Top Ten(98)

“So this is it, huh?” Ryan asked her when they were finished, shoving his hands into his back pockets. “See you around, and all of that?”

Gabby nodded. “This is it,” she said, swallowing her heart back down into her chest where it belonged. She wanted to reach into her rib cage and hand it to him for safekeeping, wanted him to know he had it no matter what else happened next. “Ryan—” She broke off.

“No, I know.” Ryan nodded, then shook his head a little, then made an exasperated face at himself. “Me too.”

“Okay.” Gabby felt the panic start to lick at her ankles; she took a deep breath then, tugging his wrists out of his pockets and squeezing both his hands. “But—”

“Gabby. I know.” Ryan smiled faintly, his long, knobby fingers laced through hers. “You want me to come up with you?” he asked her. “Help you get settled, all of that?”

Gabby exhaled, feeling her shoulders drop and her breathing slow to something like normal. She looked at him for a moment, her Ryan: calm and so loyal, steady as a beating heart. He was her most important person. He was her best friend in the world.

“Nah,” she said, and smiled at him. “I can do this one by myself.”