Page 33 of This

I deflate into the seat, willing the Kia to swallow me whole. With my caption, it looks like I want everyone to know he’ll betasting my rainbow.

What if Dane saw?

Do I care?

I delete the post, and for good measure, I deactivate my entire account and delete the app from my phone. Social media has turned on me. So, fuck it. I don’t need that negativity.

I’m not about that life.

Since I planned on buyingKeaton a gift over the weekend, I meet Liam in the terminal empty-handed, other than my suitcase. She works until eleven, waiting tables to earn extra cash for the wedding. It gives me plenty of time to stash my stuff at their apartment and figure out a present.

I borrow Liam’s truck and drive until inspiration strikes. The kitchen at one of her favorite restaurants closes at ten. I can order, and while they make everything she has ever saidmmmto, I’ll walk the few blocks to a boutique that screams Keaton. We tell people the only reason we stay friends is we’re the same size. A fact that comes in handy when buying clothes. If an outfit looks decent on me, it shimmers on her.

After ordering half the menu, I ask for utensils for eight to stop the judgment radiating off the hostess. I head for the boutique with almost an hour before I have to lug a dozen sacks of food to the truck. Maybe if I act overwhelmed, the staff will take pity on me and help carry.

A few doors from my destination, I pass a bar Liam’s dragged us to a few times. Cheap drinks and a smell of popcorn I never understood since they don’tservepopcorn. People crowd the patio, the air cool without the sun beating down. I bump into someone on the sidewalk and laugh out an apology, having no excuse other than not paying attention, and when I glance at the patio again, I see him. Beanie. Teeth in his bottom lip.

Our eyes lock. He straightens up from the high-top he was leaning on, and I screech to a stop, my mind in a panic before I even register the girl. Dane’s hand jerks off her arm like she grew spikes, every feature on his face confused. And … relieved? He still hasn’t looked away, the girl turning.

I charge down the sidewalk. I have no idea where I’m going anymore, just away.

“Bennett.”

Maybe I’ll walk back to San Francisco. Ten days, was it? I wonder what Patrick’s doing tonight.

“Bennett!” His arm slips around me. Not just his hand tugging on mine, but his whole damn arm snaking around my middle and spinning me to face him.

We both freeze, staring at each other for a few seconds, maybe more; he has really pretty eyes.

“What are you doing here?” he asks, his hand still on my back. The other drags off his beanie. Maroon. “I thought…” He shakes his head and looks down, jaw tensed. “You’ve been ignoring me.”

Not a question, but a fact. We both have the proof on our phones, the unread texts on mine and unanswered ones on his. I might not excel at much, but I mastered avoidance a long time ago.

His gaze comes back to mine. “If this is because—”

I step back when he tries to pull me closer. “Your date can see us.”

He doesn’t look back at the brunette on the patio where he left her, death glare lasered in on me. I thought Noah H. leveled our playing field, but it appears I have the rest of the Noah alphabet to go for that to happen.

“She’s not my date.” But he lets his hand fall away, and it hurts as much as if he’d said she was.

“Stay here,” he says.

“Dane, I—”

“Damn it, Bennett.” He reaches for me but stops and lowers his arm to his side, fist clenched. “I swear to God, if you aren’t here when I come back, I’ll tear this damn city apart to find you. Liam and Keaton’s, her parents’, everywhere you might be. So, stay here. Please.”

I glance at the dagger eyes still waiting at the table and then up at him. He licks his lips, his gaze the soft one that makes it hard for me to breathe.

“Please,” he repeats.

I cross my arms and nod.

Dane backs away, keeping me in sight like he doesn’t believe I’ll be here when he comes back.

Fair since I won’t be.

The second he turns to push open the gate to the patio, I rush up the step and into the boutique. The door hits a bell hanging overhead on open and close. I relax on the second ding, the sound of safety. For now, anyway. He could very well beat me back to the apartment, and I have no clue what will happen then.

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