Page 32 of Don't Say You're Sorry

“What?” He pulls his brows in, touching the spot with his fingertip. “Oh, I forgot about that. Two guys got into a fight over some girl in the car park after school. I took an elbow to the face.” When he sees the way my face falls, my jaw tightening with rage, he shakes his head at me with a light laugh. “Down, boy. It was an accident.”

“Give me a name.”

“No.”

“Adam.”

“Dude, will you relax? He said he was sorry.”

“I don’t care howsorryhe was.” I scoot closer to his face to inspect the bruise, my nose brushing his. “I’m gonna find out who did this to you and beat his ass.”

“Stop.”

“No one lays a fucking hand on y?—”

Before I can finish, his fingers dig into the back of my head, and he yanks me into him, his mouth pressed to mine. I freeze, but only for a second. My hand that’s hovering next to his eye finds his cheek, and I tilt his head to the right, changing the angle until my lips fit perfectly over his.Fucking perfect.

Just as my fingers slide up into his hair, he pulls away, pressing his back into the seat as he stares at me with wide, terrified eyes. “I’m sorry,” he croaks. “I don’t know why I did that.”

I smile. “To shut me up?”

He breathes a shaky laugh. “Yeah. That.”

I shrug, picking up the hot dog he dropped on his lap and sitting in my own seat. “I’m still gonna find out who did it,” I say as I eat. I don’t try to make it look like I’m eating a dick this time.

Adam says nothing.

“You wanna talk about it?”

Looking ahead through the windshield, he sucks his bottom lip, and all I can think about is taking that lip betweenmyteeth. I think about opening him up, sliding my tongue over his, and sucking on it. I imagine the way I’d make him moan, and I wish he’d have let me just now. If he had let it be for just a few more seconds, I would have been able to get my first proper taste of him.

It’s not the first time I’ve thought about kissing him. I don’t think it’s the first time he’s thought about kissingmeeither, but we don’t talk about it. The knowing looks we share when no one’s watching, the subtle flirting, the small touches that are passed off as innocent. Friendly.Brotherly. We don’t talk about any of it. It’s like a constant, invisible thing, quietly buzzing in the air around us. It’s always there, but we never dare to acknowledge it.

“No,” he finally says. “If we talk about it, everything changes. I don’t want anything to change.”

I cock my head. “Don’t you?”

He closes his eyes briefly before rolling his head on the seat to look at me. “I don’t want to lose you, E.”

“You won’t.” I take another bite, then add, “Next time you wanna ask me a question you already know the answer to, remember that. I’m not going anywhere. I promise. I’m gonna be sleeping at your house and stealing all your food when we’re sixty. You’re gonna be sick of me.”

He grins, the light returning to his eyes. “It’s a little late for that, sunshine.” He snatches the last bite of his hot dog from me and shoves it into his mouth.

I pretend to swoon. “So sexy.”

He chokes on a laugh, and we both crack up as he puts his iPad away and turns the car back on.

“I promise too,” he says, smiling at me.

CHAPTER 13

EASTON

Easton

I fucking hate you.

PRESENT