Page 84 of The Pinkie Pact

"Will you tell my sister?" he asked.

"Ugh, will do." I didn't exactly mind telling her. It was more that I didn't quite trust her not to slip up and say or do something to give us away.

"Thank you," he wrote. "Sorry, I gotta go. Can't wait to see you soon."

"Same."

As I thought about sending a heart emoji,heactually sentmeone... something he'd never done before. I knew it was absolutely ridiculous, but it made my own heart leap to think of Kieran standing there, probably super busy, taking the time to do that.

God, I couldn't wait to see him again, even if we did have to sort of keep our distance. I supposed we could talk and hang out tonight—to an extent—but we had to keep our hands off each other. And hopefully, when it was over, we'd get to be alone and do everything I'd been dying to do. Finally.

***

On the car ride there, I mentioned to Kara that we weren't going to let their parents know anything about Kieran and me. To my surprise, she laughed at me and said, "Duh."

But then, because of her response, some doubt crept in. As I thought about it, whyhadneither of them told their parents in the first place? Was it something about me, or was it just because it was so early and there was a lot of family stress right now?

I nudged her elbow as she stared out the window, picking at her nails.

"What's up, babe?" she asked, returning her eyes to me.

"So, um, well, why don't you think Kieran said anything about me to them anyway?"

She laughed again. "Because my mom is stressed beyond belief. He's probably waiting till the election is over. They know he broke up with Christina, though."

I nodded, releasing a breath. "Okay. Well, that's good."

Glancing out the window again, she was quiet for a second before looking at me again. "But, you know, I also bet Kieran's waiting to see if you're going to stick around."

My mouth hung open at that. "What? What do you mean?"

"You're way too cool and hot for him, and he totally knows it."

Giggling, I shook my head. "That's so not true. Your brother is hot as hell. And smart. And sexy—"

She grabbed my arm suddenly. "I'm gonna have to stop you right there before I barf."

We laughed so much, the driver turned back around to look at us, which only made us laugh harder. We were definitely feeling some nerves.

Soon, we exited the back seat of the SUV and entered the hotel lobby. "I am so ready to do some stress eating," Kara said. "They have the best food at these things."

"They do?" That sounded great to me.

"Absolutely. That's the only thing that helps me. I hate election nights with a passion. They suck balls." She said it so loudly, she covered her mouth right after. "Oops, time to act like the senator's daughter now."

She stood up straighter, head held high, a prim and proper look on her face, making me laugh. As we rode the elevator alone to the top floor, Kara and I started our little warm-up routine just like when we'd gone to dinner at Kieran and Christina's not that long ago.

"Okay, we got this. We got this," she said, pumping her shoulders up and down as I did the same.

"We so got this," I said. "Let's go, let's go, let's go."

We both jumped up and down and laughed like crazy as the door opened to reveal, of all people, Kieran wearing a smile on his face.

"You know I could hear you two," he said.

Kara stuck her tongue out at him as she walked past. Caught in Kieran's gaze, for a second, I didn't move, belatedly realizing I was in an elevator and needed to get out. But as I went toward the door, Kieran stepped in, blocking my path.

"Come with me," he said, his voice rough, his eyes intense.

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