Light the Fire

13

“Yes, like the time you pushed me in the ocean when we were five. Or when we were seven and you tricked me into sitting on those strawberries and ruined my dress. Or—”

He grimaced. “Okay, yes, I was quite awful. But I had to get your attention somehow.” He let out a low laugh. “Wow, I’d forgotten about the strawberries. No wonder you hated me.”

“I didn’t hate you. Well, maybe a little…”

He pulled me close and kissed me again, and every time it was like a revelation. I’d spent my entire life thinking Derel was my nemesis. Now I looked on him with a whole new light.

“We should probably get going,” he finally said. He helped me to my feet and we brushed dirt off ourselves, but then he paused. “There was another reason I was rude to you.”

“What was it?”

He glanced over at the other guys, who looked like they were trying to watch us without being too obvious about it. “Falon.”

“Falon only sees me as a friend.”

“We both know that’s not true of anyone in this group.” He shook his head. “Like I said last night, you should talk to him about that.”

With those words he grabbed his pack and walked away, leaving me with only my thoughts. I grabbed my things and hurried after him.

For the next few hours we traveled through the empty wilds, the volcano looming large in front of us. As I kicked up dirt, I went through my memories of Derel and saw everything he’d done—all the pranks, the teasing, the arguments—in a new light. It made me wonder what else I’d been wrong about all my life.

I slowed my pace to fall in line with Falon, who walked at the rear of the group. Last time I’d tried to talk to Falon about us it hadn’t gone as planned, but his being here had to be a sign he cared for me as more than a friend…didn’t it?

“I see you and Derel have worked out your issues finally,” he said with a teasing voice.

“We did.” While Derel had long driven me mad, Falon had a way of calming me. I always relaxed in his presence. “He told me to talk to you.”

He ducked his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “Me? Why?”

“He said one of the reasons he pushed me away all these years was because of you.” I glanced over at Falon quickly to gauge his reaction, but couldn’t meet his eyes.

He blew out a long breath. “What a pair we are. He wouldn’t do anything because of me, and I wouldn’t do anything because of him.”

“What do you mean?”

He stopped and turned toward me, allowing me to gaze into his clear blue eyes. “Gods, after so many years this is difficult to finally admit. I have feelings for you, Kira. I always have.”

Warmth spread throughout my chest. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You’ve been promised to Derel for our entire lives—how was I supposed to get in the way of that?”

“You knew that was what our parents wanted, not us.”

“Trust me, Derel wanted it too. He pretended he didn’t because he knew how I felt about you and he didn’t want to get in the way. Which naturally was the same reason I never acted on my feelings. Maybe one of us might have told you the truth eventually, but then you became involved with Roth and it looked like you would marry him, so we decided to keep our feelings to ourselves.”

“Yes, but my relationship with Roth didn’t last long.”

“True, but then you started seeing Blane…”

I shook my head. “That wasn’t serious.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Is that what you think? Because I’m pretty sure it’s serious to him.”

I bit my lip and looked over at Blane. I’d have to talk to him later to see if Falon was right. I turned back to Falon and sighed. “I wish I’d known the truth all this time. I thought you only saw me as a friend.”

“I didn’t know if you felt that way for me either. Not until last night.” He took my hands in his and gave me a warm smile. “I was terrified if I told you I had feelings for you that you wouldn’t return them and it would ruin our friendship. I couldn’t stand the thought of that. I tried to tell myself your friendship was enough, and that I’d be happy if you married one of the other guys, but the truth was, I was miserable seeing you with them. I wanted it to be me.”

“Are you going to be okay with this arrangement?”

“I think so. It’s the perfect solution.” He glanced over at the other three guys, who were still trudging along ahead of us. “The five of us were all so close when we were younger. We’ve each loved you for years. But we knew if we acted on it, it could tear our group apart.”

“Roth and Blane acted on it,” I pointed out.

“Roth was a selfish jerk before the attack,” Falon said with a wink. “But we would have gladly let you marry him if he made you happy. Blane too, for that matter. But you probably noticed that once you became involved with them, the group stopped spending as much time together.”

I nodded. “I know, and I realize that was partly my fault. I just hope this situation brings us closer together instead of tearing us further apart.”

“It will. We may be hesitant at first to share you, but we’d rather share you than not have you at all.” He took my face in his hands. “And now I’m going to kiss you, because I’m the only one who never has.”

“Finally,” I said.