My heart slams against my chest. “You can’t just change the rules so you can pay for my food.”
“I’m not changing the rules. I just …” He sighs, shifting his weight and massaging the back of his neck. “Please just let me pay for you.”
Every one of my instincts is to say no, but then he reaches out and tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. I’m not even sure he means to do it since he jerkily pulls back, as if he’s surprised himself. Whatever the reason, I find myself dumbly nodding, confirming that I’m as big of a dumbass as other northside girls. Because I know better, and yet, here I am, falling into a royal guy’s world.
Shit.
He relaxes. “Thanks.” It almost looks like he’s about to touch my hair again, but then he hastily stuffs his hands into his pockets.
We start toward the taco truck again, quietness wrapping around us.
“So, tryouts are coming soon,” he says—thank God—breaking the awkwardness. “Are you nervous?”
“Truthfully, and I swear to God, if you tell anyone this, I will ruin you, gothic prince,” I pretend to scold, and he grins. “I kind of am. I’m not sure why, other than this feels like an entirely different league than what I’m used to. I’ve been looking at someof the PRs for people who were on the team last year, and holy crap, I’m getting worried.”
“You’ll do great. I know you will. Not just because you’re good, but because you have an amazing coach.” He grins, causing me to giggle.
“Way to stroke your ego,” I tease, nudging him with my shoulder. “But you are a great coach. Ruthless, but great.”
“How are your legs?” he wonders, pausing as someone comes to take our order.
He asks me what I want, and I make my order small, but with how much he ends up ordering, I feel like he’s gotten extra food, as if he caught on that I was keeping mine to a minimum because he’s paying.
Once he pays, we’re given a number and take a seat at an empty table.
I release a sigh as I plop down in the seat. “To answer your question from before, they were totally awful, but Finn helped me stretch them out.”
“When you guys had lunch today?”
“Yeah.”
He bobs his head up and down, and I get the impression he might be uncomfortable with Finn and me spending time together. I’m unsure why.
He fiddles with a napkin holder that’s on the table. “Did you do hill climbs at your high school?”
“Sort of. But never as intensely as we did today. I’m sure it’ll be for my benefit in the long run, because I know you know what you’re doing.”
“So, for tryouts—at least last year—they make you run both a mile, and then a 5k, and that one has a pretty intense hill, which is why I work hill climbs pretty intensely into the routine. When you get onto the team, it won’t be as bad. They just make tryouts intense to weed out people.”
“That makes sense.” I recline back in the chair, and it lets out a noise that makes me wonder if it’s about to break. “I’m a little nervous. I get that way sometimes. I even threw up once.”
His brows rise in surprise. “Really?”
I nod. “It’s not that uncommon.”
“I know, but you don’t seem like the nervous type.”
“I don’t frequently get nervous, but when I do, I hide it well.”
He scans me over. “You might be the toughest person I know.”
I rest my arms on the table. “You barely know me.”
“I know, but from what I’ve seen so far, you’re tough.” He contemplates something. “I’ve been wanting to ask you for a while but was worried you might get upset, so if you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine, but I feel like I should ask.” He sinks his teeth into his bottom lip. “That thing with Drew … what exactly is that about?”
I sigh heavily. “I had a feeling you were going to ask about that.”
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” he quickly says. “I know we’ve only known each other for a few weeks.”
