Page 8 of Fall for You (Flirting with Forever 4)

“Are you busy right now?”

“Not really. No more conferences until after lunch.” He glances down at the time on his phone. “I heard you guys are meeting in the library today for pizza. Aren’t you supposed to be there now?” His brows pinch together, and I can tell he knows something is up.

I blink a few times and the synapses in my brain finally start firing. “Right.” I bite my lip. “I forgot.”

Heath cocks his head to the side, assessing me carefully. “Are you okay?”

I take a deep breath. “I don’t know. I just really need to talk to Sophia.” I lift my hand to my temple and gently rub my fingers there. My head hurts. All of this is just too much to process on my own.

Heath’s gaze is steady on me, and I know from the look in his eyes that he’s observing the trembling in my hands. I drop them to my sides and out of sight.

“Well, I’ll walk you down to join them, then.” He gives me a sneaky smile as we exit his office, designed to take my mind off of whatever is bothering me, and nudges my elbow with his. “Maybe I can even steal a piece of pizza from you ladies while I’m down there.”

“Okay.” He follows me out of the classroom, walking quietly at my side. I’m comfortable with Heath—comfortable enough that I don’t feel like I have to politely make conversation all the way to the library. We’ve worked together for several years now, and I’ve always thought he was a great guy. Now that he and Sophia are engaged, I’ve gotten to know him on an even deeper level than as just a coworker. And clearly, he knows me well enough to realize I’m not up for chitchat right now. For that, I’m grateful. I mean, would he really want an earful of Oh my God, I slept with my student’s dad? I shake my head. Likely not. And he definitely wouldn’t want to hear the even worse Holy shit, I may have slept with a married man. Heath probably wouldn’t know what to do with me if I told him, meaning he’d go find Sophia anyway. I’m not usually the one with the crazy stuff happening, either. Lately, it’s been Madison, Hadleigh, and Piper. Zoey and I have kept our noses clean … until now, anyway.

When we arrive at the library, Heath pulls the door open and holds it for me, then follows me in. I totally see Sophia catch his eye over my shoulder. Great. They probably have some sort of weird engaged-people telepathy going on where he’s relaying all sorts of important information about my current state of mind to her without even speaking. That’s what I imagine, anyway. Is that what it’s like to be married—or almost married, in their case? They understand each other with just a look?

I mentally shake myself. Isn’t that what’s been happening with you and Liam? No talking, just action? All communication has been nonverbal. Because if we’d been talking, I’d have known that he is married and has a kid in my freaking biology class.

My hands feel clammy, and I can tell my face is still flushed. It’s usually hard to see with my tan skin, but I know it’s there because my cheeks feel hot. With my mind still going overtime on all this, I’m worked up, so much so I feel a little dizzy.

I release a long, exaggerated breath and plaster a smile on my face as the girls look over to greet me.

Zoey blots her mouth with a napkin. “Hey. We were wondering where you were. Did your conference go long?”

Piper groans. “I hate it when that happens. Come on over,”—she waves me toward them—“grab yourself a few slices of pizza, and sit with us. It’s still hot.”

I belatedly realize I’d stopped midway into the room and am just standing there. One by one, each of my friends’ expressions turn from smiles to concerned frowns. Heath has stopped next to me and he puts a cautious hand to my shoulder, grabbing my attention. I look at him, and he points at the pizza. “Let’s get you some food. Then you can sort out whatever is going on.”

What the hell is wrong with me? I give a quick shake of my head, trying to clear it. “Yeah, of course.” I force myself to walk over to the counter where the boxes of pizza are sitting, and busy myself with putting pizza on a plate and grabbing napkins.

“There are bottles of water in the mini fridge in my office, Q.” Madison nods in the direction of her little office behind the library counter.

From beside me, Heath murmurs, “Go sit down. I’ll grab one for you.”

I give him a tight smile. “Thank you.”

Over at the table, Hadleigh pulls out the chair next to her for me, and I sit, setting my plate and napkins in front of me. Heath hands a water b

ottle off to Hadleigh for me, and she sets it down with the rest of my things. “Go ahead and eat first. We can talk about something else.”

Looks dart from Madison to Hadleigh to Piper to Zoey to Sophia, and finally Madison asks Hadleigh how Sawyer is doing now that he’s done with his first student teaching placement. I’m so lost in my own little world I don’t even hear the response. I force myself to bite into the pizza, chew, and swallow. I really don’t taste much of anything, but I keep going, all the while thinking about the trouble I could have saved myself if I’d have asked Liam to go out on a date instead of immediately jumping his bones.

Sophia gets up and walks with Heath out of the room. I can only assume she’s getting his take on what’s going on with me. Poor guy. He doesn’t know anything, so that’ll be like trying to get blood from a stone. He’d just been kind enough to make sure I got down here.

When I finish with my slices of pizza, Zoey, who is seated on the other side of me, pats my hand. “Are you ready to talk about whatever is going on? Did you have a rude parent or something?”

“I hate when that happens, too.” Piper wrinkles her nose.

I wet my lips before glancing up at everyone. Sophia hurries back to the table, taking her seat. “You aren’t going to believe what I did.” Awesome. All eyes on me. I sit back in my chair and wrap my arms around my middle. “Well, I was with Olivia Ramsey’s parents. She’s the student I told you about—she’s failing and I can’t figure her out because she’s so quiet. She’s new to the school this year. Doesn’t seem to have made a ton of friends just yet. Her mom wants me to tutor her.”

Sophia’s brow quirks up. “Okay … that’s nothing awful so far. I mean, you don’t usually do tutoring, we usually have seniors do it, but … what are we missing?”

I reach for my napkin, needing something to do with my hands. I fold it and refold it before continuing. “Her dad. It’s Liam from the cider mill. It was so awkward. I died a million deaths in those first few seconds we laid eyes on each other.”

Madison nudges my leg. “I don’t understand. You said he was hot. I think we all agreed.”

“Yeah. So, what?” Piper questions.

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