Chapter 26.
It was official: Ben might just be my new favorite person. Okay, not really, but since he had agreed to take Avery out on a third date so that I could have some private time with Luke, the guy deserved serious props.

This date with Luke was long overdue--not just because I enjoyed spending time with him, but also because it would give me a chance to finally talk to Luke one on one about what was going on with our relationship. I didn't like the gray area we were operating in, where it kind of seemed like we might be heading towards dating, but neither of us had come out and expressed a real interest in a romantic relationship.

When I arrived at Luke's house, his mother greeted me with a warm smile and a hug, which was nice, but felt a little strange.

"Lilly, darling, it's so nice to see you again," she said, ushering me through the door. Luke's mom had always liked me while we were dating, and it was nice to see that she still approved of me, even though I had broken up with her son.

"Luke, Lilly's here," Mrs. Carters called.

I grinned, feeling like we were both in high school again, even though he was now a junior in college and I was a freshman.

Luke appeared a few minutes later dressed in a pair of dark wash jeans and a University of Ohio sweatshirt. "Hey, Lilly," he said, offering me a half smile. "Sorry, I lost track of time."

"No problem," I said, my lips twitching into a smile. "So, what did you want to do this afternoon?"

Luke shrugged. "Well, I figured I would give you two options, and you could pick one. Option A, we can go ice skating and then go out for hot chocolate, or Option B, we can go to the arcade and then get pizza."

I tapped my chin thoughtfully. "Well, both of those sound fun," I said, "although I'll probably be terrible at both. Do you have a preference?"

Luke smiled. "Whichever one you want to do," he said again.

"Ice skating," I decided. "Arcade games are fun, but I haven't been ice skating in years."

We headed to the ice rink, and when we got there, it wasn't all that busy. Only a handful of people were on the ice, and loud music blared from the speakers. I shivered from the cold realizing that I probably should have worn a jacket, because, duh, ice rinks are cold.

"Here," Luke said, taking his sweater off and slipping it over my head. "I can't have you freezing to death."

"Thanks," I said gratefully, wrapping my arms across my chest to warm up. "But what about you?"

Luke shrugged. "I'll be fine once we start skating," he assured me.

It only took a few minutes to get our hands stamped for skating, and to get rental skates. I chose figure skates, and Luke chose hockey skates. Privately, I wondered if there was really that big of a difference between the two, but I was afraid to ask, because I didn't want to sound stupid.

Luke led me over to sit down while we put on our skates. When I stood up, I wobbled and almost fell immediately. Luke reached out and caught me, steadying me before I could fall on my butt.

"Careful, Lilly," he said, smirking at me. "If you're already almost falling and we aren't even on the ice yet, maybe we should have gone with the arcade games. That probably would have been safer."

"Oh, shut up," I said, sticking my tongue out at him. "I just need a few minutes to get used to it."

Spoiler alert: I needed more than a few minutes to get used to it. I clung to the wall, bracing against it as I crawled around the outside of the rink like a granny. A girl who couldn't have been more than six or so skated past me, doing a fancy spin maneuver in the middle. I shook my head, wondering how she managed to make it look so easy.

For his part, Luke was incredibly patient with me, even though he clearly had much more skating experience than I did. He stayed with me, giving me pointers on how to keep my balance.

"Bend your knees," he advised. "If you lock your legs straight, it's impossible to balance."

I laughed wryly. "You make it sound easy," I said, trying to do as he suggested and bend my knees more. He was right, it did help a little.

Luke skated backwards in front of me, glancing over his shoulder occasionally to make sure he didn't run into the wall or any other skaters.

"You're a show off," I told him, watching the way he made it look so easy.

Luke shook his head at me. "It's not that difficult, Lillian," he said. "We are literally just skating in circles."

I shrugged. "It's harder than it looks," I said. "I'm just happy I haven't fallen yet. Although, I'm sure that will come when I have to figure out how to stop."

Luke laughed, cocking his head at me. "You seriously don't know how to stop?"

"How would I know?" I said defensively. "I barely know how to stay standing."

"Well, yeah, but shouldn't that have been the first question you asked then? You wouldn't drive a car without knowing how to use the brake, right?"

"I mean, if I was going slow enough I might," I joked.

Luke shook his head. "Wow. I am so glad I always drove on our dates. I never want to get in a car with you driving, ever. In fact, I don't think I want to be driving when you're on the road."

"Watch it, Lucas, or I will push you off your skates," I threatened.

He laughed. "I'd love to see you try. You'd probably just fall on your face."

I probably would, but I was still slightly tempted to try. Instead, I reached out and grabbed Luke's hand. He spun around so he was skating next to me, and we skated, hand in hand. I was proud that I only wobbled slightly as we skated.

After our skating date, Luke offered to stop at the coffee shop, but legs were super sore from skating, so I asked him to go through the drive through instead, so I wouldn't have to get out and walk into the coffee shop. Yes, I know, I'm lazy. Don't judge.

We returned to Luke's house with our drinks—him with a large coffee, and me with a large hot chocolate. His parents weren't home, so we had the house entirely to ourselves. Luke led me inside, and we settled next to each other on the couch, sipping our drinks.

"So, this was fun," I said, trying to keep the conversation going. Somehow, I could never quite find the right words to say around Luke. Something about him always made me feel awkward, like I was an immature kid and he was going to judge me for it.

"Yeah, it was a lot of fun," Luke agreed, reaching out and grabbing my hand.

I looked down at his hand in mine, and wondered why it felt so strange to me. It was perfectly pleasant, the way his hand fit in mine, our fingers laced together. It wasn't gross, or sweaty. But it just didn't feel quite right, and I wasn't sure why that was.

As much as I liked Luke, and thought he was a good guy, I wasn't sure I liked him romantically. That ship had sailed for me. I didn't get butterflies in my stomach when he looked at me, and although I enjoyed our time together, I didn't crave it. I just felt...friendship.

"I think we should talk about our relationship," Luke said, and I gaped at him, wondering if he had somehow read my mind.

"What about it?" I squeaked.

Luke shifted next to me on the couch, turning so that he was facing me as he talked. His dark brown eyes bore into mine, as though he were trying to gauge what I was thinking. I gulped nervously, not sure I liked the idea of having a heart to heart with Luke. I wasn't ready. I still wasn't sure what I felt.

"Lillian, we've been spending a lot of time together, and I think we need to define our relationship, to make sure there are no confused feelings," he said.

"Okay?"

He sighed, pressing his lips together in a thin line, as though he was afraid that the words he was about to say would hurt my feelings.

"I know we've been reconnecting, and I've really enjoyed that, but I have to be honest: I just don't think of you romantically. I have feelings for someone else."

I exhaled hard, feeling more than a little relieved at that. "Oh, good," I breathed.

Luke frowned. "Well, you don't have to sound so relieved about it," he grumbled. "I'm not that repulsive."

I giggled. "No, you're not," I agreed. "You're great. And I'm glad we're friends. I just don't feel like we have any chemistry anymore."

I nudged him. "So, are you going to tell me about this girl you have feelings for? Do I know her?"

Luke frowned. "Oh, no you don't. I'm not letting you off the hook that easily. What about you? Who do you like?"

I froze. "No one," I said defensively.

He crossed his arms, smirking at me. "Lillian Marie Faye, I know you better than that. It's completely obvious."

"What is?"

"That you like my cousin."

I shook my head. "Why does everyone keep saying that? Dylan and I are just friends."

"Really?" he asked sarcastically. "Do you hang out all the time? Spend a lot of time one on one?"

I nodded. "Yeah, but friends do that."

"When you go out together, who pays?"

I frowned. I had never really thought about it, but yeah, Dylan usually offered to pay whenever we went out together. But that didn't necessarily mean anything. His family was loaded because his father had been in the NFL. Money wasn't a big deal to him.

Luke nodded. "That's what I thought," he said, even though I hadn't answered.

"Friends can do those things," I said defensively.

"Maybe," he said. "But I think you like him as more than a friend. In fact, judging by the way you're turning bright red, I'm fairly confident."

And, although I wanted to deny it, I couldn't quite bring myself to make the words come out of my mouth. Instead, a bunch of things clicked into place for me: the way it had bothered me so much when Dylan flirted with other girls. The reason it had made me insanely jealous whenever I saw him with Avery.

And then there was the fact that Dylan was so easy to be around. We never had trouble making conversation. He almost always could cheer me up when I was upset. He never made me feel like I wasn't good enough. Unlike with Luke, where everything felt awkward, with Dylan, everything came easily. It felt right.

And that's when I realized: I liked Dylan. I had a crush on my best friend. And that was a pretty big problem, because I had absolutely no idea what to do about it.
–
Ahhh, this chapter has a lot for you to take in.
For all you Lilly shippers, I hope you aren't too upset!

What do you guys think of Lilly's realization, are you excited?

What do you think will happen in the these last few chapters now?

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