Page 70 of Puck Block

Taytum’s eyes widen. “I mean Augustus!”

I ask a question I’m not sure I want the answer to. “Is he a professor at Bexley U?”

Nope. Nada. Not happening.

She shifts on her feet uncomfortably and looks back to the table before swinging her attention to me again. “Yes, but he isn't my professor anymore, and he’s only thirty-four, so chill.”

I stare at her.

She stares at me.

We’re having a silent argument, and I’m three seconds from picking her up by her waist, draping her over my shoulder, taking the pizza to go, and driving us home.

My cup clinks against the table when she places it back down. “You promised, Ford.” Her eyes soften around the edges, and I’m a sucker because I fall for the innocent act.

I bite the inside of my cheek when she turns around and heads back to her date.

I did promise her I wouldn’t interfere, and I rarely break my promises.

But Taytum has already become an exception, considering I’ve already broken a promise to her brother, and now I’m about to break another promise, because if her date so much as breathes in the wrong direction, he’s dead.

[ 31 ]

TAYTUM

Ford has a game tomorrow,yet he’s five booths down, staring directly at me while I try to have a decent conversation with a man whowaskeeping my interest.

That ship sailed the second I heard the name Walker come over the speaker. The room tilted on its side when I snagged onto his knowing smirk, and my heart came to life.Ugh.

“You always made me laugh in class,” Augustus says, pulling me back to the date.

I give him a look while ignoring Ford’s lazy gaze from across the restaurant. “I did? You were always so serious. I don’t think I remember you laughing.”

“That’s because you were always chatting with your friends, paying attention to them”—he shrugs—“while I was paying attention to you.”

Before Ford walked in and ruined my date by watching my every move, that comment would have made me blush. Now, though, all I’m left with is guilt, and I don’t want to admit why.

“Oh,please.” I roll my eyes playfully. “Actually…” I push further back into the booth and hate that I have to forcefullykeep my attention on him. “I think I remember you giving me a D on one of my papers that deserved an A.”

He snorts. “Which you had no problem saying aloud when receiving your grade.”

I give him a little shrug of my shoulders and grin.

After a long second, he crosses his arms and smiles. “I gave you a D to get your attention.”

“Oh, is that right?” I ask.

He nods gingerly, and I try to find the same spark between us that I felt when he picked me up, but I crave to look at Ford instead. I flicker my gaze past Augustus’s shoulder for a split second, and disappointment settles when I see that Ford isn’t even looking at us.

Instead, he’s buried in his phone.

Augustus clears his throat. “You never came to my office, though. I was hoping you’d come yell at me for a new grade.”

I laugh. “Sorry to disappoint.”

He brushes me off. “It was probably better that you didn’t come to my office.”

“Why?”

---