Always Only You by Chloe Liese (z-lib.org).epub

He said they’re still fixing the damage done to the kitchen and my room, but
after that it’ll be ready. I should be able to get in by next week, after our games
in Minnesota.”
“Well…that’s good.”
Verbal brilliance, Bergman.
I’m a nervous wreck. There’s so much I want to tell her and none of it will
disentangle in my brain. I want to ask her to stay, even when that bungalow is
safe to return to. I want to confess that I’m wild about her. I want to ask if she’s
even a little wild about me, too.
But the one thing all five Bergman brothers agreed on tonight was that I
should wait to tell her how I feel.
The when was not a unanimous agreement between my brothers. While Axel
and Oliver said to wait until she’d left the team, Ryder and Viggo voted not to
wait that long, just until she’s back in her own space again, at which point, if I
told her and she didn’t feel the same way, she at least wouldn’t be stuck under
my roof.
Just stuck working with you.
Frankie stares at me. I’ve noticed she does it sometimes, like she’s not just
looking at me, but as if she’s trying to look into me.
“Is everything okay?” she asks.
I balk at that. “What do you mean?”
“I thought maybe you were angry. Your answer was short. And that usually
translates to me as anger.”
“Frankie, no.” I have to restrain myself from hugging her. I want to kiss her
forehead and beg to know how I made her feel I was angry with her when I’m so
far from it. “Why would you think that?”
Her gaze drifts to the waves breaking on the shore. “Reading people is tricky
for me. Usually, I can’t tell by someone’s face how they’re feeling, not until I
know them really well and I have lots of time to learn their expressions.” She
turns and stares at me again, her brow furrowing seriously. “That’s because I’m
autistic.”
Air rushes out of me. Frankie’s on the spectrum.
God, I’ve been thick. While I know it’s unique to each person, I’m familiar
with autism’s complexity, the way it both hides and sneaks out. My youngest
sister, Ziggy, who I’m close to, was diagnosed just a year ago. Axel hasn’t been
diagnosed, but more and more since Ziggy’s diagnosis, I wonder why he hasn’t
been. The point being, I’m well acquainted with the autism spectrum in people
I’m close to. Why didn’t I recognize it in Frankie?
Stepping nearer, I tentatively thread my fingers through Frankie’s, bracing