Page 16 of Wild Hearts

“Is it because of what I said at Ivy’s birthday?” he asks quietly. “Because I never meant to–”

I shake my head. “No. It’s not that. I just... can we just be friends, Brady? Please? I really need friends right now.”

He nods slowly. “Yeah, sure, friends. Whatever you need.”

My heart feels like it’s been ripped from my chest. “I need to go home,” I manage to choke out. I can’t break down in front of him.

Brady glances down at the drink in his hand. He sighs, before pulling out his car keys and handing them to me. “I’m gonna crash here tonight. I’ll pick my car up from your apartment tomorrow.”

I nod, holding back my tears.

“Rookie?” he calls as I turn to leave. My heart stutters at the way he says my nickname. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re here.”

I force my lips to turn up as I reply, “Me, too.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Brady

WHAT THE FUCK JUSThappened?

I rub my hands over my face as I watch Wren walk away. In my head, my reunion with Wren went in a completely different direction. I knew it would take more than an apology to get back what we had, but I didn’t expect her to just dismiss everything that happened between us. I thought we were... I don’t know, but I feel things for her that I’ve never felt before. It’s different with us. I’ve known her since she was twelve years old and she would look at me with those big, innocent blue eyes. From the moment Ivy introduced me to the quiet little blonde across the road, I was captivated. But it was all innocent until puberty hit. After that, I was a complete goner for Wren Murphy. Yeah, I made out with other girls. Hell, I even slept with girls in an attempt to stay away from my sister’s friend. But no matter how many others there were, none of them set my heart racing like Wren.

“So, that’s her?”

I take a swig of my drink before turning to face Felicity Cooper, the one and only girl I’ve kissed since tasting Wren’s soft, cherry-flavoured lips. “That’s her.”

“By the way she’s hightailing it out of here, I take it things didn’t go well.”

Clearing my throat, I ask, “That obvious?”

Felicity nods with a sympathetic smile. “Kind of, yeah. Wanna talk about it?”

“Haven’t you heard enough?” I groan.

The night I kissed Felicity, Ivy had just told me that Wren was going to her year twelve formal with the captain of the local rugby team. She’d shown me a photo of her in a sexy lime green dress that hugged her body like a glove. The sight of her made my mouth go dry, but it was like a knife being twisted in my gut as I stared at the muscular dude with his arm wrapped around her, a shit-eating grin plastered on his face.

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