her mother.

"I had a speech," I said.

"Skip it."

"It was good."

"Caleb."

"Okay."

I stopped under a streetlight and turned to face her.

"You told me once to give you the price up front. I gave it to you late. I've paid some of it back, and money doesn't clear this kind of debt. So I'm asking."

"Asking what?"

"What's the price of forgiveness? Not what you think I can afford. What you want. Name it, and I'll pay it."

She looked at me for a long moment.

I could see her thinking it over, with that small crease between her eyebrows she gets when she's tasting a sauce.

"That's a bad question," she said.

"I know."

"It makes me the one who sets the rate."

"Yes."

"I don't like being a banker."

"Then don't be. Just tell me what you want."

She started walking again, and I fell in beside her.

"Three things," she said.

"Okay."

"One. You come to Sunday dinner. Every Sunday, in the chair next to my father, for as long as I'm invited."

"Done."

"You haven't heard the rest."

"I don't need to."

"Two. You tell me the price of everything up front. Even when it's small. Even when it's embarrassing. Even if it's a pie."

"Done."

"Three." She stopped at the curb and looked at me. "You haven't said it yet."

"Said what?"

"Don't make me say it first."

My heart did something I'd have been embarrassed about in front of anyone else.

For three weeks I had been holding the sentence in my mouth, afraid it would come out as another decision made for her.

But she was asking.

"I love you," I said.

My voice cracked on the second word.

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