“Don’t marry him. Don’t be with him. Be with me.”

“I love Jere more than anybody. He’s my brother, my family. I hate myself for doing this. But when I see you two together, I hate him too.” His voice broke.“Don’t marry him. Don’t be with him. Be with me.”

“I won’t be the reason you don’t go to him. I won’t be your excuse. You’ve got to see for yourself, or you’l never be able to let him goJeremiah Fisher”

“You know what? Don’t even worry about it,” I said. “Cory Wheeler already asked me. I can tell him I changed my mind.”“Who the hell is Corky Wheeler?”

“I spun away from him. I didn’t need his pity.I started walking in the opposite direction of the house. I didn’t know where I was going, I just wanted to get away from him.He called out, “I still love you.”I froze. And then slowly, I turned around to look at him. “Don’t say that”

“It’s all relative, I suppose. You think you know love, you think you know real pain, but you don’t. You don’t know anything.”

“Hearing him say it now, that is was my birthday present, touched me in the last place I wanted him to touch me. My heart.”