Page 91 of Cold as Ice

And okay, maybe he did. A little.

“I think more glitter ended up on Ell than on you,” Jane joked, after they’d cleaned up in the tiny first floor bathroom and rejoined her. She was perched on the kitchen counter, chatting with Wes—the quarterback of the football team—and his boyfriend, Marcus.

“Does Ramsey know about this?” Wes wanted to know.

Mal looked over at Elliott, who only smiled and shrugged. Maybe they weren’t going to be keeping this under wraps for much longer.

“Maybe,” Mal said. “But I’m not worried about it. He’ll keep his mouth shut.”

“Well, you certainly don’t seem to be,” Jane retorted lightly. She jumped down from the counter. “You ready to head out, Mal? I have an early rehearsal tomorrow.”

“Yeah, we can go,” Mal said. He couldn’t stop looking at Elliott who did, actually, have glitter smeared across his cheeks and down lower, even.

“Say goodbye to your . . .uh . . .friend,” Jane told him. “I’ll be outside.”

Hugging Elliott didn’t seem like enough. After what Elliott told him earlier, they were obviously more than just hooking up, but what had felt right—andhot—in the moment, made him nervous now.

“Come ’ere,” Elliott said, grinning, and pulled him into a tight hug. “Tomorrow?” he murmured into Malcolm’s hair.

Mal nodded, even though he had a full schedule of homework and a game that night.

Elliott let him go. “Be safe,” he said. “Text me when you guys get home safe.”

“How about you textme?” Mal asked.

“Fair,” Elliott said, smiling.

When he emerged from the house, walking over to where Jane was waiting for him on the front walk, she shot him a very knowing look.

“You’re not being very subtle,” Jane pointed out. “If you’re trying to keep it under wraps, it’s not going to stay that way for very long.”

“Probably,” Mal said matter-of-factly. Shoving his hands in his pockets as they walked down the street, away from the noisiness of frat row on Halloween.

He was less worried about that now than he had been. Now that he understood that Elliott wasn’t just scratching an itch. That hemeantit.

That he’d been meaning it for a long time.

“You’re very calm about this. What happened?”

For a moment, Mal considered changing the subject. Not lying, because he’d never once lied to Jane, and he wasn’t about to start now. But she already suspected and if he was being honest with himself, hewantedto tell her.

“He told me tonight he liked me from the beginning. That he came here because . . .” Mal hesitated. Elliott hadn’t said it exactly this way, but this was what he’d said, meant, didn’t it? “That he had a crush on me. For a long time.”

“Oh, you just now figured that out, did you?” Jane laughed. “Welcome to the place we’ve all been forever.”

Mal winced. “Was itthatobvious?”

“That you two were very into each other, and masking it by driving each other nuts? A little, yeah. But it’s alright. I understood.”

“Because I didn’t have a lot of experience.” Mal tried not to sound too judgmental about himself, but mostly failed. Hewasjudgmental about himself. Why hadn’t he realized what Elliott was doing? Deep down, he’d known Elliott wasn’t that kind of idiot. That he wasn’t stupid and callous and surface-level.

But he’d still put him in that box and kept him there forever.

“Admittedly, what he was doing to get your attention wasn’t really changing your mind about him,” she said mildly. She wrapped a hand around his arm and tugged him closer. “I’m happy for you.”

It was clear from the sweetness in her tone that she was. “Thanks.”

“And for me, too.”

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