Page 37 of Something Like Sunflowers

Shit, this is so damn awkward.

“Go get her,” Dustin says.

“You won’t put me in the ground?”

He shoots me a glare that tells me maybe he will if I don’t stop while I’m ahead, so I throw out my palms.

“Just needed to double check. I kinda like it where there’s oxygen and all.”

Dustin laughs, running a hand through his hair.

“You’re my best friend.” He wraps me in a hug and squeezes my shoulder, looking me straight in the eyes with green ones that match hers. “Just don’t break her heart.”

I bro hug my best friend tighter than I ever have before, because he knows, and he gets it. He knows how much I care about Devyn.

And soon she will, too.

I run down the stairs, out the front door, and onto Robbie’s street as fast as I possibly can.

“Devyn!”

I spot her a few mailboxes up and run ahead, but she keeps a steady pace, putting considerable distance between us.

“Devyn, stop! Can we talk?”

She whips around and stalks toward me with full force, and damn, I thought she was gorgeous before, but she lights the world on fire in an emerald blaze when she’s angry.

“And tell me, Hunter Isaac. Just why would I listen to a word you have to say? First, you tell me I can’t hang out in the big boys’ club. Well, newsflash, I’m all woman now!” She yanks off my hoodie and throws it at me, hiking up her skirt as high as it will go without showing her actual private parts, and holy…I hold my hands over my eyes…I mean, I peek too, because we’re in the middle of the road and all, and I can’t help that she did that, but I wait to really take my hands down until I hear her scoff at me and finally tug her skirt back to a normal place on her thighs.

I run my teeth over my bottom lip and shake my head at her.

“You’re definitely not a little kid.” I watch my words hit her, lips popping open on a shiver as the wind blows her hair around. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Well, you sure said it like that,” she crosses her arms over her chest and takes a power stance that would be hot as hell if she didn’t want to kill me right now.

“And you cockblocked me.” She huffs.

I choke at that.

It’s something I love about her. She’s never let being a girl…woman…stop her from doing anything. She’s a force who demands to be heard on her own terms, in her own way.

“I…cockblocked you?” I force out. “With Shane?”

“Well, whatever the kissing version of that is.” She steps closer, her brow creasing. “You told me you liked me at the lake.”

“Because I do,” I say.

“Then what’s with all the games?”

“I was scared to ask you out.” It’s true, even if there’s more to it than that.

“Scared? To ask me out?” Her brow remains creased, and I can tell it’s insane to her that I would need courage for that. But I do.

“I’ve always needed courage when it comes to you, Dev.” We walk in tandem for a moment, and when she grabs my hand, my heart takes over my whole chest. It’s warm. It’s strength. It feels so damn right.

“Because of my brother?”

I nod. We stop walking to face one another.

---