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“You remembered.”

“Nah, it’s just our most popular flavor, so I took a guess,” he replies. But the amused gleam in his eyes tells me he’s joking.

I pick up my spoon and point to his ice cream with it. “So you weren’t being sarcastic on your name tag? You actually like mint chocolate chip?”

“How can anyone be sarcastic when it comes to ice cream?” He takes a bite. “This is the combination dreams are made of.The refreshing mint plus the rich dark chocolate? The best of both worlds.”

“There’s only one ice cream combo worth eating and it’s sitting in front of me.” I take a big bite.

“I can think of other combos I like pretty well.” He cocks his head at me. “So,” he continues. “How are you feeling now about Paige?”

I sigh. I know I didn’t come here to flirtatiously fight about ice cream flavors, but that’s a lot more fun than talking about her. “I don’t know. Most of the time I can convince myself that this is all in my head, but then I get worried that they’re going to ruin our game somehow.”

“How could they do that?”

“I don’t know. What if…” I shake my head. “They might say something and turn you all against me.”

His eyebrows rise. “Okay,thatyou don’t need to be worried about.”

“No?”

“I can speak for everyone when I say that we don’t care about these people in the least. There’s nothing they could say that would change my feelings about you.”

My heart swells. “You might be slightly biased, though.”

“Maybe.” He grins. “But it doesn’t matter. If I’m biased, then so are the others. Nothing Paige, Caden, or anyone else says has any power over us. And they shouldn’t have power over you either.”

I take a bite of ice cream and nod. He’s right, absolutely. All of this is in the past, and it’s time I leave it there.

“Thank you. It’s good to talk about it. Oh—” I pull his cloak out of the tote bag I brought with me. “I almost forgot.”

“You didn’t need to. It looked better on you anyway.”

His gaze heats my skin. It’s so easy to fall back into the memory of how he tugged the cloak around me to keep me warm. His expression makes me wonder if he’s thinking about that afternoon as well.

“I have to get back to work before Mr.Avery complains.”

I take my last bite and stand. I’m sad to go, but I do feel happier now. And I’ll see Logan and the whole group tomorrow for the game, which is something else to look forward to. Logan follows me out the door and we hover by the entrance. The tension between us pulls tight enough that I’m stretching out of my skin.

“So…just wondering, have your feelings changed at all since Monday?” he asks. “They’re our friends. I bet we could make them understand.”

I bite my lip and look down at the ground. Maybe they’ll understand…or maybe they’ll be pissed we’ve been sneaking around and breaking one of the carefully designed rules we agreed on to keep the group together.

“Once we do it, there’s no going back.”

“That’s true. And we don’t need to say anything if you aren’t ready.” His gaze rakes over my face. “In the meantime, I’ll try to get used to watching you bite your lower lip without wishing it was me doing that instead.”

Fire flows through me at his words. This situation isimpossible.

“What if we feel them out tomorrow after the game?” I ask. “We can bring up the idea very generally and see how they react. Hopefully they won’t care.”

“I like that plan.”

My chest aches with the treacherous wish for him to step closer and kiss me. I shove the feelings away and shake my head to clear it. “And if they aren’t cool with the idea?”

“Then I guess I’m going to get very accustomed to pain.”

Chapter Twenty-Two