Until Harry(23)

I felt heat stain my cheeks when silence fell between us.

“How long have you been feeling like this?” he questioned after a moment.

I blew out a relieved breath that he didn’t laugh at me.

I swallowed. “Since I was around ten, but it’s getting worse now ’cause I keep getting upset about it, whereas when I was younger, I didn’t give it much thought when he was hanging around with other girls.”

I looked up when my uncle snorted. “It’s your hormones, kid,” he said with a matter-of-fact tone. “You’ve hit puberty. Shit goes downhill from here.”

I was a little embarrassed to be talking about hormones and puberty with my uncle, but I laughed when he finished speaking, because his expression was dead serious.

He smiled at me. “Why don’t you talk to your mum about this?”

Is he joking? I was horrified at the suggestion.

“I couldn’t,” I stated. “She loves Kale like he is her own. She’d probably disown me.”

My uncle’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s a little far-fetched, don’t you think?”

“No,” I replied, “I think it’s perfectly accurate.”

My uncle’s eyes twinkled as he smiled. “Your vocabulary is growing.”

I pushed strands of hair that fell into my eyes back from my face. “I read a lot of books,” I said, shrugging. “Some that aren’t for kids either.”

My uncle cocked an eyebrow. “Romance novels?”

I nodded. “Young adult stuff – nothing explicit or anything.”

Nothing too explicit anyway.

“I’ve no doubt those kind of novels make you more upset about Kale,” my uncle said.

I frowned. “Not exactly. Well, they make me want a boyfriend more. I like reading about people’s happily-ever-afters. It seems like it would be nice for someone to love me.”

“I love you,” my uncle quickly stated.

I rolled my eyes. “I mean a boyfriend type of love. Family love is a different kind.”

“Family love is everything,” he specified. “Once you have the love of your family, you can do anything.”

I snorted. “Okay, Oprah.”

“Cheeky mare,” he tittered. “All jokes aside, are you okay? We can skip seeing The X-Men film if you want to.”

“Not a chance. I am dying to see that film.”

My uncle stared me down. “Are you sure? Because if you aren’t up for it, we can do something else?”

I smiled at his concern. “I’ll be okay. I just get like this whenever he blows me off. I guess it’s just something I’ll have to get used to.”

My uncle scratched his neck. “Or you could just, I don’t know, tell Kale you like him and—”

“Are you out of your bloody mind?” I cut my uncle off with a dramatic screech. “Kale can’t ever know that I like him. It would be the end of my life!”

“Darling,” my uncle said, his lip twitching.

“No!” I stated, and wagged my finger at him. “You promise me right now that anything I ever tell you about Kale stays just between us. Just between us.”

“Lane—”

“Promise, Uncle Harry.”

My uncle laughed so hard he had to rub tears from his eyes. “You’re exactly like your mother,” he cackled. “So demanding.”

I folded my arms across my chest. “That doesn’t sound like a promise to me.”

My uncle had a bright smile on his face as he shook his head at me and said, “I promise, I’ll keep all things Kale-related strictly between the two of us.”

I eyed my uncle, then stuck out my right hand, with my pinkie finger erect. “Make the unbreakable vow,” I said, my eyes narrowed.

My uncle laughed again. “I knew I’d regret buying you all those Harry Potter books.”

Say what? I inwardly balked. That was possibly the best decision he had ever made; I loved those books.

“Pinkie-swear,” I pressed. “It’s my version of the unbreakable vow.”

My uncle gnawed on his lower lip for a moment, then lifted his hand and hooked his pinkie finger around mine. “I, Harry Larson, pinkie-swear to you, Lane Edwards, on my honour, to never share any chats or spats about Kale Hunt to Kale or to any other living, breathing human.”

I overlooked his obvious amusement and focused on his words. “Good,” I said, nodding. “Now I don’t have to kill you.”

My uncle’s lip quirked. “A girl protecting her heart from possible love – what could conceivably go wrong?”

“Nothing,” I answered. “Absolutely nothing can go wrong; I’ve got it all figured out.”