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reversed.”
    “I can’t believe you,” I moaned as my fingers pulled against a large knot of hair. 
    “Oh come on, Clo. You know if you were me and I had long hair like yours, you wouldn’t be able to resist either.”
    I rolled my eyes. “Jerk.” I glared at him, but his smile only grew wider as he watched me with amusement.
    “Long live Pippi Longstocking,” he responded with glee. Then he scooted onto the edge of the bed, leaned his face next to mine and looked into the mirror that I still held up in front of me.
    I watched him studying my reflection from the corner of my eyes and couldn’t read the meaning behind the small smile on his face. There were a few moments of silence between us as he continued to look at the mirror and I wondered what he was thinking.
    “You know, Pippi,” he said thoughtfully and with a straight face. “I really think your hairstyle’s making a comeback.” Then he exploded into laughter as the warmth of his body pressed against mine.
    “Ha ha,” I replied sarcastically. “Not funny.” I tried to push him off the bed. “You’re so mean. You always find so much pleasure in making fun of me.”
    “Oh come on, Clo.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to him. “Don’t be mad at me. I’m just playing with you.” He looked down at me and grinned. “You know no matter how, umm, unique you or your hair looks, I’ll still think you’re the cutest thing I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
    As he beamed down at me with that smile that caused my insides to melt, my body stiffened. Like a cruel joke fate was playing on us, images of the letters in the attic flashed through my mind at that moment, and I was instantly brought back down to reality.
    I can’t do this. This is wrong. I can’t sit here and smile with him, laugh with him, and hit him flirtatiously and pretend to be upset like before.
     
    “What’s wrong, Clo?” His face fell when he noticed my changed expression. “Are you okay?”
    I drew in a steady breath and forced myself to smile over at him. “Yeah. Nothing’s wrong.” But I quickly looked away when our eyes met because it was more than I thought I could handle. “I’m…”
    Just then, a woman in a white coat knocked on the open door.
    I looked over at her eagerly, relieved by the interruption.
    “Ms. Sinclair, I’m Doctor Morgan. It’s great to see you awake. You really had everyone worried for the last two days. How are you feeling?”
    “Hi.” I gave her a small smile. “I’m feeling okay. Has it really been two days?” I didn’t realize I’d been unconscious for that long.
    “Yeah. You were very lucky though. Other than some minor flesh wounds from the car’s impact with the water, you didn’t sustain any injuries. And thanks to this young man, you were pulled out of the water pretty quickly, so it doesn’t look like there was any permanent damage from oxygen deprivation.”
    I nodded. I knew I should feel lucky and thankful that I was okay. But with Jackson’s arm still over my shoulder, that wasn’t how I felt—that was the last thing I felt.
    “Doctor Morgan, does this mean she can go home soon?” Jackson asked.
    “I want to check her vitals and run a few tests, and if everything looks good, she can be discharged as early as tomorrow morning.”
    “That’s great news.” Jackson smiled over at me and I saw the relief on his face.
    Within a few minutes, Doctor Morgan had checked my vitals and left my room, leaving me alone with Jackson again.
    “Alone at last,” Jackson said in a playful tone as he reached for my hands. “You know what we need to do when we leave here?”
    “What?” I moved my hand away just in time to avoid his touch.
    He didn’t seem to notice my recoil. “We need to go on our first date.”
    The clear excitement in his voice broke my heart.
    There was a moment of silence before he asked, “Is everything okay, Clo?”
    “Yeah. Why?”
    “You just seem a little quiet.”