Page 11 of Sam & Justin

“Which time?”

Well damn. He’d traveled to more than one place, and the furthest I’d ever gone was Myrtle Beach. And that was only twice. “Your favorite trip,” I decided.

“That would probably be the time me and my best friend, Axel, took our bikes straight down the coast. All the way down to Florida. Wasn’t anything waiting for us at the end, just wanted to say we did it.” He was smiling again, and I could see the chip on his front tooth. There was something endearing about the image, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it was just the fact that while so much had changed with him, that hadn’t. “Wasn’t even anything special about the trip. Me and my ex-husband had already gone to a few beaches, and King’s Bay is on the coast, so it wasn’t that.”

“Ex-husband?” My cyberstalking had told me he was divorced. It had also told me that he was interested in men, but for some reason, hearing him say it out loud was different. I probably shouldn’t have questioned it, because his eyes narrowed. His shoulders tensed. Damn, he probably thought I was about to make some homophobic comment with the question. I had to dial it back. “I can’t imagine some guy having you and letting you walk away.”

Too far back. Oh god, that wastoofar back.

At least it made his shoulders relax, but he was looking at me differently now. His eyes moved over me again, and I could see some appreciation in them. My face felt hot again, and I was once more cursing how easily I blushed. “Really?”

Was it possible to spontaneously combust? Because I felt like I was about to spontaneously combust.

I was never more grateful for an interruption than I was the minute Theo Brooks came over and tapped me on the shoulder. I could have kissed his feet with how grateful I was, up until the moment he spoke. “I think we have a problem.”

“Give me a minute?” I asked Sam. He nodded, and I turned my full attention to Theo. A problem was the last thing I needed at this reunion. “What’s wrong?”

“Remember how I was supposed to keep track of the cards for the music trivia game?” I nodded. “I may have misplaced them.”

Fuck. That was the next activity. Student servers were already starting to pass around the canapes. That left us with two hours to either find the cards I’d meticulously laid out and printed for the trivia game or come up with an alternative solution. I drew in a deep breath, because I could not freak out right now. “Okay, we can find them.” We could. That was the best option. That was theonlyoption, even though I was already coming up with seventeen backup plans. “At least we still have the pens, right?”

Theo looked down at his shoes.

“Theo!”

“Everything okay?” Justin asked from behind me.

I offered him what I hoped was a passable attempt at a grin. “It will be.” I turned back to Theo. “It will be,” I reassured him, though my voice was sounding increasingly manic to my own ears. I drew in another deep breath and tried to think calming thoughts. Things like warm sand under my toes and the feeling of falling asleep reading a good book. It wasn’t working. “Okay, we need to find the cards. And the pens. Where do you remember having them last?”

Theo winced and carded his fingers through his hair. “If I remembered that, they wouldn’t be lost. Sorry, Kirkwood.”

I bit back a curse. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine that this was just another one of Rachel’s moments in the office. It was easier to think of it like that, because I was in control there. I might have been her personal assistant, but I was the one that was always taking charge. “Okay, Theo, go see if Vanessa’s seenthem laying around. I’ll check the supply room. Meet back here in fifteen minutes, no matter what the outcome. If we haven’t found them, I think I have the design saved in my email. I can ask Vanessa if we can print more from her office.” They would just be flimsy alternatives instead of the nice cardstock the real ones were printed on.

Theo nodded, and he took off. I made it one step before I felt Sam’s hand on my shoulder. “Need help?”

“I think I might.”

He nodded and followed me to the supply room. It was packed full of things for the event: signs for tomorrow’s tour and alumni basketball game, boxes of yearbooks, pictures that hadn’t made it onto the wall, decorations for the prom. This might have been an impossible task. I could feel my breathing getting uneven, and my heart racing in my chest.

“You start over there,” Sam ordered, his voice breaking through my panic, “and take a few deep breaths. You already have a workable backup plan if you don’t find these things, right?”

Right.

His reminder helped, and I moved to the corner he indicated. I watched as he went to the opposite side of the closet, and we began rifling through the boxes. Ten minutes later, the cards were nowhere to be found. I wanted to keep looking, but Sam reminded me that we were supposed to meet Theo to see if he’d had any luck.

I really hoped he had.

Theo was waiting at the bar when we returned, and I couldn’t tell if he’d had any luck by the expression on his face. The panic was starting again, but Sam? He was oozing competence and confidence as he strode over to Theo. I followed after him, trying to turn my shallow panicked breaths into deep calming ones. It wasn’t working. “Any luck?” Sam asked, completely taking over my role in this whole ordeal.

Maybe he missed his calling in high school and should have been class president.

“Vanessa had them in her office,” Theo reported. “Someone found them in the boy’s bathroom yesterday and turned them in to her.”

The boy’s bathroom? I laughed. How was it possible that we’d gone through all of that and he’d just left them lying around. I had so many questions, but Theo was already distracted and looking elsewhere. I would have to ask him later. I thanked him for his help and released him back into the wilds of the reunion.

By the time I was done, Sam had another mojito in his hand and a spicy margarita on the bar, waiting for me. I thanked him, and we fell back into an easy conversation, one that kept going all through canapes. I didn’t realize how long I’d been talking to him until Vanessa came over to drag me away. It was time for the other icebreaker games, and I was supposed to be leading the next activity. I left my mostly finished cocktail on the bar and followed Vanessa to the front of the gym, where we’d set up a podium.

“You seem to be hitting it off with him,” Vanessa whispered as we walked, bumping her shoulder playfully into mine.