I Love You More Than I'm Afraid (Our Forevers #2) by Rebel Hart (the first e reader .txt) 📕

Laughing, I kissed her cheek. “It’s okay. Why don’t I leave the flowers down here.” I set them down gently on the grass next to the treehouse. “And I’ll collect them when we’re done.”

She groaned. “Fine.”

With that sorted, I started up the treehouse, giggling when Arden did exactly what I thought she would do and swatted my ass. I popped my head through the treehouse opening and my jaw dropped. The interior had been lined with white twinkling lights and in the center was a small table that had been topped with a tablecloth and a couple of plates with cloches covering them. There were pillows on either side for seating and Arden’s speaker had been set up and was sitting on the window sill, quietly playing romantic music.

“Oh wow!” I said. “It looks incredible in here.” I climbed up into the treehouse and scooted over to one of the pillows. Arden climbed up after me and crawled over to the other. “It feels bigger in here than I remember.”

Arden shrugged. “Forced perspective.” I furrowed my brow at that response. It didn’t quite make sense to me, but I didn’t feel like pressing the issue and ruining the moment. Arden grabbed the top of her cloche and the top of mine and said, “Now prepare yourself. This is real gourmet stuff.”

“I’m sure,” I said. A trait Arden and I shared was that we were both miserable at cooking. Way back when we first started dating, I tried to improve my skills thinking at least one of us had better know how to cook, but then I stopped.

Because we broke up…

“You okay?” Arden said. “You look like you’re about to cry.”

Suddenly, I could feel it too. That tightness in my throat and burning in my nose. We obviously didn’t break up. We were celebrating our third anniversary, so why did I have this gross feeling in the pit of my stomach?

“I’m fine,” I lied. “Just so happy.”

“Oh.” Arden smiled. “Good.” She lifted the cloches off of the plates and revealed sandwiches and chips. Next to both plates were two juice boxes that the straws hadn’t been pressed through yet. “Bon appetit.”

“Looks wonderful,” I said, taking a closer inspection of my sandwich. It appeared to be a turkey club, which was one of my favorite sandwiches. I was a glutton for bacon. “It actually does look really good.”

I lifted my sandwich to put it in my mouth and Arden reached across the table. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Uh. I was gonna eat the sandwich.”

“Hannah,” she said and my name in her voice sent a wave of chills across my body, “everyone knows the right way to eat a sandwich is like this.” She lifted the top piece of bread off one half of her sandwich and then picked up a couple of chips and stacked them on top of the meat. She then replaced the bread and smashed it down until the chips crunched and then lifted it to her mouth and took a bite with a flurry of crisps. “Come on. Be a foodie with me.”

“If that’s the right way to eat it, why didn’t you make it that way?” I asked.

She narrowed her gaze at me. “I didn’t ask for your logic.” She fluttered her hand at my sandwich. “Just try it.”

I just shrugged and shook my head, but did remove the top slice of bread from half my sandwich and placed a few chips right on top of the meat. I put the top slice back and pushed it down until I heard the chips crunch, then I lifted it up to my mouth and prepared to take a bite.

“Arden!”

Both Arden and I looked over, and I saw a look glaze across Arden’s face that gave me chills, and not the good kind. Her eyes registered a deep longing that I couldn’t even remember seeing in all the time that we’d been together and she got a calm grin. “Aria…” She set down her sandwich and crawled over to the window and stuck her head out. “Aria!”

“Arden,” I whined, grabbing her hand and trying to pull her back to the table. “This is our anniversary. Can you pay attention to me?”

She didn’t respond, but just pulled her hand from mine and continued to look out the window. “What are you doing here?” she called down.

“Come down here!” Aria called back. “I have something I have to tell you.”

Arden moved immediately, sliding herself out from behind the table and over to the opening leading out of the treehouse. Once again, I tried to reach out and stop her, but she just yanked free of my hold and continued to descend the treehouse ladder. Irritated, I moved over to the window and stuck my head out. Aria was standing down in the yard, dressed in a beautiful, long, flowing white dress. Her hair was down, longer than I remembered it being, curled and perfect, but she had a nervous expression on her face.

“Hey,” Arden said as she reached the bottom of the treehouse. “What’s going on?”

“Are you busy?” Aria asked. “I really need to talk to you about something.”

Arden shook her head. “No. Not at all. What’s up?”

“Not at all?” I barked out. “What about me?” But neither Arden nor Aria seemed to hear me.

Aria reached out and took Arden’s hands in hers, and my heart started to beat a little faster. “I…” Her gaze was flitting all over the place, but then it eventually lifted and locked into Arden’s. “I’m in love with you.”

“What?” I screamed. “Aria! Go away!” My voice was unheard yet again.

I finally decided that I needed to just go down there and interject myself, but when I crawled over to the opening to the treehouse, there was a door there that had never been there before. It was blocking the way out, and no matter how much I tried to pull or push, it wouldn’t move out of the way.

Then