Page 29 of All Your Pucking Secrets

He scowls. “You’re crazy.”

I incline my head in acknowledgement. “Probably. But I’m not joking around.”

He sizes me up and seems to realize that I’m bigger and meaner because he steps out of the line and defensively holds up his hands .

“I’m going. But you need to get a grip, man.”

Yeah, I do. I’m going to get myself arrested before I win her back at this rate, but I can’t bring myself to regret my actions as my competition scurries out the side door. Echo doesn’t even look up. She hasn’t realized he’s gone.

I stay in the line, regretting the fact I didn’t ask him what sort of coffee she wanted before sending him packing. We never did anything in public, so all I know about her coffee preferences is that she used to like adding a shot of chocolate to her drink when we used my family’s coffee maker.

When I reach the front of the line, I order a skinny mocha. Then, tugging my cap low again, I shuffle around to wait for the drink, doing my best to stay out of her line of sight. I’m more exposed to her here, and it won’t be long before she realizes her admirer has vanished.

But then something happens that I could never have prepared for. The girl who was in front of Coffee Guy in the line receives her cream-topped drink and sidles over to Echo. From here, I can hear every word she says, and it makes me wish I could disappear in a puff of smoke.

“It was so hot how your boyfriend chased off that other guy,” she tells Echo.

Echo looks around, obviously confused. Her gaze sweeps past the counter and, failing to land on her admirer, returns to the girl who’s approached her.

“My boyfriend?” she asks.

“Yeah.” The girl cocks her hip. “He was all, ‘Grr, she’s mine, back off.’ Very alpha male, and hot A.F.”

Echo scans the counter again, and this time her gaze snags on me. I look away, hoping she didn’t see my face properly, but no such luck. In two seconds, she’s on her feet and stomping toward me. The girl leaps out of her way, startled.

“You.” She jabs her finger at me but doesn’t make contact. “What right do you think you have to do that?”

I shrink against the counter. She might be nearly a foot shorter than me, but that doesn’t make her anger any less terrifying because she’s literally one of the only things in the world I give a damn about.

“I can do what I like,” I say, but it comes out sounding like a question.

Her eyes form hazel slits. “What part of ‘leave me alone’ do you not get?”

“I, uh, can’t do that,” I respond sheepishly.

“Why not?” If looks could kill, I’d be six feet under.

“Because we have our group meeting in—” I check my watch. “Five minutes.”

Her nostrils flare and she grumbles, but must realize she’s not going to make any progress on that front because she changes tack.

“That class is the only reason we have to talk to each other,” she says. “I don’t want to hear about you interfering with my life again. No gifts, no chasing people away, and—”

“Skinny mocha?” the barista says behind me.

Cringing, I turn and take the drink from her, then pass it to Echo. “Sorry, I’d already ordered it.”

She glares at me, and then the coffee. She snatches it from my grasp. “This doesn’t mean anything.”

I nod agreeably. “I’m sorry for upsetting you. I just…” I know I’m about to make a fool of myself, but she deserves the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable for me. “I can’t stand to see you with anyone else, and I hope you’ll agree to hear me out eventually. Trust me, you’ll want to hear what I have to say.”

Confessing the truth wouldn’t change the past, but it could alter our future, if only she’d stop being stubborn for long enough to find out.

“I wanted to talk things out years ago.” Her tone is steely. “But instead, you hurt me badly.”

Everything inside me aches, right down to my soul. I was an idiot. A stupid, impulsive kid who’d been backed into a corner. I’d paid the price, but Echo had too. In many ways, the price she paid was steeper.

“You weren’t polite enough to grant me the privilege of not seeing you with someone else, so why would I do that for you?” she asks.

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