Bonus Scene
*Please do not read if you have not read Half Truths
“It’s happened again,” Nora said beside me.
“What happened?” I kept my gaze on Logan who was fidgeting with the old school music player at the other corner of the bar.
“Someone else disappeared,” she said. “A nun.”
“What?” I frowned as I glanced over at her. She flashed her phone at me so that I could see the news headline. “A nun?”
“A young nun.”
“People disappear all the time,” I said. Even as I said it I felt like a hypocrite. How many people had told me that about Lana in order to diminish what my gut had been screaming at me?
“More disappear from here it seems,” she whispered.
“I’ve never even seen nuns around.”
“Me either,” she said.
“I heard they only come around here every forty years,” Max said, sliding in the booth across from us. Nora and I both jumped in our seats.
“What the hell, Max?” I said. “Are you spying on us?”
“No.” He rolled his eyes, smiling. “I was walking up when I heard you talking about it.”
“Let me guess, Reddit provided you with that insight about the forty years,” Nora said.
“Your guess is correct and before you diminish my findings, let me remind you that Reddit Nerds are usually one step ahead of everyone else.”
“I’m going to get you a shirt that says that.” I shook my head and looked at Nora’s phone, staring at the picture of the young nun. She was pretty and looked familiar, though I knew it was impossible for me to have seen her before. “I want nothing to do with this. The last time I went down that rabbit hole I ended up in a hole and I’m not willing to do that again.”
“What do the Reddit Nerds say about this?” Nora asked, ignoring me.
“Are you going to throw something at me if I tell you the red-cloaked people may be involved?” Max grinned. “Because last time I brought up a secret society you kind of lost it.”
“Oh my God.” Nora sighed heavily. “Your obsession with secret societies rivals crazy Hailey’s.” She flinched and met my eyes. “Sorry.”
I folded my hands together and focused on my glossy red polish. I didn’t want to think about Hailey right now. She was in jail. She’d gotten what she deserved. She was behind bars. Yet somehow, she seemed to be everywhere. People thought I was crazy for staying here, but I was on my last semester and I wasn’t going to continue to cower. Logan finished last semester and was idling around even though he’d been presented offers from various teams. I knew deep down he wanted Toronto and I also knew he wouldn’t go without me, so I’d been mentally preparing myself for cold weather and a life four hours away from here. My therapist said it would be helpful. I knew she was right, and honestly? I’d follow Logan anywhere he asked me to.
The music settled on an old Goo Goo Dolls song. It was one I’d heard and probably sang in the car, but hadn’t thought about forever. My fingers tapped the table. My eyes came up from my hands when I felt Logan walking over to us. He was smiling wide and I felt my own smile instantly appear. Logan scooted into the booth beside me. We barely had room, but he squeezed in anyway, wrapping both arms around me and looking into my eyes. He was acting weird all week. Normally, he held my hand and had an arm around me, but this week he’d been constantly touching me, as if he was afraid I’d disappear. I felt like saying, “where do you think I’ll go?”
“Nora, why don’t you sit with Paper Boy?” Logan said rather than asked.
“Um . . . okay.” Nora slid out of the other side of the booth. “Max, why don’t we go to the bar so you can buy me a beer?”
“Okay.” Max laughed. “I think you’re supposed to buy me – “
Their conversation was cut off by Logan singing into my hair. I laughed. He was always singing the most random songs to me. I was about to ask him why he’d picked that one, when the singer and Logan piped up and sang to me. To Mae. Or May. I couldn’t be sure, but it felt like it was one-hundred-percent to me as he talked about putting my arms around him and how I was beautiful.
And then Logan lowered his voice as he pulled away and looked at me again. “Do you wanna get married? Or run away?”
My heart pounded so hard I could barely hear anything else. I saw movement from my peripheral and knew we’d gained an audience, and then a little box, a tiny little black box. The song continued to play, but Logan stopped singing and looked at me.
“I want you forever, Amelia. Marry me.”
I blinked rapidly as I nodded. He opened up the box between us, but I was still lost in his eyes, in the way they made me feel.
“Babe,” he said.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Yes, you’re marrying me?”
“Yes to everything.” I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him then. People cheered and clapped and whistled loudly. We both laughed as I pulled away. Logan brought his hand up and brushed tears off my cheeks.
“You haven’t even seen the ring.”
“I don’t have to. I’m looking at you.”
He grabbed my face and kissed me again, deeper this time, growling against my mouth. “I love you.”
“I love you.” I smiled. “So much.”
“Well, I want to see the ring.” That was Nora.
“I’d like to state for the record that I helped him pick it.” That was Nolan.
“Fuck you, I helped him pick it.” That was my brother.
My head snapped up at the sound of his voice. It was then that I looked around the room and realized all of our friends were here. And my mother. My mother at a tiny dive bar she would never normally step foot in. I felt like crying again.
“You’re sneaky.” I looked at Logan.
“Only because I wanted to surprise you.” He kissed me. “Can you please look at the ring now? It took me a month to decide on one.”
I looked at the ring in the box. It was gorgeous, a diamond set on a diamond band. It was big, but not obnoxiously so. If I’d been the kind of girl who looked at engagement rings, this would have been the exact thing I would have picked. I smiled wide as he took it out of the box and held my hand, sliding it onto my finger. He took it back off when he reached my knuckle. My eyes snapped up.
“I had it engraved,” he said, turning it so that I could see it. It had a little number eight inside it, or an infinity symbol. Both warmed my heart. He slid it back on my finger. “Forever.”
“And forever more after that,” I said.
Everyone cheered again. We kissed again. I’d never felt happier.
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