Page 23 of The Playbook

We both sat silently inside for a moment before I spoke again.

“I know you said you don’t want to be my public friend, but how about if we just hang out and you tried before you totally write me off? Maybe get to know one another? I think we could actually be good friends if you gave it a try.”

“I don’t know,” she said slowly, glancing at me. “I mean, you’re probably not half as bad as I think you are. It’s just, Nikki and her friends hate me.Yourfriends hate me. I don’t want to draw unnecessary attention to myself—”

“Secret friends then like we talked about before. But for real. Not you avoiding me. We can do it. Come on. If you end up not hating my guts, we could air it all out. Maybe we could start with a date.”

She froze as she stared at me. I’d lost her at date.

“Afrienddate,” I rushed on. “We can get to know one another. Talk about our favorite movies, bands, most embarrassing moments, college choices, you name it. If you think I’m still a total waste by the end of it, we can just remain boring lab partners, and you can continue to yell at me.”

I waited for her to answer me. When she finally did, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.

“How about we see how pizza goes and take it from there? One step at a time.”

“Agreed,” I said, without hesitation.

I held out my hand for her to shake. She chuckled softly before placing her hand in mine.

“Agreed.”

“That a girl. You won’t regret it, Gracie.”

“I sure hope not,” she answered, making my mouth go dry.

I sure hoped she wouldn’t either.

CHAPTER13

Grace

“So, Logan.” Lana leaned forward in her seat as Logan bit into a slice of pizza.

He raised his brows at her.

“Which do you think is better, flutes or drums?”

I rolled my eyes, and Noah let out a groan.

Logan chewed thoughtfully and swallowed before answering. “I’ve gotta go with drums on this one.”

“You’re only saying that because of Grace,” Lana teased, winking at me.

I gave her a slight shake of my head.

Logan grinned. “Actually, no. I love rock music. Anything heavy gets me going. Double kick on drums when those riffs hit?” He scoffed. “I’m all fucking for it. I don’t think a flute could compete with that or create that level of frenzy inside me. Grace being a drummer is just a kick ass bonus.” He glanced at me and smiled.

My heart fluttered as I cleared my throat and turned away from him.

“I play drums too, Walker. Do I send your insides into a frenzy?” Noah let out a laugh.

Logan winked at him and bit into his pizza again.

“I hate this,” Lana grumbled, leaning back and rubbing her stomach. “Flutes get no respect.”

“Sure they do. Just not with us.” Noah reached across the table and high-fived Logan.

I shook my head at them. While I didn’t think this night would be a total disaster, I definitely didn’t think Noah and Logan would be high fiving one another across the table.

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