Page 86 of Perfect Score

He clears his throat.

Liam.

“Mind if I cut in?”

Brent’s hands tighten around me, bringing me closer against him.

The things that Phobe and Sarah said in the dressing room have me thinking over everything. How did Brent feel about Liam and I dating if Brent wanted me?

Brent looks down at me, waiting for me to answer Liam’s question, his eyes searching mine.

“Umm…” I say, trying to buy myself time to think it through.

I don’t want Brent’s hands to release me, but it feels rude to turn Liam down in front of all of our friends and family. Not to mention that the whole reason Brent and I came up with this fake dating idea was to make Liam jealous.

I turn to look at Liam’s arms open to receive me as if he already assumes I’ll come to him… and I would have. If he had done this any time over the past year, I would have jumped into his arms.

“It’s customary that the maid of honor and the best man share a dance, and you were supposed to be the maid of honor,” he says, trying to make sense of it.

I look back up at Brent, and he nods as if trying to make the decision easier for me.

As if he thinks that I might want to say yes.

Doesn’t he know that there’s no other man’s arms I want to be in than his?

“Okay…” I say with an unsure voice. “One dance.”

Brent lightens his hold, but he holds my hand until I pull mine from his. His hand slides off my back as I take steps away from him.

I step into Liam’s hold and hear my sister’s voice behind me.

“Looking for a partner?”

I glance over my shoulder to see Phoebe in her big wedding dress, asking Brent to dance while David walks his grandmother to the dance floor.

They’re making their rounds dancing with guests, and I’m relieved she’s dancing with Brent. She’ll ask top journalist-worthy questions and pry into his intentions with me better than anyone I know.

Liam steps into me, wraps his hand around my back and places his hand in mine.

“You look gorgeous… as always,” he says with a smile.

It’s so weird that Liam’s arms used to be my happy place, and now, there’s a dullness to them. An emptiness in his hold.

“Thank you,” I say, watching others on the dance floor instead of back at him.

Then it dawns on me that someone’s missing.

“Wait… where’s Shelby?” I ask.

I look among the crowd, but I don’t see her anywhere. What I do notice is that Liam has danced us farther and farther away from Brent.

I catch Brent’s eyes still on me, a slight frown on his lips as he listens to my sister, who’s watching our parents dancing.

“She went home. We broke up,” he says, but the words don’t even register because I’m back to staring at Brent, who’s now looking in the opposite direction while talking with my parents as he sways Phoebe back and forth.

My dad must have had a couple of drinks because he just threw his head back in laughter at something Brent said.

“Zoey,” Liam says, breaking my trance.

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