Maybe he’d realized what Brynn had been realizing all day. That she didn’t deserve him.
But she had to try. “Soph, please. Please. If he’s completely done with me, I’ll walk away and leave him alone. I just need him to know how I feel.”
“And you’re really sure about how you feel? You’re sure this isn’t just wanting what you can’t have?”
“That’s not it. I’ve never even thought about him as someone I could or couldn’t have. I really didn’t know.”
“And now that you do know that you can have it, you’ve all of a sudden decided you want it.”
“Stop saying it like that!” Brynn yelled into the phone.
She pinched the bridge of her nose. She’d done more yelling in the past week than she had in a lifetime. She’d yelled at Will, yelled at the movers, yelled at Sophie. Yelled at herself.
She’d done a few things quietly too. She’d quit her job. Or at least she was in the process of it. The legalities of turning over an orthodontist practice would take some time, but when she’d let Susan know that she was looking to sell, her partner could not have been more supportive. Probably because she was tired of Brynn’s dead weight around the office.
She’d also talked to her parents. Explained to them that although they would never see her tattoo, the tattoo did in fact exist. She’d confirmed that Will had seen it. Up close. Really close. She hadn’t added that last part, but she was pretty sure they knew it anyway.
They hadn’t seemed all that surprised about her and Will. Neither had any of her friends when she’d told them. Brynn was definitely getting the feeling that everyone else had known what she hadn’t.
That she and Will belonged together—had always belonged together.
Now she just had to convince him.
“You really care about him, Brynn? Really?” her sister asked.
Brynn’s fingers subconsciously moved to the written words on her hip. “I love him.”
She could hear her sister thinking things through.
“Okay, then,” Sophie said finally. “Here’s what we’re gonna do…”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Brynn, that guy is totally looking at you.”
Brynn didn’t pause in the dance steps she was trying to master. She’d always thought cheerleading was a lot of waving pom-poms in the air, but this was hard work.
“Ohmigod, that’s Will Thatcher.”
Still, Brynn didn’t look up. If she’d learned anything in her first four months of high school, it was that most girls thought most guys were uhhh-mazing. But most of the ones she’d seen so far had been overhyped.
“Whoa, Brynn, do you know him or something? He’s eating you up with his eyes.”
Brynn finally registered that the rest of the freshman cheer squad was gawking at someone over her shoulder and curiosity finally won out.
Her eyes collided with a tall, blond-haired boy and her stomach did a full flip. The girls had gotten it right this time. This one was hot. Seriously hot. He was taller than most of the other guys, but not in a gangly way. He had dark blond hair that flopped perfectly over his forehead.
She was too far away to see the color of his eyes, but she could feel his gaze. It was piercing.
Who was he? Her eyes never broke contact with his. It didn’t matter that he was standing on a crowded football field with the rest of his team or that she was standing with the rest of her squad on the sideline.
It was as though they only had eyes for each other.
She mentally scolded herself for the ridiculousness of her thoughts. She didn’t even know the guy.
But it felt like she did. Or felt like she was supposed to.
Stop being an idiot.