Page 48 of Starstruck

“Are you sure?" He asked, choking down a breath. "They didn’t hurt you?”

I nodded, not thinking as I settled my cheek against his chest, breathing him in. “I promise. Apart from my arms, I’m okay, I promise, Tristan.”

I felt him lean over, his chin resting on the crown of my head, his arms holding against him. “Okay…okay.”

This was another stolen moment, pulled out from the rush of everything else, hidden from the world and even time itself. I couldn’t put words to it, the way it felt like everything had hushed around us, giving us this space to simply be. Pressed close against him, tucked safely into his chest, it felt exactly right, like I was meant to be here, holding him as he held me.

He eased away from me slowly, but his hands still lingered overmine, never letting his fingertips drift even an inch away, as though those men might come back any second and try to snatch me.

I let my head fall, closing my eyes, trying to make sense of what hadhappened, when I felt his stare back on me, burning me in the way it usually does. I lifted my head, as a smile barely crept its way onto his mouth.

I watch Tristan as he notices me remember what he’d done, whathe’d told them I was to him, his head dropping, if only to give himself a minute to remember too, before his eyes were back on me.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know what I was thinking when I said it, I justthought that…” he took another breath. “I thought that it was the best way to make them feel uncomfortable and get them to leave.”

Was that why he had done it?

As someone who was beginning to believe the rumours that werecircling in my heart that I was starting to feel a certain way about this boy, I wanted to think it meant something. But, like he said, it was a precaution. A tactic.

Just words to help a friend.

I nodded at him, those nervous jitters taking over. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. I mean, it worked, right? Itwas actually pretty smart, now that I’m thinking about it. Girlfriend, yeah. No, you did the right thing, definitely; in fact, I can’t think of a better way we could have—”

“Gold’s?” He smiled, interrupting my word vomit. I inclined my headat him, while a smile, bigger and more real than the last one, bloomed on his face. “Breathe.”

I could assure him that all I had to do to never breathe again in mylife was replay what he’d just done for me.

But I nodded, and did my best to take in what I could. I laid a handover my chest, waiting to see if my heartbeat had gone down, when I skimmed over my skin and remembered—

“My locket.” I felt my eyes widen, causing Tristan’s to as well. “Theytook my locket!”

I let my eyes fall to the ground, hoping that that awful man had dropped in when Tristan made himself known, but I couldn’t see it.

“How am I going to tell my parents? What am I going to do?”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Tristan reassured me, his hands skating up my arms, his warm palms soothing me. “We’ll get it back, I promise. After we go report them to someone, we’ll make sure to mention that they took it. Do you have a picture of it?”

I nodded, my head feeling wobbly.

“Okay, we’ll show them that, and we’ll have it back in no time. Okay, Gold’s?”

I nodded again.

“Okay.” His smile peaked, his eyes giving me one last glanceover, as his hand fell to mine and began to walk me back to the front of the restaurant, but before we went back inside, I needed to say something.

“Tristan?” I called, halting our footsteps and gaining back those soft brown pools. One corner of my mouth spiked as my mouth fell open. “Thank you for coming to check on me.”

His smile was the prettiest thing I’d seen, and when he sent a winkmy way and whispered, “No problem,girlfriend.” a tiny fairy light went off in my head.

If pretending to be my boyfriend made those men disappear, Iwondered what the chances were of it having the same effect, but the other way around—

Just words to help a friend.

“Come on, you, there’s birthday cake to eat and I’ve lived with Finnfor long enough now that I know he’ll have his eyes on it.”

I kept my mouth shut as Tristan walked meback inside, and for the rest of the night, I tried to forget what had happened, my mind trying to focus on what he’d said, what it had done, and how I knew it could help solve both mine and Tristan’s problems.

chapter fifteen

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