CHAPTER 19 #3
I took a deep breath, summoning the courage to answer honestly. But he’d just revealed how much he missed me, right? So was it alright for me to do it, too? He wouldn’t get scared? “I was thinking about you,” I finally admitted shyly.
A slow grin curved his mouth, the kind that always made my knees go weak. His thumb brushed my jaw. “Good,” he said softly. “Because I can’t stop thinking about you for even a second. At this rate, I’m not even going to graduate unless I figure out a way to focus in class.”
He kissed me again, slower this time, and for a second, everything outside that hallway vanished.
Lunch. Classes. Whispers. None of it mattered.
It was just him. Always him.
I was vaguely aware of doors opening and people coming out into the hallway, but I couldn’t spare them a look. When he was near, it was like no one else existed.
“Let me take you to lunch,” he urged as he pulled back just enough to get the words out.
My heart leapt, my lips parted…ready to say yes, to say anything he wanted…
“Matthew Clay Adler,” Natalie’s voice rang out like a trumpet, cutting through the air. “Step away from our new best friend.”
Matty didn’t move. He actually growled against my lips. A low, frustrated rumble that vibrated down my spine.
“First…how do you know my middle name? And second…she’s my best friend,” he shot back, eyes still locked on mine like he was daring me to contradict him.
I also knew his middle name. But I wasn’t ever going to admit that.
“Also, how do you even know her?” he added after a second, a cute, confused frown spreading across his lips.
“That was three things, Adler,” Natalie snapped.
There was a chorus of laughter and soft gasps from somewhere over Matty’s shoulder.
I finally moved my head enough to see them—Natalie standing like she’d just declared war, Casey with one arched brow and a smirk, and Riley biting back a smile like this was the best entertainment she’d had all week.
“Oh, this is good,” Natalie whispered loudly, practically vibrating with glee.
Out of nowhere, Jace appeared, radiating the same energy as a fire drill during finals week.
“Who’s your best friend, Riley-girl?” he demanded dramatically before scooping Riley clean off her feet.
She shrieked, laughing as he spun her around in the middle of the hallway, her hair flying and her arms flailing.
“I’m your best friend!” Jace crowed, spinning faster. “Your bestest friend!”
“Put me down, you psycho!” Riley smacked his shoulder, even as she laughed harder, clearly not meaning it.
Finally, Jace set her on her feet—well, kind of. He didn’t actually let her go. Instead, he wrapped both arms around her waist and snuggled his head against her shoulder like a giant golden retriever who thought he was a lapdog.
Riley rolled her eyes but didn’t push him off, her cheeks flushed with affection.
Casey beamed, her whole face lighting up as she watched them. It was the kind of look that made me ache a little, even though I couldn’t quite place why.
“Don’t look at him anymore,” Matty muttered under his breath, almost sounding jealous as he tugged me closer like he was blocking my view of the entire Riley-and-Jace spectacle.
“Excuse you,” Jace said, dramatically affronted. “How can you not look at this?” He made a Vanna White motion to himself, nuzzling Riley’s hair for good measure. “I’m giving you award-winning content for free.”
“You’re giving me heartburn,” Matty shot back in a voice as dry as sandpaper.
“Heartburn?” Jace gasped. “That’s just love trying to crawl out of your chest.”
Natalie clapped her hands together like she was at the theater. “Casey, see. I told you that was a thing!”
Casey elbowed her, but she was smiling, too.
Matty ignored them all, turning his gaze back to me—serious now, like he’d remembered something important. “Remember Ari Lancaster’s radius idea, Jace?”
Jace perked up. “The one with the circles?”
Matty nodded. “Yeah. We need to implement that.”
“Wait,” Natalie cut in, brows knitting. “Is this a football thing or…like, a sex thing?”
“Neither, Bennett. It’s a girlfriend rule, obviously,” Matty said with a smirk, steadying me with a hand on my waist when I nearly stumbled at the word.
“Ten feet minimum around my girl. Twenty, if the guy looks like he lifts.” He glanced over at Jace.
“So obviously, you would just need to abide by the ten-foot one. I’d like to inform you, though, you are violating my radiuses right now. ”
Jace’s eyes widened in outrage. “How am I supposed to make new best friends with Ophelia if I’ve got to stay twenty feet away? I’m a hands-on kind of guy!”
“It’s only ten,” Matty deadpanned.
“Details,” Jace said breezily, waving his hand like it didn’t matter. “Ophelia, back me up here. Wouldn’t you prefer a Jace Thatcher bear hug over a Matty Adler sulk in the corner?”
I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. There was so much going on right now, and I was pretty sure Matty had just referred to me as his girlfriend in front of almost his entire friend group.
A girl could only handle so much at one time.
Matty grinned. “She’s obviously following the rules already, like the good girl she is. You can’t talk to her unless you’re ten feet away.”
“Fucking hell. He just called you good girl, Ophelia. Gird your loins, sister. You might be pregnant,” Natalie said, grabbing onto Casey like she was in danger of falling to the floor.
My head was spinning.
“Nice to meet you, future bestie,” Jace said as he threw out his hand.
Everyone laughed except for me.
Because I was suddenly feeling guilty.
I knew Jace Thatcher. Just like I knew them all.
Not personally, obviously. But in the same way I’d memorized Matty. By watching. By listening. By piecing things together from practice fields and glimpses in the student union.
I knew Jace was loud, ridiculous, always the first to crack a joke. I knew he had an ego the size of the stadium but a loyalty that matched it. I knew Riley had been his from the second he laid eyes on her, and he wore that devotion like armor.
I already knew more about him than he could guess.
I was such a freak.
Matty pressed my hands against my side with zero subtlety. “Tell the bad man,” he murmured, eyes locked on mine, “to stay a radius away from you.”
The seriousness in his tone, paired with the ridiculous wording, knocked the angst right out of me, and a startled giggle burst out before I could stop it.
Jace grinned like a cat about to cause trouble. He lowered his hand and then immediately picked up Riley, swinging her around again until I was sure she was about to throw up. “See? She laughs at me. It’s fate. She wants me within the twenty-foot radius.”
“Lunch,” Natalie declared, pointing dramatically toward the exit like she was leading a parade. “All of us. Right now.”
Matty groaned, dragging a hand down his face. “I was going to take her to lunch.”
“Sorry, Adler,” Natalie singsonged, already looping arms with Casey and Riley. “We asked her first. You’re lucky we’re even letting you tag along.”
He muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like I hate llamas, but he still reached for me. His fingers slid between mine, warm and certain, like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Fine,” he said, giving my hand a light squeeze as we started walking. “But only because I think she likes you.”
My pulse skipped, the air catching somewhere in my throat.
“Do you…want to go?” he asked softly, his voice lower now, meant only for me.
I nodded, shy but sure. “Yeah.”
We fell into step beside the others, his thumb tracing lazy circles over my knuckles, and I tried to focus on anything other than the dizzy, floating feeling in my chest.
After a moment, I couldn’t hold it in. I glanced up at him, praying this wouldn’t end in embarrassment. “Did you mean it?” I asked quietly.
He looked down at me, brows pulling together. “Mean what?”
“That I’m…your girlfriend.”
For a second, he just stared at me. Then that slow, devastating smile spread across his face, the one that made everything else disappear.
“Yeah, pretty baby,” he said, leaning close enough for his breath to brush my temple. “You are.”
The words sank into me like honey…slow, golden, and so sweet it almost made my teeth ache.
And as we walked across campus, his hand still wrapped around mine, that feeling hit me again, like I wasn’t just watching a dream from far away.
I was in it.