Page 69

“Oh. I—”

Then Nash’s voice, from inside. “Jules.”

Jules looks back over her shoulder toward the bed. “There’s a girl at the door.”

“Who?”

She raises her eyebrows at me.

“Nobody,” I croak out. “Wrong door. Sorry.”

I turn on my heel and walk down the hall so fast I nearly clip the wall at the corner, get into my room, shut the door, and stand with my back against it in the dark. Tessa’s lamp is off. She’s a shape under her blanket, facing the wall, and she doesn’t move.

My heart is going like I ran up four flights. His girlfriend is really pretty, and she wasn’t wearing any pants. I can’t believe I just interrupted whatever that was. Hot shame trickles all the way through me. I shuffle into bed, pull the blanket up to my chin, and stare at the ceiling for a long time, checking the time over and over while it crawls, and my mind doesn’t.

Then there’s a light knock on my door.

I close my eyes. No. I glance at Tessa. She doesn’t move. I get out of bed and open the door a few inches, and through the crack I see Nash in the hallway in sweatpants and a T-shirt with his hair a mess.

My heart drops. “Hi.”

“Hey,” he whispers.

I step into the hallway and pull my door closed behind me. He doesn’t even look tired. I look at the Woodbury logo on his shirt.

“Jules said a girl came to the door,” he says. “That was you.”

“That was nobody,” I mutter.

He looks at me. “Did something happen?”

I cross my arms over my chest because I’m not wearing a bra. He points at the stairwell, and I nod and walk ahead of him and hold the door for him.

It’s cold in the stairwell, and the light still flickers. I sit on the third step with my arms crossed, and Nash leans against the wall by the railing with his arms crossed too, and for a second, neither of us says anything.

I close my eyes. “It was me who knocked.”

His eyes come over to me.

“I wanted to tell you I blocked Declan.”

“Okay.”

“This afternoon.” I look at my knees. “I also texted him that I’m not interested and not to text me again. I know what I said in here, that I wouldn’t, and then I did.” I cover my face a little. “And I didn’t mean to interrupt you and your girlfriend. I should’ve come earlier, but I didn’t know if you were home, and I—”

Nash doesn’t say anything.

“I hope I didn’t cause any problems.” I shake my head at myself. “I told her I had the wrong room and then ran away, which—I don’t know.”

“Don’t worry about her,” he says.

I swallow, and I think about Evan. Did he say something like this to the girl he was kissing? Don’t worry about her.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Nash says after a moment. “And if it makes you feel better, she said you and Rafe would make a cute couple.”

A mortified shriek comes out of me, and I slap a hand over my mouth, horrified by the sound. Heat spreads across my chest. “Me and Rafe?”

“That’s what she said.”