Page 90 of One Last Time

Only…

When he turned back to Levi, his hands were limp at his sides and his jaw unclenched.

“You’re not worth it.”

He turned sharply on his heel, marching past the crowd of onlookers and back up toward the beach house in long strides.

I stared after him. Lee made a strangled, startled sort of noise beside me. Our friends whispered, looking between Noah’s retreating back and Levi, who stood trembling and breathing hard, fingers still bunched into fists.

Levi turned around, catching my eye.

“Elle—”

But I was already moving, already running after Noah. Amanda started to follow but I gave her a quick look and she hung back. Even with all that time I’d spent on the track team, I still had a hard time catching up to Noah and his long legs. I kicked through the soft sand and up to the beach house. There was no sign of him, but I heard the front door and chased after him.

Noah had snatched up his T-shirt from a seat on the patio where he’d left it earlier, and right now he was climbing onto his motorcycle. He seemed determined to ignore me.

“Noah!”

He gritted his teeth but kept on not looking at me. I caught his arm, pulling myself around in front of him.

“Noah, what…”

I trailed off, not even sure what to say. What had he been doing? What had he been talking about when he’d said all that stuff to Levi?

What made him walk away from a fight for maybe the first time ever?

“I…I thought we talked about this. I thought whatever you think about Levi, this…this stuff about him having a crush on me…Noah—”

“That’s what you wanted me to do, right? Be the bigger person.”

He was right.

So why did it feel so wrong?

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Ididwant Noah to be the bigger person. On race day, that was all I’d wanted him to do. I’d been so mad at him, so annoyed he couldn’t just see sense, that he was still so caught up over this whole thing with Levi, that he still held on to the ridiculous idea that Levi had a crush on me.

They’d had a talk earlier.

Was it about me?

This isn’t a game, Elle.

And Amanda, Lee…none of them had seemed too surprised to see things really start to kick off.

I faltered, stepping back just a little, my hand slackening around Noah’s arm.

I did want him to be the bigger person.

But maybe not like this.

Noah turned on the engine and I took another step back. I didn’t even know what to say to him right now, and I was still trying to process what had just happened. Noah obviously needed a little space, so that was exactly what I’d give him.

He gave me a fleeting smile before pulling the bike around, easing it between all the cars that clogged up the driveway.

I let him go.