Page 29 of Crash & Burn

Eddie is standing in my way, but he looks like he has no intention of getting out of my way.

I’m about to ask him to move when he deadpans, “Probably when you were checking me out.”

My jaw drops, and there is no hiding the redness that covers my chest. “Wh-what are you talking about?!” I stammer as I bring the sweatshirt up to cover myself, not letting him see the embarrassment creeping all the way up to my neck. “I wasnotchecking you out.”

Instead of prolonging my humiliation, Eddie breaks out into the biggest grin that I think I could get used to seeing for the rest of my life. There’s not even a single trace of anything but pure enjoyment shimmering in his eyes as he looks at me.

It is in this moment I realize, even if it is at my expense, I never want to see anything but happiness on this boy’s face.

One of my hands lets go of my sweatshirt, and I bring it up so it is eye-level with Eddie before I flip him off and push him out of my way, not being able to contain my own smile. He lets me shove him aside, so I can turn the faucet on.

“You know what? You’re right,” I say. “It probably did happen when I was checking you out, but which time? When I was looking at your ass or your lips?” I turn to face him, grinning bigger than I have in months, and my heart stops.

Eddie Ramirez isblushing.

When I said I wanted to see happiness on his face, that was before I saw him blush. The combination of his grin and his rosy cheeks, I don’t think I will ever be the same

“What’s the matter, Eddie?” I tease. “I thought we were friends?” I flick my wet fingers in his direction, getting a few water droplets on him, my cheeks already sore from the amount of genuine smiling I’ve done in the past five minutes. And, what does that say about me that my facial muscles are so not used to smiling that they arealreadysore?

He pretends the few drops hit him harder than actually possible. “Friends don’t do that, Mia,” he teases back before dipping a hand under the running water and flicking me back, “But you do look like you could use a cool down after all that drooling you did over me.”

I respond with a combination of a fake gasp and a laugh, and then he hits me with the trifecta and gives me a wink.

Now, I know for afactI will never be the same.

“Two can play at this game,” is all he gives me before he taps my nose with his finger and walks out my door.

Chapter 10

Eddie

There is a pep in my step that I haven’t had in years, and I refuse to believe it’s because of a friendship I formed with a certain blonde with devastatingly full lips that bloom into the most beautiful smile I have ever seen.

It has been a week since I went over to Mia’s to bring her coffee and talk about guitar lessons, but I’ve been seeing her at band practice for the past five days. We have one more practice tonight before our first show of the Midwest tour tomorrow night, and we have never been more ready.

I don’t know if it is the excitement of the tour starting—or something else—but I’ve been on top of my game this week and so have the rest of the guys.

Mia has a new spark to her too, and it looks good on her.

I still don’t know exactly what to think about those moments in her kitchen last week, and I’m trying not to think too hard about them, aside from the sight of her flustered in her little pink tank top and the glimmer in her eyes when her face was inches away from mine.

I’m also trying not to think much about how selfish it was telling her I would be her friend.

When she opened up to me about her boyfriend’s death, I couldn’t help the protective instincts that took over. It was the same instinct I’ve had my entire life for my mom and my younger sisters. Only, there was nothingsisterlyabout the selfishness of wanting to keep Mia close in any way I could.

Letting myself be selfish, for once in my life, is something I’ll happily go to Hell for, if it means I get to see that smile on Mia’s face, and thatI’mthe one putting it there.

Part of me knows it’s a bad idea, but the other part wants to be right alongside her when it all crashes and burns.

My curiosity also got the better of me.I almost blew it with my questions and prying, but I can’t help but hope she continues to open up to me. I recognize the sadness in her eyes because it mirrors my own. But there’s no helping me; I’m a lost cause. Mia on the other hand, she’s a fighter; I can tell.

I knew Mateo would not be thrilled about her and I becoming friends, especially because he made it clear that any relationship the other guys or I had with Mia was to be strictly professional, but when I told him what she said about the guitar belonging to Nico, he seemed slightly okay with our newly-developed friendship.

I made sure not to tell him more than that though. I wanted to prove that she could trust me.

Besides, I’m sure he’s just happy she’s actually talking about something she kept buried for so long. And I’m happy if he’s happy.

Practices are busy with playing our setlist, beginning to end, almost non-stop, so I haven’t had a ton of time to talk to Mia. I use any open time to sit with her at what has become her table at the warehouse, asking her questions about what she’s doing, messing with her camera, and asking to see the pictures she took.

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