Page 49 of Catching My Dreams

“I can totally see it,” Ella said gleefully before letting out a long sigh. “This makes me so happy.”

“How amazing for you,” he said dryly, knowing he was going to be tormented tirelessly in the future by his teammates for this.

“The best,” she said, and then the first strains of “Look What You Made Me Do” filled the car.

“What’s your quiz on?” Noah asked her after the first verse.

“Shakespeare,” she replied.

“Rough,” Chris said sympathetically from the back. “Getting through his plays in high school was excruciating.”

Ella shrugged. “I actually enjoy the class.”

“Why?” Chris asked, sounding appalled.

“Shakespeare is great once you get used to the language he uses.” Noah could see her smiling out of the corner of his eye. “Did you know he made a Yo Mamma joke in one of his plays?”

“Now who’s a lying liar who lies,” Noah said.

“It’s true,” she argued. “One of the characters in Titus Andronicus says, ‘Thou hast undone our mother,’ and another replies with, ‘Villain, I have done thy mother.’”

“No way,” Noah said, fighting a laugh. “That’s pure gold.”

“Like I told you. Shakespeare is great.” A yawn overtook her, and she was covering her widening mouth with her hand when her jaw clicked loudly. “Ow.”

“What the hell? Was that your jaw?” Noah asked, his startled eyes moving from the road to her.

Ella started massaging her jaw muscles. “Yeah. It does that sometimes.”

“Fucking hell,” Noah muttered with a shake of his head.

“I heard it from back here,” Chris said, sounding disturbed. “I thought it was your neck that was sore?”

“Well, that too.”

Chris scoffed. “You’re a bit of a mess, Montgomery.”

“A disaster,” she agreed with a sigh.

Noah frowned. She wasn’t a disaster, but he sure as shit wasn’t going to drive her home until he’d taken her to have her neck treated. And luckily, he knew just the right person for the job.

15

Ella did not smash her quiz. She was pretty sure she hadn’t failed at least, but she found she didn’t care much about her grade when all she wanted to do was sleep until the pain stopped.

Only, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to sleep. Not when even sitting with her head straight forward was painful. Her neck was even worse than it had been that morning, and Ella didn’t think any safe amount of painkillers was going to give her the relief she needed.

And speaking of pain…there was Noah, waiting for her outside the lecture hall as promised, not a flicker of reluctance on his face or a hint of impatience in the set of his broad shoulders.

She’d let the other students file out of the room first, so she was the last one to exit, and she swore his eyes lit up when he saw her heading his way.

She’d wondered if the warmth he’d shown her earlier had been temporary, but it appeared not.

“How was it?” he asked after taking her bookbag from her without her even needing to ask.

It was the kind of thing a boyfriend would do, and Ella would have punched herself for liking it so much if she weren’t already suffering enough.

She let out a tired sigh. “Let’s just say it could have been better.”

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