“Me too.” His voice lowered. He was being vulnerable. I liked that, but it terrified me. And now wasn’t the time. Not at all.
“Brooks,” I started. “I’m glad you trust me.” Something flickered in his eyes again. Something that made me feel he was still holding something back. But Iwas okay with that, too. I mean, we weren’t really dating, so he didn’t reallyhaveto tell me everything.
Did he?
“When did you start trusting me?” I asked, trying to keep the conversation going while trying to remember where I’d wanted it to go.
“I don’t know. Somewhere between day one and—day one.”
Brooks leaned closer now. His eyes dropped to my mouth, then lifted to my eyes.
My heart was pounding so hard I thought my ribs were going to break. If Dad walked in right now . . .
Brooks leaned in. I could feel the warmth of his breath on my lips. This was it. My first ever kiss. Here it came—
Brooks pulled back abruptly
“We shouldn’t. I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was doing.” He laughed nervously. “This is fake, but there’s no one here to fool. So forget I did that.”
I tried to hide my disappointment while feeling relieved. “Right. Fake.”
Brooks nodded. “We have the project. We need to start the project. And, we need to keep boundaries.”
“Boundaries. Of course,” I nodded too.
The awkward silence was worse than listening to my dad’s top hits from the 90’s.
Brooks jumped to his feet. “I should go.”
“Okay?” I jumped up with him.
We stared at each other. He bent and grabbed his laptop. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll—see if I can read another chapter about that Darcy guy.”
“Okay,” I breathed. No. I don’t think I was breathing. I wanted to cry. I wanted to panic. I wanted to grab Brooks and tell him not to leave. Tell him none of this was fake for me anymore. Tell him that I—That I what? Loved him? That sounded stupid. It’s not like we were gonna get married or anything.
But I did. At least, the way a teenage girl could have feelings for a guy. I really, really cared about Brooks.
The door shut, and I realized he’d left while I stood there like an idiot. I touched my lips where his almost were. Then I remembered and dove for my phone.
Flipping it over, Lia’s face filled the screen with awe and wonder. “What. Just. Happened?”
“It’s complicated.” I felt the tears coming on.
“What’s complicated? The project or your feelings?”
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t answer. I didn’tneedto answer. Lia knew everything. So did I. Being honest with Dad would mean being honest with myself, and maybe even with Brooks.
I decided I was probably just going to die. Right there. In my living room. This was worse than anything Lizzie Bennett and Mr. Darcy had ever gone through.
Eat your heart out, Jane Austen.
Chapter 26
Brooks
Something was up. I don’t know what, but the entire vibe at school was off. When one of the girls who usually angled for my attention gave me the cold shoulder, I knew something had happened. I yanked my phone from my pocket. I hadn’t gone on it this morning. Somehow, I had a feeling I’d find the answer there.
“Don’t do it.” Reece came alongside me and gave me the command with a voice that made me really sure I wanted to see what was going on.
