Page 58 of The Prince of Broken Crowns

He’s wearing a pair of dark blue running shorts, a blank top, and running sneakers. His dark eyes shift from me to Noah, and he literally stops in his tracks. He blinks a few times then continues toward me.

“What’re you doing?” He directs his question to Noah.

“Standing here, talking to Maddison,” Noah replies in an even tone.

“No, I mean, why are you even out here?” Noah stops just short of him. “You don’t usually get up this early.”

“There’s a first for everything,” Noah tells him while pulling his hood back over his head. “Chill, I was just out for a walk. And now I’m going to go get ready for class.” With that, he walks away, his gaze sneaking in my direction.

I give a look that warns him this conversation isn’t over.

“What was that about?” River asks when Noah is out of earshot. “I can tell Noah was lying through his teeth.”

“Maybe you should talk to him about it,” I suggest. “I don’t want to get caught in the middle of this.”

He wavers, rubbing his lips together as he studies me. “Just be careful around him, okay? He always comes off nice initially, but there’s more to Noah than what he shows people.”

“All right.” I’m surprised he’s letting this go so easily. “Sorry I’m late for our practice session. I was on time, I promise. But I got distracted with … well, you know.”

“You’re fine,” he assures me as we walk up the path toward the track. “I always add ten minutes onto any time I give someone to meet me. I do it mostly out of habit because Finn is always late.”

I smile at that. “I saw him in the hallway, running late because he forgot his water bottle.”

“He’s good at forgetting stuff, too.” He smiles as we reach an iron gate. “And is slow to respond to text messages.”

“What’s he good at then?” I wonder as he grabs the gate handle and pulls it open.

“Flirting, football, pretending he doesn’t give a shit when he really does.” He walks through and lets the gate swing shut behind him. “He’s a good guy, though. A bit flakey, but he can be a good friend if you don’t mind dealing with that.”

“I can be flakey sometimes, too. But that’s mostly because I’m not used to having obligations. Well, except for track and school. Those are choices, though.”

“Your parents don’t give you any rules?” He treads cautiously as we stop on a grassy section beside the track. Beside one of the few benches nearby is a green bag and a jacket lying on the ground.

“My mother had one rule for me, and that was not to be seen or heard. If I obeyed that, everything was peachy.” I set my bag down beside his. “Of course, when I got older, she changed the rules and wanted me to be seen and heard while I was talking to her. You got a glimpse of that while I was in jail.”

He rubs his hand. “What about your dad?”

My heart rate increases at the mention of my father, because not only is he a terrible man, but he’s the root of most of the problems weeding my life right now.

“You know, you don’t need to talk about him if you don’t want to,” River says, as if reading my emotions.

“Thanks.” I shake off the anxiety creeping up on me and plaster on a cheery smile. “So, what exactly are we doing on this fine, sunny morning?” I peer up at the sky and note dark clouds looming in the distance. “Or I guess I should say a partly sunny morning that has the potential to get all stormy.”

“Don’t tell me the girl who handed Finn his ass while we were all in jail is afraid of running in a little bit of rain,” River teases me with a grin.

Holy hell, this is the first time I’ve seen his teasing grin, and it is absolutely gorgeous. I manage to keep a level head, though.

“I did hand him his ass, didn’t I?”

Laughter slips from his lips. “You really did.” He walks over to the green bag and opens it up. “I’m pretty sure no girl has ever smarted off to him like you did.” He takes out a bottle of water. “You should have heard him on the way home. He was rambling about it the entire way.” He tips his head back and takes a long swig before dropping the bottle back into the bag.

“Well, then I guess that night wasn’t an entire loss because that makes me kind of happy inside.” I waver. “Although, weirdly, even though my mother blew off bailing me out, someone else did. So, I guess that’s a positive, too. Being in jail definitely wasn’t.” An idea occurs to me, one that’s a long shot, but it’s worth trying. “When you guys got bailed out, you didn’t by chance see or hear some rando there mentioning my name and giving the cashier lady some money for my bail, did you?”

He shakes his head. “Why?”

“Because the person who bailed me out wanted to remain anonymous, which is not only driving me crazy, but it’s so weird. Nothing good like that ever happens to me.” I hold up a finger. “Again, I’m not referring to being in jail as a good thing, but someone bailing me out with no strings attached is definitely not something that ever happens to me. And I’ve been in jail a couple of times.”

“Really? For what?” he asks curiously as he grabs the neck of his tank top and pulls it off.

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