Page 24 of When the Stars Rise

“When was the last time you talked to yourbest friend? She’s going through a hard time, too.”

“Well then, it’s a good thing you were there to kiss it better.” She gives me a sweet smile, but I know it’s fake.

“On that note, I’m out of here,” Aiden says, sensing the tension in the air.

“Good luck, mate.” Julian claps me on the shoulder before he follows Aiden out of the lounge, leaving me alone with Hayley.

We stare at each other as if it’s a contest to see who will break first. Her. She lowers her eyes, takes a sip of tea, and resumes scrolling.

I’m tempted to rip the phone out of her hand and crush the screen under the heel of my shoe, but I restrain myself and use my words instead.

“Just for the record, Everly and I are not fucking.”

She recoils at my crude language, but at least I’ve got her attention.

“It was just one kiss after a few too many drinks.” And that’s the God’s honest truth. Do I regret it? More than I can say. But at the end of the day, that kiss meant nothing.

Her brows hike up like she’s trying to catch me in a lie. “Just one kiss?”

I nod, holding her gaze so she knows I’m telling the truth.

“Good to know.” Hayley pockets her phone and gets to her feet.

CHAPTER TEN

Noah

I’m expectingher to retreat to her bedroom or head to the arena to prepare for tonight’s show, but she surprises me by crossing the aisle and sitting beside me. Not so close that we’re touching but close enough that her scent washes over me. A night in the forest. Long summer days and sultry nights. Pine and amber. Citrus and bergamot with a hint of vanilla. She smells like Gypsy Water by Byredo.

I’m not a perfume expert. I only know all this because I gave her the perfume for her nineteenth birthday, and she’s been wearing it ever since.

I could happily drown in her scent. Do the backstroke in an entire vat of it.

Hayley points at my laptop. “Can I see the footage?”

It’s paused on a shot of me floating above the clouds after editing it down to three and a half minutes. “Which part?”

She shrugs. “All of it?”

I shoot her a skeptical look. “You sure?”

“Yes. I’m sure.”

Here goes nothing. I minimize the screen and pull up the unedited videos, then hit play on the first one—Bodhi, Sage, and me scuba diving in Beqa Lagoon.

“It’s beautiful,” she says with a smile. In the next instant, she jumps back and lets out a little squeak, covering her face with her hands when a bull shark emerges from a school of colorful, tropical fish. “I didn’t see that coming.”

We laugh, and she points to the screen. “That one looks like Nemo.”

“We’re always trying to find Nemo.”

“Just keep swimming,” she says quietly.

“Yeah.” I glance at her. She’s transfixed by the underwater beauty, the same look of wonderment on her face that she used to get when we’d watch Disney movies as kids.Finding Nemowas a firm favorite.

The video cuts to a clip of us exploring an abandoned shipwreck at Carpet Cove, and her lips tug into a smile.

“I bet Sage was in heaven,” she says with a smile.