Thirty minutes after I get home, Brynn and I are in my kitchen discussing her crush of the week when the doorbell rings.
She opens the door, and her eyes grow as wide as mine when we both spot Reid standing there. She pulls the door open and steps aside. “Well, he’s not here for me.” Her eyes move from him to me then back to him.
“Study date,” Reid says with his cocky smile as he brushes past her and toward me.
“Really?” Brynn narrows her eyes. “Forget your books?”
He taps his temple with his index finger. “Photographic memory.”
Brynn rolls her eyes and looks over at me.
I slide off the kitchen counter where I was sitting, shrug one shoulder then give her a nod. Apparently, he was serious about coming over.
As far as best friends go, mine is pretty badass. We’ve been inseparable since the day her family moved in two houses down from mine. She ate cheese fries and drank coke Icees with me while we listened to Backstreet Boys to get my mind off my parents’ divorce. She was my shoulder to cry on when my grandmother, the only constant in my life, passed away. She is my rock. My beautiful, unfiltered, feisty rock.
“Fine,” she huffs, “but I will be back. And I better not find her chopped up and stuffed in Ziploc bags.” The glare in her eyes says she means business. Still, I can’t help but laugh.
Reid doesn’t budge. He returns her glare with narrowed eyes and a cocky grin. “Oh, come on, she’s got so many parts worth keeping.”
Brynn rolls her eyes at him and with a shake of her head, turns to leave. “You’re disgusting,” she yells as she closes the front door.
Just like that, we’re alone.
He takes a step toward me, and I swear the sound of my heart beating fills the entire room.
“Finally. I have you all to myself,” he says, causing the already deafening drumming to become even louder. I take a step back, and he chuckles. “Relax, Makenna. I’m harmless.”
“That’s not what I hear.”
He eyes me with a lifted brow. “Didn’t your mom tell you not to believe everything you hear?”
My mom didn’t tell me much of anything.
I force myself to look away from his hypnotizing green eyes—which happen to be a serious distraction. He’s a good half foot taller than I am, with messy blond hair and flawless skin. Then there’s his smile. It’s amazing. Perfect. Just like the rest of him.
“I should grab my notes,” I say, changing the subject.
Reid just smiles and nods.
I unzip my JanSport backpack and pull out a binder, then sit down at the dining table.
He slides his chair right next to mine, so close that our elbows brush every time either one of us moves. The scent of him surrounds me again, all clean laundry, spearmint gum, and sunshine. We sit here, drinking sweet tea and pretending to care about polynomials and conic sections for a solid twenty minutes before he distracts me again.
“So, how do you think Captain America would feel about me being here right now?”
“Captain America? Seriously?” He doesn’t explain himself. Instead he just arches a brow and waits for my response. “Well, how would you feel if a guy like you was alone with your girlfriend?”
“I don’t have a girlfriend. But if I did, I wouldn’t want her anywhere near a guy like me. Especially considering a few hours ago, you wanted to kiss me.”
I let out a growl and glare at him. “Oh my God. First of all, don’t give my boyfriend nicknames. Second, you want me to kiss you, not the other way around. And third, this has nothing to do with math.”
“No. We’ve moved on to Chemistry.”
A wave of guilt rushes over me. I shouldn’t be here, having conversations like this with a guy who isn’t my boyfriend.
I close the binder. We’re obviously done studying—not that we were ever actually studying to begin with. “There’s no chemistry. This isn’t chemistry.”
Way to sound convincing, Makenna.