Page 233 of Out of Bounds

I melted like chocolate in a hot car. Completely, without hesitation, loved this man. I breathed deeply, unable to look away from him, and really not giving a shit that I couldn’t

I wanted nothing more than to kiss him. Actually, no, I wanted nothing more than to make him come. To make him feel as good as he made me feeleveryday.

His eyebrows furrowed. “Kassie? You have the interview.”

“What?” I blinked, unwillingly sucked back to real life.

“The phone call with the leasing office,” he urged.

Holy shit.

“I—I—” I stopped myself, stunned. The interview was for Sunday morning and itwasSunday morning. With everything else going on, I’d completely spaced it.

But that wasn’t really true.

Everything about Florida was becoming more and more unimportant, shuffled down the list of priorities. I didn’t know if I was going to Florida yet. For the first time…ever, I was settling in somewhere. I had friends, I had a workplace that wasn’t draining my existence, and I had Ryan—the quarterback that I rearranged my whole life for.

The interview can’t hurt.

“Oh, god, you’re right,” I whispered. “How could I forget?”

Even if I wasn’t going to Florida, I could still talk to them about a potential application for next year. Until that was finalized, I couldn’t tell Ryan. I wouldn’t give him any kind of false hope. That was just mean.

“We need the birds gone,” Ryan told the zookeeper, his voice strained.

“Wait, we haven’t named them yet,” I blurted out.

“You have the interview.”

“Uh—I—” I stopped myself, glancing at the hornbills again.

I had no interest in naming them after theBird Pantscharacters but nothing else about Ryan and I really worked. What else tied the two of us together?

The words tumbled out of my mouth. “Marrs and Roman. It’ll sound so good for the cameras.”

94

Ryan

Can’t Do It

I couldn’t go through with it.

Fuck, I thought I could. I really did. But the longer I looked down at Kassie,mygirl, the harder it was to keep the truth down. Kassie started up the phone call before we even left the zoo and I followed right behind her, trying to push down the sick feeling in my stomach before she caught on.

“Hi, I’m so sorry, I completely forgot—” Kassie said and stopped herself, nodding along. “I can wait, no worries.”

I opened the van door, wrestling with myself. What was I willing to do to keep her with me?

“Art girl?” I called her when she took her seat in the car.

Kassie glanced over from the call and gave me the widest, softest smile possible. I earned those smiles. Every one of them. I could still remember when she scoffed any time I said anythingand now she wrapped her legs around me and gave me those kinds of smiles that she reserved from most of the world.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

I meant it. And I didn’t. Maybe that was the most fucked up part of all. Because if it legitimately worked, I didn’t know how sorry I could be about it.

“Hey, hey.” She shook her head and reached out hand, touching my arm when I took the seat beside her. “Not your fault, it’s on me. I should’ve remembered—hello, hi.” Kassie straightened up in an instant and listened in rapt attention to the phone call.

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