Page 67 of I Don't Need Your Love

I gape at them. “You mean,likehim like him? No way! He’s Ryder.”

“Yeah, the guy who refused to back off until you accepted his apology,” Raven says. “Guys don’t just do that, you know.”

“So you’re saying he likes me?”

“I’m saying he wouldn’t put so much effort into apologizing to you if you didn’t mean something to him,” she explains.

“I’m his best friend’s little sister and he doesn’t like that I was holding a grudge against him.”

“I think hedoeslike you,” Sophie adds. “Don’t you see the way he looks at you?”

“Guys like Ryder are looking to have fun with girls, not for a girlfriend,” I tell my friends. “I don’t want to be like those girls in the movies who like a player and then have their hearts broken because he can’t or won’t commit to them.”

“But Ryder doesn’t give girls attention,” Sophie argues. “They give him attention.”

“And he loves every second of it.”

“While longing for you,” Addie says.

I shoot her a look. “That’s so not true! He doesn’t ‘long for me.’ Ryder Bennett doesn’t long for anyone.”

“But you’re the girl he can’t have,” Addie says. “Or couldn’t have. Things are different now that he apologized and you’re getting friendly.”

I hold up my hand. “Addie, I love you, but I don’t know why you put it in your head that there’s something between Ryder and me. He apologized because he didn’t like this negative energy between us. We’re teammates and need to get along. That’sallit is.”

She hums to herself.

“I’m with Addie,” Sophie informs me. “Ryder is in love with you.”

I nearly choke. “Inlove? He doesn’t even like me!”

She lifts her chin. “Does, too.”

“Does not!”

“Are we five?” Raven teases. “Look, Carly, we don’t know what he feels, but he obviously wants a relationship with you. As friends or more, whatever. You can’t deny that.”

“I know. Like I said, we’re teammates.”

“More than teammates.”

I puff up my cheeks. “Well, it doesn’t matter, anyway, because he clearly didn’t want to talk to me after the competition. So this conversation is pointless. Maybe he’ll ignore me tomorrow and the day after.” It’ll sting if he does that, but what can I do about it?

Sophie pats my arm. “Things will be okay between you. I can feel it.”

I shrug. “I don’t even know why I care so much.” I shoot Addie a glare. “And don’t say it’s because I like him. Idon’t. Not like that. I’m okay with us being friends.”

Sophie and Addie look like they want to argue, but probably figure there’s no point because it’ll never end. We change the subject to school, the dance, and other things going on around here, and Ryder is forgotten.

Well, he’s not really forgotten because I keep thinking about him, but at least I don’t have to convince my friends that I don’t have feelings for him. Because I don’t.

Idon’t.

So why do his sad eyes pop up in my mind? Why do I want to do whatever I can to take his pain away?

Chapter Twenty-Three

Ryder