“Who is he?” she asked out loud.
“Will Thatcher,” Amy repeated. “Pretty much the hottest guy in the junior class. He was already starting quarterback last year even though he was only a sophomore.”
Brynn couldn’t care less about what he was on the football team. She wanted to know who he was.
Dimly, Will became aware of a man yelling, “Thatcher! Thatcher!” and his eyes reluctantly tore away from hers, looking back once over his shoulder before he jogged to his coach.
Brynn watched his back for several more seconds, ignoring the jealous giggling of the other girls.
“Will Thatcher,” she said softly, out loud. It felt right.
And even though she was only fifteen…even though her brain insisted that nobody fell in love at fifteen, her heart said something different.
Her heart said, This one.
* * *
Brynn loved her sister. She really did. But she should have known better than to think that Sophie would have a plan other than show up and wear your most low-cut shirt.
Especially when “show up” meant flying across the country.
Because when Will ran, Will ran far. The thought made her smile as she impatiently waited for everyone to file off the cramped airplane. It was just like him to do things drastically. When he’d wanted to win her, he didn’t just move back to the same city. He’d moved next door.
And when he’d wanted to flee her, he’d jumped time zones.
She was already a sweaty mess by the time she wheeled her suitcase to her rental car thirty minutes later.
Chicago in the summer, Will? Really?
But she would have flo
wn to Madagascar if she’d had to.
Trouble was, she wasn’t exactly sure what came next. Sophie had given her the name of the hotel where he was staying until he figured out his more permanent housing. The house hunt Brynn planned to put a stop to immediately, because the only permanent housing he was going to need was with her.
But right now, her strategy looked a little something like: show up in the hotel lobby and camp out there 24/7 until she saw him. And then beg.
Not her best plan.
But he wouldn’t respond to her calls, texts, e-mails, or any other form of communication she could think of.
He’d told Sophie the name of the hotel only for emergencies, and then had gone off the grid. Sophie had called him a dozen times, but he wasn’t even picking up for his best friend.
Perhaps because his best friend was related to the woman who’d treated him like shit.
“Checking in?” the valet guy asked.
Brynn nodded stupidly and gave a too-bright smile, her hands suddenly clammy.
Really didn’t think this one through, Brynn.
Which was kind of the point. No more psychotic planning as life passed her by.
But this might have been one time where a little bit of forethought beyond go there would have been useful.
Taking a deep breath, she headed toward the reception desk, already scanning the lobby for any sign of him.
There was nobody but an old couple, a family with two tiny kids, and a pair of twentysomethings who apparently hadn’t been able to wait to get to their room before making out.