Fallen in Love by Lauren Kate Read Free Book Online

taken a second bite, Miles swallowed. “You know, this Luce-and-Daniel saga, their impossible love, the unbreakable curse, fate and destiny and all that … when we first started learning about it in classes, and even when I met Luce, it sounded like—”
    “A bunch of hooey?” Shelby cut in. “That’s what I thought, anyway.”
    “Well, yeah,” Miles admitted. “But recently, going through the Announcers with you, really seeing how much more there is to this world, meeting Daniel in Jerusalem, watching how different Cam was when he was engaged … Maybe there is such a thing as true love.”
    “Yeah.” Shelby mulled that over, chewing. “Yeah.”
    Out of nowhere, she wanted very badly to ask Miles something. But she was scared. And not the scared of having to sleep outside in an animal-filled forest, or the scared of being far, far away from home without anycertainty you’d find your way back again. This was a raw and vulnerable kind of scared, whose intensity made her tremble.
    But if she didn’t ask, she’d never know. And that’d be worse.
    “Miles?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Have you ever been in love?”
    Miles plucked a brown blade of grass and twirled it between his palms. He flashed her a grin, then gave an embarrassed laugh. “I don’t know. I mean … probably not.” He coughed. “Have you?”
    “No,” she said. “Not even close.”
    Neither one seemed to know what to say after that. For a while, they just sat in nervous silence. Sometimes Shelby forgot that it was nervous silence, and it felt like comfortable silence with her friend Miles. But then she’d sneak a look at him, and catch him looking at her, and his eyes would be all magical blue, and everything felt really different, and she’d get nervous again.
    “Ever wish you’d lived in another era?” Miles finally changed the subject, and it felt like someone had popped a huge balloon of tension. “I could get into wearing armor, being chivalrous, all that.”
    “You would make a great knight! Not me, though, I stick out like a sore thumb here. I like my noise in California.”
    “Me too. Hey, Shel?” His eyes pored over her. She felt hot even as a gust of February wind bit through her rough wool dress. “Do you think it’s going to be different when we get back to Shoreline?”
    “Of course it’s going to be different.” Shelby looked down and plucked at the grass. “I mean, we’ll be sitting in the mess hall reading the
Tribune
and plotting pranks to play on the non-Nephilim. We won’t be, like, drinking from medieval wells and stuff.”
    “That’s not what I mean.” Miles turned to face her. He drew her chin up with his finger. “I mean you and me. We’re different here. I like the way we are here.” A pause. A deep blue gaze. “Do you?”
    Shelby had known that wasn’t what he meant. But she was scared to talk about what else he might mean. Because what if she got it wrong? However she and Miles “were” here, she liked it, a lot. All day she’d been feeling this
buzz
around him. But she couldn’t express it. It made her tongue-tied.
    Why couldn’t he just read her mind? (Not that it was any less confusing in there.) But no, Miles was hanging on her answer, which was overdue, and simple, and also really, really complicated.
    “Sure.” Shelby was blushing. She needed a distraction. She reached for the baseball cap. That way he’d stare at it instead of her red cheeks.
    “The reason I asked about your bonnet,” Miles saidbefore she could give him the cap, “is because I found these in the market tonight.” He held up a pair of buff leather gloves with white tabbed cuffs. They were beautiful.
    “You bought those? For me?”
    “Traded for them, actually. You should have seen how much the glove maker flipped over a little pack of gum.” He smiled. “Anyway, your hands were so cold all day, and I thought they’d match your bonnet.”
    Shelby couldn’t help it. She started cracking up. She doubled