Page 31 of No One Else

“God, yes. My arms are jelly.”

After I’m finished with Heather and clean up in the locker room, I stop by the front desk to say bye to Natalie on my way out. “Good luck on your kissing booth tomorrow.”

“Thanks,” she beams. “I wish I could have done more, but I think it’ll go well.”

“I have something for you.” I reach into my bag and pull out the scarf she let me borrow a couple weeks ago. “I keep forgetting to give it back.”

Or, I kept smelling it until it finally lost all traces of her scent.

“Oh, I forgot about this. Thanks.”

Her phone buzzes on the desk and she glances at it, eyes widening when she reads the display. “What? No!” She picks it up and brings it closer to her face, eyes darting back and forth over the screen.

By the time she’s done and drops the phone in her lap, her expression is crestfallen.

“What’s wrong?” My arms instinctively want to reach out to her comfort her, but I resist the urge, keeping them by my side where they belong.

“That stupid frat boy canceled. The one that’s supposed to be in the kissing booth.”

“What happened?”

“He says he has laryngitis. Laryngitis, my ass. He can’t even spell it right.”

“You think he’s sabotaging you?”

“Not him.” She drums her fingers on the arm of her chair, eyebrows furrowed, pissed off now. I take a step back just in case. I don’t want to get caught up in her wrath. “Okay, this is going to sound crazy, but I think it’s the two co-chairs of the event.”

“They’re sabotaging their own charity fundraiser?”

“Samantha saw one of them flirting with Carter. That must be why she’s always been so nasty to me. She probably wants my station to fail so it makes me look bad. And I know what you’re thinking. I sound completely paranoid and delusional.”

I hold my hands up in defense. “I wasn’t thinking anything.”

She smiles briefly. “No, I’m aware of how it sounds. But I swear Olivia has it out for me. She keeps putting up these blocks to everything I’ve tried to do. How convenient that it was her pick for the kissing booth that suddenly can’t do it.” She scrubs her hands down her face wearily. “It’s the night before. What am I going to do?”

I look at her slumped shoulders and worried face. It makes my chest ache to see her like this. “I’ll do it.”

“What?” She looks up at me with wide eyes.

Yeah, what?

“I’ll do it,” I repeat. “I’ll fill in at the kissing booth.”

“You will? Oh my God, thank you!” She jumps up and dashes around the desk, nearly barrelling me over to give me a big hug. Well, not that she could actually move me, even if she wanted. She weighs practically nothing.

I enfold her in my arms, surreptitiously bending down to fit my nose in the crook of her neck, breathing her in. That addictive sweetness hits me hard, but it’s gone before I know it as she pulls away. Her face glowing with happiness is just as good, though.

“This will be even better,” she declares. “You’re way hotter than Chad was.”

I raise my brows at her comment, but she continues on, oblivious. “If he’s out of the picture, then I’m going to do things my way.”

She heads back over to the computer at her desk and pulls up her Google Drive. “Okay, here’s the itinerary I made. It has the schedule of everything that’s going on, contact numbers in case you can’t get hold of me for any reason, and where exactly our booth will be. I’ll print you a copy.” Of course she made a detailed itinerary. Because that’s a totally normal thing to do. “It starts at eleven, so could you be there around ten-thirty so I can prep you?”

“Yeah. Do you need help before that setting up?”

“No, there should be plenty of people for that. I don’t want to take up your whole day.”

“This is important to you. I’ll be there whenever you need me.”

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