Page 73 of One Little Kiss
“Why was the date so bad?” Heath asks.
I shake my head. “I don’t know. It was, it was just…awful. I was trying to treat it like a date, you know? I was trying to show her this other side of me. Of us. But it was terrible. It wasn’tus, you know? It felt like we were strangers.”
They all fall silent and I heave another sigh.
“I don’t know how to be her friend and…not her friend.” I hear myself and roll my eyes. “That makes no sense.”
“No, it does,” Mara says slowly.
“It totally does,” Ryan adds. “You two are such good friends that you’ve skipped over all the get-to-know-you stuff, right?”
“Maybe you should try again, but this time…” Leah hesitates. “Just be yourself. Don’t put so much pressure around it. Show her you can be friends and also…more than friends.”
I stare at her for a long moment. That’s what I want, but it’s not that easy. “If it’s even a little one-sided, then it’s doomed to fail.”
“What if it’s not one-sided?” Heath asks.
I swallow hard, afraid to even hope anymore after the way things ended the other night.
“I don’t know,” I say. It’s a lame answer and the coward’s way out, but it’s the best I can manage. “All I know is, I want my friend back more than anything. I need her as my friend. That’s all that matters right now.”
Mara’s staring down at her phone with arched brows and a funny little smile. “Well, now’s as good a time as any to let her know that you’re still here for her.”
She shows me her phone and it’s a text from Noelle that makes my heart ache and my blood turn hot with anger.
Noelle:Any chance you can pick me up? I’m on a date from hell.
I’moff the couch and heading toward the door before I can think it through. “Text her back that a ride’s on the way,” I say. “Then text me the address.”
“Uh…okay.” Mara’s thumbs are already flying over her phone screen.
And I’m already heading to my car. I’m just starting the engine when Mara’s text comes in.
My heart’s pounding, and I can’t deny it’s jealousy.
She’s on a date? Seriously? But the jealousy turns to worry and a whole other form of rage as I start to wonder what a ‘date from hell’ means, exactly.
Then that worry turns to a jolt of fear when I see the address Mara texted me.
The sheriff’s office. Noelle is at the freakin’ sheriff’s office.
NINETEEN
Noelle
The deputywith a handlebar mustache might be young, but he’s still way too old to be hitting on me.
But that’s exactly what he’s doing. His eyes won’t stop drifting down to my hemline, but I refuse to tug down the skirt. A: because it’s already tugged down as low as it’ll go, and B: I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’s making my skin crawl.
I keep my face expressionless as I answer him for the third time. “I told you. A friend is coming to pick me up.”
“What about your little boyfriend?” His lips curl up in a mocking smirk.
He’s not my boyfriend.I don’t give him that satisfaction, either. “His parents know he’s here.” I lift a shoulder. “He’s not my responsibility.”
The deputy smirks and his attention falls on someone behind me. “She’s a cold one, huh?” To me, he adds, “This your ride?”
I turn, expecting to see Mara, words of gratitude and reassurance on my tongue because Mara is nothing if not a maternal worrywart. But it’s not Mara behind me, it’s…
