Long story short, Ace has been inducted into a romance-loving cult from birth.
“Jules, shall I remind you that last rom-com movie night, we watched your favorite,You’ve Got Mail.”
He’s not wrong. When I die, I hope I get reincarnated as Kathleen Kelly, and we did watch it on our last movie night—two times in a row.
“It’s my turn. AndGreaseis a classic,” he adds, grinning. “It’s my favorite rom-com. Hardly something to complain about watching.”
“It’s barely a rom-com.”
“But it’sourrom-com.” He waggles his brows at me. “Remember Halloween? Fifth grade? You were Sandy. I was Danny Zuko. You had that curly blond wig and the candy cigarette.”
I groan. “That wig gave me hives.”
He winks. “But I looked incredible in that leather jacket. Don’t lie.”
“You looked like a kid trying to play dress-up in his dad’s clothes.”
“I looked cool, Jules,” he retorts and reaches out to briefly hold my hand. “By the way, bestie, I missed you while you were gone. It was weird not having you around.”
Oh, here we go…I should’ve known it would only be a matter of time before Ace started shelling out his charming voodoo to shove me more quickly toward compliance.
“Don’t be dramatic.” I roll my eyes. “I was only gone for two days.”
“Technically, it wasthree.” He grins up at me. “Trust me, I was counting down all 4,320 minutes until you were back.”
Sigh.I swear, he really makes it hard to be mad at him, even knowing he’s half full of shit.
“Well, I had to go with my parents to the cabin.” I shrug. “It was family-only and full of Evie’s bitching and bad Wi-Fi and not up for debate likeyourfamily trip to the Bahamas. I can’t believe your parents let you stay home.”
“Don’t be jealous, Lia. You know what my family is like. Opting out is like a survival tool.”
Once again, he’s not wrong. The Kellys are both thebestand certifiable on any given day.
“Anyway, I’m glad you’re back.” His eyes dance with mischief. “We’re going to Groove tonight.”
I raise an eyebrow. “You want me to go clubbing with you after you committed first-degree plant murder?”
“I have fake IDs for both of us.” He winks. “I figured I should balance my crime with something fun.”
“So, you want to balance the crime of killing Luna with the crime of underage drinking? A sin for a sin?” I question, and he just laughs.
“Fake IDs are barely a crime. Everyone on campus has one. Frankly, you should feel lucky that your best friend can always pull through with the right connections. If you ask me, while the daystarted out a little…bad…it’s starting to feel like it’s turning around.” He grabs the pothos and holds it up. “And let’s not forget about Luna 2.0.”
“Fine. I’ll eat your stupid pizza and watchGreaseand go to Groove.” I sigh again. “But I swear, if you manage to kill this Luna—”
“I’ll buy you a whole fucking jungle, Jules.”
I laugh. I can’t help it. Ace Kelly is irresistible—just like he always has been.
Ace
My phone vibrates in the back pocket of my jeans as my eyes catch sight of the sign forGroovein the distance. I pull it out to find missed text.
Lindsey: Hello? Ace? Don’t leave me on read. When are we going out again?
Like I told Julia earlier today, Lindsey is a nice girl—with great legs and a curvy ass—but she’s not really my style. Frankly, this is the tenth text she’s sent me in the past forty-eight hours.
Emily: Hey…
