Page 21 of How We Loved

I push into his chest just as the warning bell rings. “He’s not a fuckhead.”

He gets up in my face. “I’ll be the judge of that.” He kisses my cheek, then lifts me up and places me on the floor. “Now, get your butt to class.”

I shake my head at his fatherly tone and lean up to kiss his cheek. “Bye, Daddy.”

Everyone laughs as I walk away. He huffs again as he heads to his class. He hates when I call him that. I tell him I don’t care, and I’ll call him that whenever he’s acting that way.

After school, I hop in Ben’s truck, and we head to my house.

“Want to grab a bite to eat before he gets here?” Ben asks.

I place my hand on my stomach. “No, I think I’m too nervous to eat.”

He scrunches his eyebrows together. “Seriously? What is it about this guy that you like so much?”

I can’t help the grin that forms on my face. “He’s just different, you know?” I turn in my seat to face him fully. “Everyone here knows too much about us, about me. I like that I’m getting to know someone for the first time.”

The drawback of a small town is everyone knows everyone. Add in that I’m the only girl from the TimeLand crew that’s our age, and everyone knows exactly who I am. There’s no excitement in getting to know someone because you’ve either already known them your entire life or they’ve followed your family, and they feel like they already know exactly who you are. It all can be very frustrating at times. That’s why I’ve just stuck with hanging out with the guys.

I sigh as I sit back in my seat. “It’s obvious there’re no guys for me to date here.”

“Exactly,” he huffs.

I turn and grab his arm, making sure he realizes just how bad I want this. “Let me have this. Please.”

He lets out an exhale, but doesn’t say anything else until we pull up to my house. When he kills the engine, I look at him in question, wondering why he turned off the truck.

“I’m meeting this guy, remember?” he asks, not waiting for my reply as he exits the truck and heads to my front door.

I guess I should be happy I have someone who cares for me like he does, so I laugh off his protectiveness and follow him to my front door. Once we’re inside, we head to the fridge to grab something to drink and a snack for Ben.

I try to fight the nerves rushing through my body, but when the doorbell rings much sooner than I expected, I’m not prepared one bit for Trevor to be here yet.

I run to the mirror to check how I look, not noticing Ben walking past me to the door.

“Hi. Is Maya here?” I hear Trevor ask.

I rush to the door. “Hi.” I push Ben out of the way. “This is Ben. He was just leaving.”

Ben just stands there like a statue—a statue that is much taller than Trevor and currently staring a hole through him.

Trevor surprises me when he meets his stare and doesn’t smile or try to break the ice between them. Thankfully, after a few seconds, he holds out his hand to Ben in greeting. “Hey, I’ve heard all about you.”

I nudge Ben, and he finally reaches out his hand to shake Trevor’s. “Where are you taking our girl?”

I internally roll my eyes at his our comment, glad that Trevor glosses right over it.

“I thought we’d go just hang out downtown.”

Ben scrunches his eyebrows. “What is there to do downtown?”

I hold my palm up to Trevor. “Don’t answer that. Downtown will be just fine. Ben was just leaving.”

I push Ben out of the house. He goes willingly, only for me to realize that wasn’t a good idea because, now, he’s standing toe to toe with Trevor.

“You hurt her—” Ben glares at Trevor.

Trevor doesn’t let him finish his sentence. “Hey, I get it. You’re the protective best friend. I like that she has that. Hopefully”—he smiles at me—“we’re on the right path, and soon, I’ll be the protective boyfriend, so you won’t be needed anymore.”

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