“I appreciate it, okay? You’re being really nice, and you don’t have to. I just want you to know I’m grateful, so suck it up.” We happened to come up to a stop sign when he glanced at me with those blue-green eyes and said, not softly but not roughly either, just… different, “I want to, all right?” As quickly as I opened my mouth, I closed it. He wanted to? Lucas Ripley wanted to be nice to me? My first thought was: why? My second one was: who was I to tell him no? No, sir, please be a jerk and don’t care about me. I wasn’t that dumb.
