Page 11 of Joy to the Girls (She Gets the Girl #2)

“Stop frowning,” Cora says, poking my cheek as my uneaten fries wilt away in front of me.

How can I not frown, though, when Molly just up and left like that?

Running off with a half-assed explanation while Cora corralled me and May into Beckett Brothers, a cute-looking bar on the corner of the street we were standing on, for lunch.

I wasn’t imagining it with the kiss today in the photo booth, the moment in the coffee shop back in Pittsburgh, what just happened . Something is clearly up.

“Okay,” I say as I swivel on the barstool to face her while May fumbles around with the jukebox in the corner, “Then tell me what Molly’s hiding.”

Cora’s face turns pale, and she quickly grabs a handful of the distraction fries she bought me and tosses them into her mouth. “She’s not… well… Maybe you should…” She stutters, before finally swallowing and letting out a loud, awkward laugh. “Maybe you’re hiding something!”

It’s my turn to go pale.

Cora almost falls off her barstool. “Alex, I was joking!”

“But you’re right. I am hiding something.”

I glance behind me to see May is still very busy carefully selecting a song. “You know that town house just down the street? The nice white one that’s being renovated?”

Cora smacks her hands over her ears, shaking her head. “Alex! I don’t want to know!”

I pull one of her hands away. “I want to ask Molly to move in together after graduation. And I feel like that house would be perfect. I mean, moving would be a breeze. And it’s so nice.

I never thought I could live in a place as nice as it is!

The hardwood floors? The master bathroom with the gold fixtures and the—” Her mouth forms a perfect O shape, and I drop my chin shamefully.

“I know, I know . I don’t know how to ask her.

But!” I perk up as I rifle through one of my shopping bags, emerging with a metal key chain I found in a gift shop, a stack of books with a cup of tea on top attached to the ring.

“I got her this to help me do it, for the house keys if she says yes!”

Cora lowers her other hand, reaching out to take the key chain. I watch her inspect it in silence.

Finally, she looks up at me. “Jesus, Alex. You two need to talk. Like… yesterday.”

I turn back to the bar and down the rest of my soda, trying to swallow the overwhelming feeling of dread her tone of voice elicits.

“Still good over here?” the guy with strawberry-blond hair who brought us our fries and drinks asks us from behind the bar.

“Barely,” I mutter as Cora gives him a far-less-cryptic answer, littered with niceties.

When he walks away, Cora nudges me. “Alex.” She dangles the key chain in my direction. “It will be fine. I can assure you that you give a hell of a lot more shits about her than… whatever other stuff that may or may not be going on. Just like she gives a hell of a lot more shits about you.”

I pluck the key chain off her pointer finger and raise my eyebrows at her. “So there is something she’s hiding?”

She shakes her head, clearly exasperated, but doesn’t say anything as Stevie Nicks’s voice begins to blare over the speakers. May finally picked a song.

Cora’s favorite song. “Silver Springs.”

It’s my turn to give Cora a look.

“How many signs do you need? You gonna ask her out soon, Myers?”

“It could just be a coincidence. Everyone likes this song.”

I snort. “ A coincidence? Just like the strawberry pancakes this morning? And the old-ass holiday movie last night? She clearly likes you!”

“You’re telling me about confessing my secret feelings? After what we just talked about?”

Yeah… well… I guess she has a point.

A point I’m going to ever so casually slide right past.

“What are you so scared of?”

“The same thing you are.” She shrugs. “Rejection.”