Page 23 of Your Secret to Keep

“I don’t know if we’re doing this yet,” she admits, her mouth claiming mine.

“This is your call, Lia. If I get to kiss you while you decide, that’sokay with me,” I promise.

I truly would’ve been only her friend and tried my best to forget our first kiss after our impromptu first date, but it would’ve been fucking hard. Honestly, what are the odds that a mystery woman shows up in my life, and then her job is to spend time with me—documenting my return from injury? It feels like the universe is pushing us together and I’m going to take it, secrets and all.

Here's the thing: I’ll keep any secret necessary. The original Coca Cola recipe? I’m a vault. Nuclear codes? What codes. The truth behind the pyramids? Believe me, I’m the wrong guy.

If it means I get to be with Lia, my lips are sealed.

Chapter 14

Lia

“Yogaisbullshit,”Shelbiegroans as she takes a long drink of her coffee.

I roll my eyes, laughing, because this isn’t new.

“Why do you come if you hate it this much?” I blow on the mug of hot coffee, wondering how Shelbie didn’t burn her mouth.

Now I’m thinking about my lips and how they still feel perfectly swollen from last night.

She yawns as she takes her black hair down from the messy bun she wore in class. It reaches past her shoulders and looks much better than it should for just falling out of a scrunchie. That’s the kind of luck Shelbie has, though.

Shelbie rolls her eyes. “Because someone went and got a dream job or something and has been impossible to get a hold of.”

Ouch. I know she’s giving me a hard time, but she isn’t wrong.

“When do you sleep?” She slouches back into the booth of our favorite coffee shop, which happens to be only a block from where I teach yoga.

“I’ve learned how to survive on four hours. What can I say?”

“You’re ridiculous. Now dish on the basketball player.”

Heat creeps up my neck until it lands on my cheeks. Whatever is between us is supposed to be a secret, but there’s no way I can keep this to myself. Shelbie is the human version of a vault.

“Let’s see. We’re spending a ton of time together for work, it’s going really well, and, oh yeah, I made out with him on my couch last night. Like a teenager.”

Shelbie clicks her tongue and hisses, “Next time, lead with the make out session. Why do you look so guilty? He’s not married, right?”

“Like I’d consider anything if he were married,” I scoff, taking a sip of my still-scorching coffee. If anything’s remained consistent for most of my life, it’s the importance of following the rules. Good girl syndrome runs deep in these bones; it’s part of my marrow at this point. “It feels like I’m breaking the rules or I’m being reckless or irresponsible.”

“Knock it off, Lia. No one would ever use the word irresponsible to describe you. You’re constantly two steps ahead and go to great lengths to get what you want… except when it comes to hot as fuck athletes, I guess.” She pauses and looks around the room.

I sit back with my hands in my lap and take Shelbie in. We’ve known each other since college, and we stayed in the same area. I’ve never been one to have a bunch of friends, mostly because I feel like I had way more responsibility than other people my age. But then I met Shelbie, being forced to do an icebreaker for a college class where she eloquently looked at me and said, “Can you believe we’re paying for this bullshit?” From then on, we’ve been close. No matter how much is going on, we can easily pick up right where we left off. When she got the job at The Foundry, she immediately told the manager she knew someone who would be interested in picking up shifts.

We’re quite the contrast. My hair is blonde, hers black, and my somewhat energetic sunny energy perfectly balances her deliciously dark and snarky self. If you get Shelbie to smile, you’ve done something right.

It’s kind of like romance books, when the main character is rough around the edges but is only soft for her. Shelbie is the grumpy main character who loves me no matter how much I differ from her.

“You need to let loose. Has anyone ever told you that?” she asks.

“You. About a thousand times. This year.”

“And yet, you never listen. You’ve got this job, you’ll make real money, and I know that’s one of your main stressors.”

The honesty is a lump in my throat I swallow past. It’s not a secret I’m always scrounging for money, a habit I had to learn when my parents died. Now I’m in a slightly better spot, but I’m always waiting for something to go wrong that will undo any of the progress I’ve made.

“I googled Brooks,” Shelbie admits with her eyes looking at me over her coffee mug. This doesn’t surprise me because, out of all things, Shelbie is a sucker for reality TV and celebrity gossip. “I’m happy to report there’s not a single Reddit thread about him being a slime ball. Now, his ex-girlfriend, that’s a different story. She doesn’t get a passing grade from me.”

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