Page 43 of Faking the Play

She flushed, looking away from me. “Leave it to you to turn a threat into an innuendo. Not that the other guys would’ve been any better.”

“So now that you’ve yelled at me, do you feel better?” I asked.

“That depends.” She still didn’t look at me. “Are you done with your little temper tantrum so we can get back to work?”

“It’s not a tantrum if it’s true,” I said, crossing my arms. “You helped me enough when we were kids that you know I can’t do this.”

That got her head jerking up, eyes flashing. “I did help you back then. And what did I tell you aboutcan’t?”

I laughed. “I think it had something to do with washing my mouth out with soap.”

“I don’t care that you’re some sort of football god, I’ll still do it,” she threatened.

I held up my hands in surrender. “All right, all right. You win. No more saying the c-word.” And then, because I couldn’t helpit, I winked at her. “That c-word anyway. No promises about the other one.”

She flushed and got that look on her face again, like my teasing bothered her now when it never had before.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“What?” She shook her head. “No, of course not.”

“I won’t say shit like that if it bugs you.” At her confused look, I explained what I meant. “The innuendos, dirty jokes, that kinda thing. You looked like it bugged you. If it does, I’ll stop.”

She smiled, but it looked a little forced to me. “No, it doesn’t bother me. I don’t want you guys to feel like you have to change anything about yourself for me. I wouldn’t do that to you guys.” She turned suddenly. “I’m going to get something to drink. Do you want something?”

“No, thanks, I’m good.”

I watched her as she went into the kitchen, my brain working—not on the essay I needed to read and write about, but on what could be wrong with Amelia. I knew she said she was okay, but I didn’t believe it. And if she had a problem, I wanted to be able to fix it.

“Ready to get back to work?” she asked as she came back with a cup of coffee.

“Needed the caffeine?” I motioned to the cup.

She shrugged, looking down at her cup as she sat down. “I haven’t slept well the past couple nights.”

A suspicion popped into my head and I figured I might as well go for it. “Since the night you and Logan had sex?”

She didn’t answer, instead picking up my tablet and holding it out to me. “Ready to try again?”

I sighed and sat down next to her.

“I still can’t believe no one’s made Professor Shelby adapt his syllabus yet,” she continued. “It’s ridiculous. You aren’t theonly student with dyslexia and there are plenty of other learning disabilities that could benefit from using audiobooks.”

I didn’t realize I was grinning at her until she looked at me, clearly confused.

“What?”

“I like when you get worked up over stuff like that,” I admitted. “You know, when you think something’s not fair.” I reached over and tucked some hair behind her ear. “I probably shouldn’t say it’s adorable, but it is.”

“Are you procrastinating, Ryan?” She gave me one of those teacher looks that she’d had even when we were kids.

I shook my head. “If I was doing that, I’d be doing this.” I leaned forward and brushed my lips across hers.

She didn’t pull back, but she didn’t lean into it either. When I sat back, I caught a glimpse of something crossing her eyes and she turned her head away.

That was enough for me.

I set down my tablet.

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