Do you love me?

Matt?

Disclaimer: I don't own the fantastic Gallagher girl series by Ally Carter.

                                              Abby's POV

It's been a month since all that happened with Townsend, and now Squirt, Liz, Macey, Bex, Townsend, and I are all on a mountain somewhere in the Andes. We just found Matt's grave. I'm digging at it, willing myself to see him. It's my fault he's here in the first place. The snow around me turns red and starts to melt as blood, my blood, and tears, also mine, start to mix with it. I keep trying to dig as my fingers continue to bleed and start to throb. I deserve this pain, it's my fault he's here! A hand grabs my hands and holds them in his hands. I try to break away from his grasp, but I'm too weak to do so. Instead, my sobs just start to come harder. I hear footsteps in the snow heading towards the house, and I know Edward and I are alone. "It's my fault he's here!" I sob. He pulls me towards him, and I close the space between us.

"It's not your fault," he whispers. I place my head in the crook of his neck as I continue to cry. He rubs my back soothingly. This is the man I fell in love with, gentle, sweet, and caring. He turns his head and kisses my hair. I calm myself into hiccups.

"Edward, why do you stay after I continually push you away?" I ask as I pull away to look at his beautiful blue eyes.

"Because... because... um..." He stutters.

"I think I know why," I whisper. He puts one hand behind my neck and the other on my cheek to wipe away my tears. He holds me like that for a minute before we say anything else.

"Abigail, when we fought last month, were you going to say you liked me?"

I suddenly feel blood rush to my cheeks and warms my face despite the freezing temperatures. "Yeah," I simply state. "Why?"

"Because I like you too, Abby," my face flusters even more.

"You finally learned my name," I half-heartedly tease. Before I even realize what I'm doing, I lean in and kiss him. It takes him a second, but he leans into the kiss as well. Neither of us have much energy from today's emotionally draining events, but all the energy we have we put into the kiss. After exactly a minute and 13 our kiss starts to slow and he pulls away.

"We have to make sure the girls don't find out about this, word will spread across all over the academy," he says. I nod.

"Townsend, when did you first know you liked me?" I whisper.

"The first time you ever kissed me," he whispers back. My eyes go wide. "What?" He gently asks.

"That's when I first knew I liked you too."

We get up and start walking to the door until I see a nose sticking out from behind the curtains. "Damn it," I say.

"Well, looks like we're going to be the object of gossip at Gallagher for the next few months."

I groan as we walk into the house, hand in hand.

"Told you!" Macey says to the others as she sees our clasped hands.

"If anybody says a word about this, I swear you won't live to see your days in the field," I threaten.

Liz, Bex, Macey, and Squirt all share a smirk and say "Got it!"

I sit in front of the fireplace as the girls go to look for firewood, and soon I'm joined by Edward.

"Penny for your thoughts," I say.

"Just thinking about the future," he simply states. My heart skips a beat and butterflies flutter into my stomach.

"Am I in it?" I ask hopefully.

"Do you want to be?"

Instead of answering him, I just kiss him. As I pull away I see a spark of hope in his eyes.

"I'd take that as a yes."