Page 28 of All Your Pucking Secrets

“You expect me to believe you haven’t been with any of those puck bunnies that fawn all over college athletes?” Her words drip with venom.

“I haven’t.” I understand why she might doubt me, but it’s the truth.

A flicker of pain crosses her features. “Or Whitney?”

“I wasn’t with her like that. I never cared about her. Please, let me explain.” My fist clenches around the strap, and a rock sits heavy in my gut. It feels like everything rides on this moment.

Echo looks me straight in the eyes. “I don’t believe you.”

Then she leaves, taking the broken remnants of my heart with her.

8

TYLER

Sipping my flat white, I watch Echo across the coffee shop. I arrived at Full of Beans early for our group project meeting and positioned myself strategically just inside the door, where I can see her, but she’s unlikely to see me.

Students buzz around the brightly lit interior, making small talk and tapping on their laptops at the coffee bar, while seated in clusters around the tables. There’s too much chatter for the environment to be great for studying, but several people have earbuds in, so I guess they’ve found ways around it.

Echo is sitting by herself at a rectangular wooden table. Her laptop is open in front of her and she’s reading something on the screen, scrolling down every now and then. Her eyebrows pinch together, a faint groove forming between them, and she pauses to scribble on the notepad to the right of her keyboard.

I tip my coffee cup up, draining the rest of the flat white. The coffee is creamy and rich, just how I like it, but it pales in comparison to Echo.

Everything does.

Sometimes I wish I’d realized that before shit went down. I’ve wondered a hundred times how I could have done things differently. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. I made choices, and now I have to live with reality.

In this case, my reality is that Echo has been showing up for class a few minutes late to avoid me, and racing for the exit as soon as class ends. I could follow her back to her dorm or arrange to intercept her, but I’ve been trying to respect her wishes as much as possible without abandoning my plan.

I’ve given her a little space, but I won’t give her too much.

As I continue to observe her, I notice that I’m not the only one doing so. At a table two over from hers, a pair of guys in jeans and death metal T-shirts are surreptitiously checking her out. The way they’re leaning close to each other to talk, flicking their gazes to her every few seconds, makes me think they’re discussing her.

I shift on my seat and tug my ball cap lower, angling my head to shield my face. The stockier of the two guys stands and makes his way over to her. When he’s hovering beside her table, Echo glances up at him and smiles.

She smiles.

My jaw tightens. This asshole gets to bask in the warmth of her smile when it’s all I can do to persuade her not to flee from me every time I get near her.

I understand why, but it grates.

Echo’s lips aren’t moving, so I assume the guy is doing the talking. His back is to me so I can’t see his expression. After a moment, she replies to him. He swaggers away from her, toward the line at the counter. I wonder if she told him her coffee order.

Oh, hell no.

I wait until Echo refocuses on her laptop before leaving my post by the door and joining the line. Luckily, no one else has joined, so I’m immediately behind the asshole whose been trying to flirt with my girl. I tap him on the shoulder.

He swivels around. “What?”

“Are you buying a coffee for the girl over there?” I ask softly. “Glasses, brunette.”

“Yeah.” He grins. “She’s cute, right?”

“She’s mine,” I growl. “If you so much as lay a finger on her, I’ll break it.”

His eyes widen. “Whoa. What the fuck?”

I inch closer to him. “I’m completely serious. Leave now and don’t ever talk to her again. Don’t even fucking look at her.”

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