Page 117 of Our Secret Moments

“Don’t call me that,” he mumbles, but he walks next to her and mirrors her position, watching the chaos unfold.

I flap my hands around, trying to focus again on Nora. “That brings me back to my first question. You kissed Wes?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I was trying to make Ryan jealous,” she admits, her face flushing with embarrassment.

“Why were you trying to make him jealous?” Connor asks, still oblivious to what’s going on.

“Because he cheated on me! Is everyone aware of that now? He was fucking another girl at the party I organised for him and because I have the worst luck in the world, I walked in on it and Wes was with me, so I kissed him to make him mad. The end.”

Connor’s face hardens as he stalks over to Wes, backing him up into the wall. “You kissed my sister?”

“Did you not hear anything she just said?Shekissedme.Not the other way around,” Wes argues, clearly trying his hardest not to laugh. “Great kiss, though. Lots of tongue.” Connor growls in his face, his fist tightening in his shirt. “What did you want me to do? I offered to beat him up, but she told me not to. I even settled for keying his car and she said no. It was the next best thing.”

Connor releases him and runs his hands down his face. “Seriously, Wes? Are you being fucking serious right now? We’ve had this exact conversation before.”

“And I knew you’d react exactly like this,” he says. “Dude, can you hear yourself right now? You’re getting mad atmefor consensually making out with your sister aftersheasked me, when you’ve been fucking Cat’s brains out for months.”

Nora’s eyes go so wide I swear they almost fall out of her head. I’m getting too dizzy for this. “You knew?!”

“Sort of….” Wes mumbles, running his hand through his hair.

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She points at me and then at Elle. “We need to talk.”

After leaving the boys up to their own devices, we settled on sitting on the hood of Connor’s car to have the very important conversation I’ve been avoiding for months. Nora’s reaction and the chaos that followed was expected. I’ve known these guys long enough to know that when one thing happens, a whole load of shit is bound to follow.

The three of us stare up at the sky in the late spring night and words are failing us all. I ruined my chance at trying to explain myself in a justified way and ended up rambling. Nora’s been sitting on that piece of information for a while as Elle listens to both sides of our stories.

“I would never do that to either of you. You guys know that, right?” Nora whispers, looking between the both of us, her eyes lined with tears.

“I mean, Cat doesn’t have any siblings. And I’d hope you wouldn’t do that to me because that’s a felony,” Elle murmurs. A short laugh escapes my throat and Nora shakes her head.

“You know what I mean,” she replies.

“Are you mad at me? It’s okay if you are. I should never have lied to you, Nora. I’m seriously so sorry,” I say. Great. Word vomit again. My anxieties are soothed partially as she rests her hand over mine, squeezing it gently.

She sighs a little. “I’m more annoyed that you didn’t tell me. If you had told me from the beginning, I would have had more time to process it, but… I’ve just been broken up with and I want you to be here as my friend, no matter what you and my brother are doing.”

“You’re always going to be first, Nor, always. And I’m sorry for not making you feel like you were. I just got so caught up in everything and I-”

“I get it,” she says, cutting me off. She bites her bottom lip, thinking about it and I let her take the time she needs. “I think I knew something was going on a few weeks ago and I just didn’t want to admit it. I’ve seen the way he looks at you, the way he worries about you when you’re not there. He was worried sick that day you left the game. I don’t think he’s ever been that concerned about another person in his life. It’ll take some getting used to, for sure, but I want you both to be happy.”

My chest pinches at her words. The way Connor cares about me frightens me, but not that I want to back out, but I want to keep seeing where this goes. Something is telling me we’re only going to get stronger after this and I can’t wait to see what our future is going to look like.

“Don’t think you’ve gotten out of this either,” Elle murmurs, bumping my shoulder. “You look at him like he hung the fucking moon. You’re so in love with each other, it’s hard to digest,honestly.” She sighs wistfully before panic sets over her features. “Wait. You do love him, right?”

“Yeah,” I whisper. “I do.”

Nora barks out a disbelieving laugh. “It makes sense. He needs someone like you and you need someone like him.”

“So, we have your blessing?” I ask, nudging her shoulder.

She shrugs. “I don’tlovethis, but I don’t hate it, either. I just want you to be happy, Cat.”

“I want you to be happy too,” I whisper.

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