Page 76 of The Ruse

“Yeah…” And the fact that she mentioned Nash without me bringing up his name told me that Miss Crawley’s and my assumptions had been correct about what was causing the problem.

“Well, I’m a bit embarrassed I did so bad that Miss Crawley had to ask you to do an intervention.” She looked down at the book on her lap. “But since I don’t want to ruin the play for everyone, I guess I should probably rehearse with you tonight instead of reading this book.”

“You’re not ruining the play,” I hurried to say, hating that she assumed that was what I was suggesting. “We’ve only had two weeks of rehearsals. It’s completely normal to have nerves, or you know, whatever… Kissing scenes are awkward to do in front of other people, anyway.”

Awkward to talk about, too, as was apparent by the way my cheeks were currently on fire.

“Yeah.” She looked down shyly. “But, um, we can be mature about it, right?” She glanced around the common room to make sure none of the other students hanging out in here were listening.

No one seemed to be paying us attention.

She lowered her voice. “I mean, it’s not like I haven’t kissed you before. So it should be fine.”

“Yeah.” I rubbed the back of my neck, hoping she wouldn’t notice me blushing—my cheeks grew even hotter at the mention of our previous kiss. “We just need to work in what we’ve already done with the music and choreography, and it should be easy.”

I mean, I’d relived that kiss in my mind so many times that it really should be easy to repeat.

“Okay.” She bit her lip, her golden-brown eyes meeting mine. “Where should we rehearse?”

“We could practice in my room,” I said. “Hunter should be out at the game for a while, so we won’t be interrupted.”

“You want to practice in your room?” Her voice raised an octave, like she was worried I had ulterior motives for getting her up there.

“Or your room,” I said quickly. “I just figured it would be the best place to go and not have to worry about anyone interrupting us. I promise I’ll be a complete gentleman.”

“Kind of like how you were such a gentleman that you onlypretendedyou’d slept on the floor at the cabin.” A smirk lifted her lips.

“Hey.” I held up my hands. “I stayed on my side of the bed. You can’t blame me for wanting to be fully rested in case I needed to go all taekwondo on a burglar.”

She chuckled. “Do you even know taekwondo?”

“No,” I admitted. “But as a Korean-American, I’d only need to strike a convincing pose and a burglar would assume I knew what I was doing.”

She laughed, and I liked the sound of it. It was the kind of laugh that just made you feel light and happy inside.

Happier than I’d been in a long time.

“What I’m trying to say is that we can rehearse anywhere you’re comfortable, but my room is an option if you wanted to try it out.”

She stared at me for a second, as if to make sure I was really trustworthy, and then said, “Just let me grab my notes from rehearsal, and I’ll meet you there.”

As soon asElyse headed up to the girls’ dorms, I ran up to my room to make sure it looked decent. Hunter had a bunch of his sweaty gym clothes strewn all over his bed, like he’d dumped out his duffle bag before the game and ran. To try and get rid of the funky smell, I threw them all in the dirty laundry hamper he had stored in his closet and shut the door. I wanted to crack a window, but it was too cold for that right now. I spritzed the room instead with the air freshener I kept in my desk for the off chance that I ever had a girl in my room. Then I swung the door back and forth to hopefully get enough fresh air circulating.

I was sure she was almost here when I realized I hadn’t brushed my teeth since before rehearsal. If we were going to be working on a kissing scene, I had better freshen my breath as well.

We didn’t have a sink in our dorm room and the boys’ bathroom was at the other end of the hall, so I just put some toothpaste on my toothbrush, dry-brushed my teeth, and swallowed.

Not ideal, but it was better than taco-salad breath.

Elyse’s knock came a second later.

“Theo said we have to keep the door open,” Elyse said as she walked into my room. “And that he’ll be checking on us every twenty minutes. So he’s got my back, in case you get any ideas about why I’m here.”

She’d said it all like it was a joke, but I could tell there was a hint of nervous energy coming from her.

“Thanks for the warning.”

“So, this is your place?” She stepped farther in and surveyed my room.

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