The guy was tall, but didn’t reach my height. He had a slimmer build than me, looked more like a baseball player.
“Hey, man, what’s up?” Jace said.
He held his hand out, and I, of course shook, it. Ava ignored him.
“Sure, I made plenty.”
Ava was already grabbing two more bowls and glasses as everyone else sat at the table.
“Can you believe this storm, Ava? Isn’t it crazy?” Macie asked. She seemed to be working hard to include Ava in the conversation.
“Yeah, crazy.”
Macie shrugged at Ava’s response, or should I say, lack of one.
And suddenly I realized it would be easy to hide what had happened over the past twelve hours…because Tink was back.
CHAPTER 18
Ava
Our presentation went off without a hitch on Tuesday. Logan and I definitely aced it, would be shocked if we got anything less than an A. But between when Macie came home during the storm and when we met up in class, Logan and I hadn’t really seen much of each other. And that may have been intentional on my part.
I was avoiding him, I knew that. Even though I was the one who demanded we keep our tryst a secret…I didn’t know how.
When I saw him, all I wanted to do was run into his arms or run my fingers through his wavy blonde locks. Not act like we still hated each other. So it was easier to simply not see him.
As I lay on my bed, I felt like a prisoner in my own house, trying to steer clear of him.
My phone received a text. When I looked, I couldn’t help but chuckle. It said it was fromMy Forbidden Secret.
Logan: Come upstairs
Me: It’s the middle of the day, someone could come home
Logan: Is it against your rules for roommates to be in the same room talking
I stoodoutside his closed door for a couple minutes, debating whether I should knock. Then another text came through.
Logan: Come in, I can almost hear you breathing
But before Icould even grab the knob, he threw the door open. Looming in front of me was the man I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about. His jeans were tight, and I wanted him to turn around so I could get a glimpse. He had one of those long-sleeve waffle-knit shirts on, and it clung to his arms, the muscles thick against the material.
“I know what you’re doing,” he said. He almost glared down at me, and I could have mistaken him for being angry, but his eyes were sad. “Why, Tink?”
Pushing past him, I sat at his desk chair. His computer was open to something that looked like law gibberish.
“I’m not doing anything.” But I refused to look at him when I said it.
Suddenly, he grabbed the chair I was in and slid it along the floor to the side of the bed. Sitting across from me, he forced me to look him in the eye.
“Ava.”
I loved when he said my real name.
“These past few days have been torture,” he said. “I know you want to keep this…” He gestured between us with his hands. “A secret. And I’m OK with that to keep you happy. But we have to be able to talk, Ava. We have to be able to see each other, I mean, we live in the same fucking house. What we had before was better than this.”
My shoulders slumped because I knew he was right.
