Haddie nodded. “Of friends I trust.”
A stone landed with a thud in the center of his gut. “Emma is the only person you trust?” he asked, wanting to ask if that was still the case when her grandmother was alive. But Haddie hadn’tmentioned anything that had gone down in the grief group since their reconciliation last week, and Levi hadn’t wanted to pry.
Haddie smiled at him but shook her head. “Not anymore, Levi Rourke. Welcome to the inner circle.”
Haddie Martin’s inner circle hadn’t even existed for him three weeks ago, and now he found himself making a silent promise to never do anything that would get him kicked out of such a place.
He grinned. “Thank you,” he told her. “It’s an honor to be here.” And he meant it. “Does…um…this mean that you forgive me?” he dared to ask, and Haddie’s brows knit together.
“For what? I thought we were past all the before-the-ice-cream stuff,” she said, but then her eyes widened as the elephant in the room revealed itself to her. “Ooh,” she added. “Right. The ice cream.”
Levi couldn’t read her expression. “Because I would like to officially—on the record—apologize for the stupid, inconsiderate, selfish thing I texted you that night that has basically put an end to our little nighttime texting thing that I sort of enjoyed and maybe—if I’m being honest—sort of miss.”
Haddie nodded sagely and then tapped a finger against her pursed lips. “I guess,” she began, “that I’ve just been wondering how to respond and whether or not, in this circumstance, honesty was, in fact, better than pretending you never sent that text at all.”
“Yes!” Levi blurted out. “Please. Honesty. Tell me I’m an asshole and then let me off the hook so I can get out of my head and we can get back to the way things were.”
But instead of responding to him verbally, Haddie grabbed her phone from the end table, and a couple seconds later, Levi’s phonebuzzed in his pocket.
Birthday Girl:Salted-caramel pretzel crunch is the second-best thing to ever touch my tongue too. But we can’t do anything about that. So you’re off the hook, can get out of your head, and we can go back to the way things were.
Levi finished reading the text and then glanced up so his eyes met hers. Haddie pressed her lips into a resigned smile and shrugged as if to say,Sorry, Champ. It’s just not in the cards for us.
She was right. Of course she was right. They’d both be jeopardizing their careers for something that already had an expiration date. So he did the only thing left to do and fired off a text of his own.
Levi:Great. Glad we’re on the same page. Sorry for the momentary loss of sanity. Glad for things to get back to normal.
Except, despite them parting ways soon after and disappearing into the safety of their rooms, he couldn’t help but wonder what it might be like if one day, something—or someone—mattered just a bit more than his career.
And that was how Levi Rourke set himself up for another sleepless night, getting tangled in his own meandering brain. But this time he played by the rules and kept his thoughts squarely to himself.
Chapter 14
Haddie watched from across the room as Levi raised a fist, readyto knock on the opened door when Piper, her blond, springy corkscrew pigtails bouncing as she walked, paused in front of the seemingly giant man in the opened classroom doorway and placed her hands on her hips.
“Miss Martin!” Piper called as Haddie continued to stare in Levi’s direction. “The big man who is not on your favorite-things poster is at the door again!” She pointed accusingly at Levi, and Haddie pushed herself up from where she’d been crouching beside another student from Piper’s pod, helping him color his paper towel.
She swiped a hand across her forehead, then realized that hand was freshly stained with wet purple marker and wondered what she’d just inadvertently painted across her face, not that there was any time to deal with accidental face painting when she had a whole gaggle of six-year-olds who were probably doing the same.
“Levi… I mean… Mr. Rourke!” she called above the din of her miniature humans coloring, chatting, and a small chorus of them singing Taylor Swift’s “Me!” “Keep working on your rainbows,everyone, while I talk to Mr. Rourke for a second,” she added.
She strode toward where he stood grinning at the scene before him, despite Piper having loudly reminded him of his very visible absence from Haddie’s favorite things. Okay, so maybe she’d initially left him off the poster in the hopes that he’d see it and know she was mad at him about the wholeWhat’s done is donesituation with the soccer teams. But now that they’d lived together for almost a month and had once again pumped the brakes on the attraction that hadn’t exactly simmered like she’d hoped it would, his absence from her poster felt like a safety net, reminding her that no matter how good something tastes, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s goodforyou.
“Sorry,” she told him as she approached. “We’re in the middle of a science experiment.” Her brows drew together. “Wait… What are you doing here?”
Levi laughed, and while logic told her,Hey! It’s just a laugh. Everyone has one, and they do it every day, that didn’t stop her stomach from reacting with a slight flip and flutter at the sound of his chuckle.
“The flyer?” he said. “For the car wash?”
Shit! The flyer!Haddie was still getting used to the fact that Levi was all in on the fundraising effort that she’d forgotten all about offering to throw together a quick flyer that Levi would then post throughout the high school where they guessed they’d get most of their potential customers. There was also the matter of a room full of six-year-olds and tables filled with cups of water, markers, and not always entirely good intentions.
Haddie smacked her marker-stained hand against what she wassure was her marker-stained forehead.
“Right!” she said. “I totally meant to do that when the kids were at recess, but then I remembered I hadn’t cut the paper towels yet for growing our rainbows, and I totally forgot. I promise I’ll email it by the end of the day. Do you have a color printer on your side of the campus?” Haddie glanced up at the clock and then back to Levi. “Wait. Don’t you have class right now?”
His smile broadened. “Turns out the guidance counselor is meeting with the seniors today during P.E. to talk about the college admissions process. Means I have a bonus free period before lunch.”
“Miss Martin! Christopher is coloring his lips with our blue marker again!” someone called from behind.
