Juliet Immortal

says. “My sister-in-law kept showing up on the porch offering snacks so she could listen to what we were saying. It was embarrassing, and I knew this barn was close. Then the phone rang, and Marianne went to get it, so we got in Gemma’s car. I thought I’d be about twenty minutes, and be back before she noticed we were gone.” He hugs me closer as the thunder booms again. I let my arms twine back around his neck. “But as soon as we turned off, I knew I shouldn’t have left. Gemma just … 
perdio la mente
. You wouldn’t believe the stuff she was saying.”
    Oh, I might
. “Like what?”
    “Like … crazy stuff. Apparently she and Dylan are …”
    “Friends?”
    “More like
friends.
” He snorts beneath his breath. “It’s just a physical thing, I guess, but she said it’s been going on for a while. She said you knew all about it.”
    “I didn’t.” I shake my head. But I should have guessed. From what I know of Gemma, she doesn’t hang around with boys for purely friendly purposes.
    “I knew you didn’t,” he says. “I told her that. But she said that’s the reason you went out with Dylan and the reason you and I … connected. She thinks you’re trying to steal her identity because you’re too messed up to create your own. And she’s convinced you tricked me into beating Dylan up and … just a bunch of stuff that’s so far out there I don’t see how she could say it with a straight face.”
    I roll my eyes. If Ariel and Gemma were in a race to see who was more messed up, Gemma would be the front runner by a lap or three.
    “I told her you didn’t
trick
me into anything.” His forehead drops to mine. “And I told her how I feel. About you.”
    I pull away, looking up at him. “You did? Even though—”
    “I was hoping you’d come around.” His lips quirk into one of his crooked smiles. “But even if you hadn’t, it’s still the way I feel. It’s not going to change.”
    “What did she say?”
    He slides his hands up and down my back in a way that’s one part comforting and another part incredibly distracting. “She told me she was in love too. With some
other
guy.”
    “What?” My brow furrows.
    “She wouldn’t name names, but I guess there’s a third guy in the picture. One who’s ‘worth the trouble.’ She says they’re in love and he’s convinced her to change her life, and that she doesn’t want to play games anymore. She actually had the gutsto say she was trying to protect me. From you. That you’re crazy and have all this ‘deeply buried rage’ no one else knows about and on and on until I just started laughing.”
    “You didn’t.” My lips curve despite my worries.
    “I did. And then I told her I liked your deeply buried rage and everything else about you. That’s when she really lost it.” He shrugs, a movement that brings me even closer, until I can feel our stomachs press together as we pull in our next breath. “I couldn’t care less. Gemma is nothing to me. I never felt this way about her. I’ve never felt this way about anyone.”
    “Me either.” Even in the days when I worshipped Romeo, I didn’t feel like this.
    I didn’t feel I could tell him anything and he’d try to understand. I didn’t believe he saw through to the heart of me and loved me for my strengths
and
my weaknesses. Romeo lifted me up to dizzy places with his adoration, but he never held me with such gentle recognition, never made my feet feel planted on solid ground. Planted in a place where something real and wonderful could grow, something more amazing than “forever.”
    One human life, a human heart freely given—it’s the greatest gift anyone can give. And Ben wants to give his to me. The last of the pink in his aura deepens before my eyes, until the heart of him burns a rich wine-red. It’s a light going on in the darkness in more ways than one.
    My hand slides from his neck to press against my chest. I’ve never been able to see my own aura—I assumed I didn’t have one after my death—but what if … what if … what if I am glowing as brightly as Ben?
    It would certainly explain why Romeo was so thrilled when the lights first came on in the theater. He must have seenmy aura and thought I was glowing for
him
. And then he saw me with Ben. That’s why he was suddenly so intent on asserting his claim, why he—
    What have you done? This changes nothing
.
    What have I done? I’ve fallen in love with someone else—true love,