Page 13 of Not a Friend (Crescent Light #1)

Now

The game we play, the rules implied, but no one wins. The words we say, the truth unsaid, it never ends.

W hen I returned to the welcome party, I tried my best to avoid Nate, but my god, he was everywhere .

He towered a few spots ahead of me when I got in line for the bar.

When I tugged Kieran to the station of finger foods—despite his objections about saving his calories for drinks—Nate stood on the opposite side of the table, sucking cupcake icing off the tip of his thumb.

Then, I escaped to the restroom to catch my breath and get a grip, but of course, he was walking into the men’s restroom as I walked out.

I could practically feel his eyes every time he glanced my way, his gaze a hot brand on my skin. He tried to keep his distance, too, decidedly honoring my please-don’t-fuck-with-me vibe, but we were in each other’s magnetic field now. Circling the other whether we wanted to or not.

I heard Martinez before I saw him. It would have been virtually impossible not to hear him, actually.

“Olive! Yo, Olive! ”

Martinez looked as handsome as always with his rolled sleeves showing off his heavily tattooed arms as he stuck one into the air. I made a show of sarcastically hiding my face, but he kept hollering.

“Oli! Over here!”

“Who’s that?” Kieran asked, pulled away from his conversation with Michael by the yelling. Confusion painted his expression, accented by annoyance.

Martinez’s frantic waving only worsened.

I giggled and shook my head. “One of my friends from grad school. He won’t stop until we go over there.”

Grabbing Kieran’s hand, I maneuvered through the crowd, my friend’s cheering only getting more excited the closer we got. My heart filled at the sight of him. Followed by a strange mixture of shame and sadness when I realized I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d spoken to him.

Our friend group had mostly kept in touch via social media when we finished grad school, but I hadn’t seen most of them since moving to Boston. I only kept in touch with Gemma and Grant anymore.

As we drew closer to the corner of the courtyard where he was making a fool of himself, I spied the top of Jared’s blond mop of hair, followed by Miles’s thick curls, Leo’s serious expression, and the devil himself.

Nate’s eyes flicked from his conversation with his bandmates to me, then to Kieran, and back to me. His lips pulled into a small smirk, like he knew how uncomfortable this was about to be for me and was going to love every second of it.

“There’s my girl,” Martinez said, spreading his arms wide for me to walk into his embrace. “How have you been, beautiful? Long time no see, Miss Famous Journalist. ”

“I don’t know about famous. How are you?”

“Better now that you’re here.”

Always such a flirt.

“Martinez, this is my boyfriend, Kieran.” I put a hand on Kieran’s shoulder, surprised to see such a stern expression on his face.

“Hey, man.” Kieran’s face shifted into a tight, polite smile as he held out for Martinez to shake. “Kieran. Nice to meet you.”

“And this is Miles,” I said, giving Miles a quick side hug.

Kieran offered his hand to Miles, introducing himself. Jared held his hand out instinctively next.

It dawned on me that we were making our way around the pseudo-circle with introductions.

I hadn’t planned on introducing Kieran to Crescent Light, and especially not Nate.

In fact, my plan was to keep the two of them entirely separate, if possible.

But at this rate, not introducing them would be flat-out weird.

I sure as hell didn’t want the two of them to interact any more than cordially necessary.

From the corner of my eye, I caught Michael joining our group with a fresh beer.

I made my move.

“And this is Grant’s brother, Jared,” I gestured, meeting no one’s eye as I continued down the line. “And this is Leo, andthisisNate. Hey, Martinez, you’ve met Gemma’s brother, right?”

I shot Martinez a frantic warning look over Kieran’s shoulder as he leaned in to shake Leo’s hand.

Please do something.

While Nate and I kept our “relationship” under wraps back in grad school, it was the worst-kept secret in our friend group. Everyone knew, regardless of whether we advertised it or not. Kieran, on the other hand, did not know about my history with Nate. With any luck, it would stay that way.

And god bless Jaden Martinez; he picked up what I was putting down immediately.

“Yeah!” he responded a bit too loud, commanding the attention around our group. “But it’s been a while. Michael, how’ve you been?”

I watched Kieran from the corner of my eye as he extended his hand from Leo to Nate, his bright, toothy smile met by Nate’s polite, closed-mouthed one.

“Baby sister’s getting married, eh?” Martinez practically screamed at Michael.

“Nice to meet you,” Nate’s smooth voice murmured.

From my periphery, Nate slid his right hand out of his pocket to shake Kieran’s outstretched one.

I faced Martinez and Michael, partially hoping my body language would urge others to do the same, but also because I couldn’t bear to watch Nate and Kieran interact without wanting to dissolve into ash and fade away a la Infinity War.

“She’s my older sister,” Michael corrected Martinez. “But, yeah.”

Kieran leaned a fraction of an inch closer to Nate, and my heart thundered in my chest like I was at the tippy top of a rollercoaster. “What did you say your name was?”

“Right! Duh!” Martinez continued, shooting me a glance.

He was committed to the bit now; nothing left to do but soldier on and keep shouting his half of the conversation in a desperate attempt at distracting Kieran from lingering on Nate for too long.

“I always forget she’s the older one. You’re just so big! Defensive lineman, right?”

Football. Perfect. Jaden Martinez, you are my hero. It might be an open bar, but I owe you a drink.

“It’s Nate. ”

I begged the universe for a black hole to form right where I stood.

“Yeah, defensive lineman,” Michael said.

Kieran nodded, then straightened, finally turning his attention to Martinez and Michael. “You doing fantasy football this year, man? We were just talking about our leagues.”

Hook, line, and sinker.

I glanced to the high heavens. Nate caught my eye from across the little circle we’d formed, an amused twinkle in his eye that asked, What was that all about?

I gave him the stink eye, threatening him in my mind.

Not a fucking word, Cassidy.

He ticked his head to the side as if to say, Suit yourself, and turned, suddenly very interested in the fountain behind him.

This weekend is going to suck.