Page 66 of Obsessed with the Heartbreaker

It wasn’t my business. It especially shouldn’t have been my business whether Henry followed his parents’ footsteps like they wanted or otherwise—so why did I care so much that he did something that he loved?

The questions stayed with me long after he left, gone to help out his frat brothers with whatever they were doing.

My job here was done today. I’d planted the seed. Whether I should have cared or not was irrelevant, because now I’d succeeded in guiding him, even just an inch.

Up and down I kept brushing the wall, wondering why I kept wanting Henry to be done with the others so we could justtalk. Breathe the same air. Share the same space.

Like we used to.

God, I needed a stern talking to. This wasn’t healthy.Nothingwould be happening with Henry and he’d made it perfectly clear, so it made no sense—

“Andino!”

That wasn’t Henry.

Yet the voice was disgustingly familiar.

Putting the brush down, I turned in the voice’s direction and saw none other than Edward Keller, smirking at me from the sidewalk.

Great. Just great.

If he was expecting a heartfelt greeting from me, he had something else coming, but apparently he interpreted my looking at him like permission to approach, and he made his way to me, grass crunching under his feet.

“You look…” Keller eyed me up and down, at my borrowed swim trunks—whose owner I definitely didn’t think about— and shirtless torso. “Different.”

“You look the same. Just like this morning.”

If a flying saucer full of aliens wanted to come and abduct me right now, I’d be grateful.

Or, better yet, they could abducthim.

His smirk grew. “I see you haven’t been wasting your time. I thought listening to a good friend’s advice would help you.”

“Good friend?” I put a hand over my eyes, blocking the intense late afternoon sun, and looked behind him. “Don’t see one anywhere.”

“You think you’re so cool, don’t you? Hanging out with frat guys, in the same space as the most popular guy in this college. Well, let me break it to you, you’re not eveninthe frat, so you’ll never be one of them.”

Nostrils flaring, I was starting to get very ticked off, and I didn’t evencareabout what he was saying.

Holding the brush’s long handle with a deathly grip, I became faintly aware of the guys near me watching our exchange. It reminded me of the other night with Kevin, where they’d all been almost waiting for Henry to give the word to kick him out.

“You should go, Keller.”

“What, you think you can kick me out? Do you think you’re in charge of this place?”

“He might not be but I am.”

The hairs on my arms rose, goosebumps all over my skin, as Henry stepped right beside me, shoulders wide and straight, expression threatening. “Who the fuck are you?”

Suddenly, it was like his whole face changed. “Oh, hi, Henry. I’m Edward Keller, nice to—” he reached out with a hand to shake Henry’s but the latter ignored it completely.

“We don’t allow strangers to just wander to our house.”

Keller’s smirk became a flirty grin as he eyed Henry’s chest. “We don’thaveto be strangers.”

A very unimpressed Henry said, “I suggest you leave.”

Keller’s shock was immediate, but he wiped it from his expression quickly. “Buthe’sa stranger.”

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