Hey, Mister Marshall (St. Mary's Rebels 4)

So see?

Everyone is happy.

Well, mostly.

Because the moment Jupiter and I rejoin the group — all the girls are huddled around Dove’s table and Echo is getting her future read — I hear Dove say, “Well, I think there’s some confusion in your life.”

I see Echo’s shoulders stiffen. It’s a slight movement but we all catch it. “Uh, what kind of confusion?”

Dove shrugs. “I don’t know. Something. Like you’re torn between two things.” Then, “Are you?”

Her shoulders stiffen even more and she pushes her honey blonde hair behind her ears. “I don’t think so?”

“Are you asking me or telling me?”

“Telling you.”

Dove studies her for a few seconds. “Okay then. But if you were, confused I mean, I’d tell you to just go with your heart.”

“Yeah, my heart is stupid, so.”

Dove smiles then, sitting back in her chair. “It is, isn’t it? But I’d tell you what I told Cleo long back. That hearts are stupid, yes. You never know where their loyalties lie. They have their own kings and queens.”

Zach and Cleo have an amazing love story and Salem told us all about it. In fact, Dove here was the one who made Cleo realize that she was in love with Zach.

“And trust me,” Dove continues. “It wasn’t a happy realization for her. But I told her, as I tell everyone, that it’s okay. You just roll with it.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Callie adds, who stands propped against a table next to Dove and Echo. “A happy realization for me either, I mean. That I loved Reed.”

Then Salem goes, patting Echo’s shoulder, “I realized that I loved Arrow when I was ten. And I don’t think that was a happy realization either. I mean, he was in love with my sister.”

Standing beside Salem, Wyn shakes her head. “I don’t think it’s ever a happy realization when you finally find out that you’re in love with a guy who wants nothing to do with you.”

“Or with love,” I chime in, leaning down to hug Echo. “That there are more important things in his life. Than you.” I straighten up. “But sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised.”

I can’t contain my grin then.

And neither can my friends.

Callie raises her eyebrows. “Like our Poe here.”

Wyn comes to squeeze my shoulder then. “Because she recently found out that the man she’s in love with loves her back.”

Salem shakes her head, chuckling. “Oh, he doesn’t just love her back. He practically worships her.”

“Oh my God, yes,” Jupiter agrees. “Poe is basically his little queen.”

“No wait, Cinderella,” Callie goes then. “Because Cinderella is the one with the shoe, right? Where the prince goes down on one knee to put a shoe on her foot. To see if it fits.”

“Uh-huh.” Wyn smiles. “And he totally did that. In front of everyone. And Poe here blushed like crazy. Which is so rare.”

“Yeah, Poe never blushes,” Echo points out.

“Shut up, okay? All of you,” I say, narrowing my eyes. “I did not blush.”

I so did.

I had to.

It happened when we arrived at the carnival this morning. I climbed out of the car and my heel got stuck in something, making me stumble. And the first thing out of my mouth was his name.

“Alaric?”

But I don’t think I even needed to say it. I don’t think I even needed to call out to him because he was there at my side, in a flash, before I even finished calling out for him.

And then frowning, he came down on his knee and wrapped his large comforting fingers around my ankle, straightening my heel and fixing my buckle.

Looking up, he asked, “Okay, baby?”

I nodded, grabbing onto his shoulder. “Thank you.”

That was when I blushed.

Because his jaw had clenched and his eyes had flashed.

And I know he was thinking about all the other times and all the other things that I say thank you for.

So yeah, I blushed.

Because he made me. Because he did go down on one knee for me.

Because I love him to pieces and I love being his baby.

Anyway, with Echo’s reading done we all head back to the guys.

Honestly, I think the guys are all relieved as well.

Especially Reed, Conrad and Arrow.

Because their eyes swivel over to us and I distinctly see them breathing out and shifting on their feet as if relieved.

But that’s all I catch because then my attention is stolen by this one man who breathes out the longest and shifts on his feet more restlessly than the others. As if he’s been waiting for us — me — to get back more eagerly than the others. As if his eyes were waiting and just waiting to catch a sight of me and shine.

I wouldn’t blame him if he was.

Because I was the same way.

I’ve been dying to get back to him ever since we separated. Dying to get back to touching him, smelling him, holding his hand, rubbing my nose into his shirt sleeves, kissing his biceps.