Her eyes went wide, but her expression softened as she scrutinized his face. “That fangirl in Seattle,” she said. “You said you didn’t sleep a wink after it happened. That was true?”
He nodded, holding his breath. It took every ounce of self-control not to reach out and touch her face. He could sense her presence beside him now—the sensitive girl he’d fallen in love with over Twitter, not the ice princess from the car ride home tonight. She was still in there, just beneath the surface. He just needed her to thaw a little more…
Maybe he should show her the tweet he sent before. She clearly hadn’t seen it. Eric reached for the phone in his lap, but his attention was distracted by a flutter of movement in front of him. He sat up in his seat and pointed toward the windshield. “Look!”
31
SNOWFLAKES
Tessa watched in puzzlement as Eric’s whole face changed. In the blink of an eye, his expression went from shuttered darkness to a look of childlike delight. She followed the direction he was pointing and saw the reason why. The night sky had filled with snowflakes, dancing through the air in all directions.
He reached toward the windshield and touched the glass where one of the snowflakes had stuck. Then he glanced back at her face with a silent question in his eyes. She knew what he was asking. The same question he’d asked her over DM last night. She’d reread that conversation enough times to commit it to memory.
Taylor: What songs are you hoping Eric will play?
Tessa H: As long as he does “Snowflake,” I’ll be happy.
It was strange to think she’d written that to Eric. The person beside her felt like a total stranger—and yet somehow, she knew him well. She’d felt a small jolt of recognition just now when he mentioned Dorian Cromwell. She knew the expression that crossed his face: that glimmer of fear. She’d seen it before in videos. She’d frozen that frame a thousand times. He normally concealed it with a fake smile or a come-hither look straight into the lens. But this time he didn’t bother hiding behind a mask. He let her see the truth.
Tessa suddenly remembered the rest of what she said to him last night. I just wish someone would write a song like that about me. But he hadn’t, of course. He couldn’t have…
She didn’t have time to think about it further. She gasped at the sound of his voice beside her—so strange and yet so achingly familiar. Eric skipped over the song’s opening and came in on the second verse.
The wind, it started whipping.
It slammed my window shut.
My snowflake left a teardrop.
I guess she’d had enough.
But I won’t forget my snowflake.
Can’t melt her from my mind.
I’ll watch here from this window.
For the love she left behind.
Tessa listened to his rich, full tenor voice, but she didn’t look at him. She kept her eyes glued firmly to her lap. She felt the gentle pressure of his hand against her elbow, and she shuddered at his touch. Even through the layers of flannel, she could feel his fingers, freezing cold.
What was she doing out here? She hadn’t meant to stay and talk. She hadn’t even intended to get in the car. Just drop off the blanket and leave.
“I’ll keep an eye on things,” he’d said when he dropped her off earlier. She had to admit, it was kind of sweet. Especially after the cold shoulder she’d given him on the ride home. Not the kind of behavior she would have expected from a famous pop star meeting a fan. More like something a guy might do for his girlfriend after getting in a fight.
Tessa shook the thought out of her head. He’s not your boyfriend, she silently reminded herself. He’s Eric Thorn.
But what was he doing, parked there in her driveway for hours on end? What exactly was he trying to prove?
He took a breath before he hit the chorus, and Tessa swept a glance in his direction. He looked back at her with fierce determination that sent a pulse of heat rippling through her. She couldn’t bear the scrutiny. She interrupted, her voice terse, before he could let out another note. “What do you want from me?” she whispered.
“I want to be with you.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m in love with you.”
At his words, the tiny spark kindled stronger. She pressed her palm below her rib cage to smother it. She refused to meet his eyes, but he caught her wrist and pulled her toward him. “Tessa, last night you said you loved me too.”
She twisted, wrenching free. “I said that to Taylor. Last night I was talking to Taylor.”
“I am Taylor!”
“No, but—”
“Tessa, look.”
He pulled out his phone, and she squeezed her eyes shut at the sudden flash of blue.
Twitter.
Really? After everything that had happened? Tessa couldn’t bear the sight of it. The detective had suspended her account in the police station, and she hadn’t protested. She never wanted to lay eyes on that little bird logo again.
“Look.” She heard Eric’s voice in her ear, low and raspy. “Please look. Tessa, I need you to see this. Please.”
Tessa could hear the urgency in his voice. She didn’t know what it meant—what he could possibly need to show her so desperately. She sucked in a deep breath and forced her lids to open. He’d pulled up his own profile, and her eyes fell on the most recent tweet.
Eric Thorn @EricThorn
I love you, snowflake. This is real.
Tessa’s vision blurred. She slammed her eyes closed again and covered them with her hand.
“Tessa,” he said, pulling at her wrist. “C’mon. Don’t do that. I’m sorry, OK? I’m sorry I’m Eric Thorn. But why does that change everything?”
She didn’t know how to explain it to him. So many words had passed between them—all those months of endless direct messages—and all of it had now been cast in a new light. Different fragments of their conversations kept springing to her mind, and she gave up trying to suppress them. She merely spoke the words aloud, a different set of words that she’d long since learned by heart. “You know what Eric Thorn would see if he ever noticed I existed?”
Eric peeled her hand away from her eyes, and Tessa cast a quick look at his face. She couldn’t tell if he recognized the quote. The next line would do the trick.
“How did you put it, exactly?” she asked. “A leech? With no point to my meaningless existence except to suck?”
“Tessa, don’t.” He rose to his knees in the car seat and grabbed her by both shoulders, forcing her to turn toward him. “I didn’t mean that. I didn’t even know you yet!”
She shrugged beneath his hands. “It was kind of true though. I’m a fangirl. I have a thousand pictures of you on my phone. I started a whole hashtag about you called #EricThornObsessed.”
“Right,” he said slowly, his eyes boring holes straight through her. “Which I kind of interpreted to mean you were—you know—kind of…maybe…into me?”
She looked away. “It’s just really embarrassing. Try to imagine how you would feel.”
“You’re embarrassed because you’re into me?”