All I'd wanted for so long was for someone to explain everything that had happened to me in this same way. To label it neatly on a page: this leads to this leads to this.

If he'd been any other boy, and this was any other world, I would have kissed him. Nothing could have stopped me.

The way I see it," she continued, "is that some things are just meant to be the way they are.

When he first put his arms around me, it was tentative, like maybe he expected I'd pull away. When I didn't, he moved in closer, his hands smoothing over my shoulders, and in my mind I saw myself retreating a million times when people tried to do this same thing: my sister or my mother, pulling back and into myself, tucking everything out of sight, where only I knew where to find it. This time, though, I gave in. I let Wes pull me against him, pressing my head against his chest, where I could feel his heart beating, steady and true.

So he didn't have to prove how he felt about me. Like so much else, I should just know.

But if something was really important, fate made sure it somehow came back to you and gave you another chance.

Who knew three dots could make such a difference? Like everything else, a love or a wish or whatever, it was all in the way you read it.