Page 113 of Stand Your Ground

“Yeah, well, not much has changed other than she’s stopped swatting me away.”

Will smirked. “Seriously. Tell us what’s been going on, and then tell us what we can do to help.”

I blew out a breath. “Alright.”

But before I could launch into the whole story, Aleks nodded toward Vince, who looked green on the bench where he sat. “You okay over there, Tanny Boy?”

Jaxson answered for him with a bark of a laugh, clapping his hands hard on his best friend’s shoulders before he gave him a little shake. “Oh, he’s fine. Probably just hoping like hell Carter doesn’t remember what he said during our golf game last summer.”

I frowned, trying to remember.

And just as I did, Daddy P slapped his knee and let out his own baritone of a laugh. “Oh, how could any of us forget? How exactly was it that he phrased it?”

Aleks slid in, rubbing his chin like he had to think about it before he held up a finger and said, “I believe it went something like, ‘If you ever bag Liv, I promise you, I will literally get on my hands and knees and kiss your feet.’”

Vince shook his head, but I saw the smile spread on his lips before he buried his face in his hands as the rest of us threw him playful punches and chirps.

“It was just me razzing him!” he tried.

“Oh, no,” I said, holding up a finger. “It was quite literally a promise. Don’t worry, Tanny Boy — there will be plenty of time for you to act out your foot fetish...”

“I’d like to be there when this happens,” Jaxson piped in.

“Oh, I’m not missing it,” Aleks added.

Will nudged Vince. “I’ll record it. You know, just in case.”

“…but right now,” I continued on a laugh, the fist around my chest already loosening. “I’m less concerned about cashing in that bet and more so about how I keep the girl now that I somehow managed to get her.”

Will nodded at that, his usual serious demeanor sliding back into place. “Alright, Fabio,” he said, catching the gaze of the other guys before he folded his arms and looked back to me. “We’re with you. Tell us everything.”

Unbelievable

Livia

I stared at the text from Carter as if it’d just come through and hadn’t been living on my device for days now.

Rook:Save Sunday night for me. I want to take you somewhere.

I’d shot back a silly text about that being ominous and wondering if I should share my location with Maven, but Carter hadn’t joked back at all. Instead, he’d simply replied:

Rook:Be ready by five, okay? Wear whatever makes you feel good.

I wondered if he could sense it, me pulling away and retreating into my shell like I was so used to doing. I wondered if that was why he was insistent, why he wasn’t leaving it up to me any longer. I’d kept telling him I’d love to see him, too, but that I had some things to take care of — which wasn’t a lie, but wasn’t the whole truth, either.

I wasn’t taking back anything I’d said to him, and I wasn’t regretting any feelings I’d confessed.

But I was reeling, and I needed some space to figure out why.

Part of it was that we were now in unfamiliar territory, I’d realized after a few days alone. When he was my student and Iwas his teacher, everything was in order. I knew where to place him in my mind, knew how to handle him.

But when he asked for more, when he told me he loved me…

He obliterated whatever box I had him in, smashing it straight to hell.

I didn’t know where we went from here. The obvious next step would be for us to date each other publicly, but after all we’d been through together, it felt strange to just pretend we suddenly started going out. And to call each other boyfriend and girlfriend already would probably send our friends into shock.

How did we explain it?