Page 8 of Breakaway Hearts

“Jane Austen,” she says after a pause, but she looks defensive.

“Which one?”

“Pride and…prejudice.” Now she sounds unsure. Of the book’s title.

“Why are you lying?” I’m trying not to laugh, but I don’t know who she’s trying to impress with that answer. Certainly not me.

“I’m not—” She tries to argue, but I don’t break eye contact, and she eventually huffs. “It’s embarrassing.”

“Mine is The Chronicles of Narnia. The first time I tried Turkish Delights is still the biggest letdown of my life.” I’m teasing, but I see a flash of something in her eyes, like sadness, before she rolls them at me.

“Hunters in Time.” She sighs, daring me to comment. “It’s this series about…”

“A group that travels through time to save artifacts and learn lessons to preserve history.” I’m shaking my head because she truly has no idea who I am. And I like it.

“I guess you are majoring in history, but it’s…older.”

“I love those books,” I assure her. “The movies weren’t terrible.”

“Are you kidding? I watched them on a rotation growing up.”

She’s clearly about to tell me just how awesome the movies are, which will make it awkward for me not to tell her my dad was in them, but someone bumps into her, knocking her off balance, and her nails dig into my arms when I catch her.

“Not falling for me, are you?”

She looks embarrassed, so I pretend I don’t notice as I guide us over to a corner, where her back is against the wall, and no one can accidentally bump into us. Madison rights herself, fiddling with her shirt and her bangs in a way that makes me want to mess them both up.

“I don’t date,” she tells me, which is probably the last thing I’m expecting, but she looks almost apologetic about it. Disappointed.

“Is that like your parents’ rule, or…wait, you’re legal, right?” I look down to her hands for the telltale orange stamp for anyone under eighteen.

“In Canada. And Europe,” she assures me.

“Right.” I try to pretend that I wasn’t terrified for a second there. Nothing happened yet, but I want it to.

“The look on your face.” She smiles, shaking her head at me, and I can tell she wants to laugh.

“Didn’t want to turn into my nightmare.”

“Hooking up with a minor?”

“Some college asshole preying on my sister while I’m on the other side of the country. Or now that she’s here with some senior or townie who knows she’s underage but doesn’t care.” I glance around the room, but Tab meant it when she said she would go wherever we weren’t tonight. “I’m sorry, that’s…off topic. You were saying?”

She’s biting her bottom lip and staring at mine.

She doesn’t stop me when I brush my fingers against her jaw. She leans into it, so I gently press my lips to hers. And she opens, reaching for my neck and pulling me closer like she’s trying to fuse our bodies together.

I am one hundred percent here for it.

Chapter Three

Madison

I don’t do athletes

Owen’s kiss goes straight to my core. Last summer’s me would have dragged him into the ladies’ room, but while that isn’t going to happen, I still take control of the kiss, turning us over so I’m pushing him against the wall leading to the bathrooms.

“Didn’t you say we weren’t hooking up?” Owen asks, clearly confused, when we come up for air.