Page 61 of Heartthrobs Don't Date Wallflowers
Well… more like knee’d him in the face.
Right in the nose, actually.
Zach yelled and cupped a hand over his face as he fell backwards out of his crouch.
“I’m so sorry!” I cried, my hands flying to my mouth. “Are you okay? Do you need?—”
“Hey!” A voice yelled from down the hall. When I looked up, I saw two security guards running toward us. “What the heck are you doing?”
Great, now I looked like some crazy person who snuck backstage just to assault Zach Miles.
Oh my gosh, I broke Zach Miles’ nose.
“It’s not what it looks like!” I said, backing away from him even more. “I swear!”
One of the security guards stopped to check on Zach—and even from here, I could see the blood all over his face—while the other guard grabbed my upper arm and started to pull me away.
“Hey, hey!” Zach yelled. With one hand cupped to his face, he pushed the guard off him and got up. “Leave her alone!”
“She can’t be?—”
“She’s my guest,” Zach interrupted. “She’s okay.Leave her.”
“Zach—”
“Leave. Her. Alone,” Zach said dangerously. “It was an accident. She’s fine.”
I looked at the guard holding me with wide eyes, just waiting for him to pull me off anyway. But he nodded and stepped back, although he didn’t look happy about it. Zach rushed forward to me.
“You okay?” He asked.
“I should be asking you that,” I murmured. “I’m not the one bleeding.”
“Eh, it’s not that bad.”
“Your fans are going to kill me,” I said, running my hand gently over his cheek. “I ruined your face.”
“It’ll heal.” He glanced back at the paper on the ground then at me. “So, what’s so bad that you were willing to kick me in the face to stop me from seeing it?”
“Hey, I wasn’ttryingto kick you in the face,” I said indignantly. “And it’s… nothing.”
“Nothing?” He raised his eyebrows at me and slowly walked backward toward the sheet. He looked ridiculous, with his hair a mess, a hand cupped over his face, and blood still dribbling down his chin.
“Don’t,” I pleaded, but I didn’t go after him because I didn’t want to accidentally kick again or something.
“You can’t expect me not to be curious,” he said. Quick as a flash, he ducked down and grabbed the paper with his non-bloody hand. He looked at me curiously for a moment and I tried to look confident and not at all like I was about to faint at the idea of him seeing it. I doubted I was successful.
He let the paper fall open so he could see the words and I squeezed my eyes shut, unable to stand looking at his reaction.
“Was this for me?” He asked.
“No,” I lied, keeping my eyes shut. I heard his footsteps come closer to me and soon, his fingers were brushing under my chin, the edge of the paper still between them. I couldn’t keep my eyes closed, knowing he was so close so I let them flutter open and took in his face before me. He didn’t look mad, so that was a good first sign. And he didn’t look embarrassed either.
“You know something, Princess?” He said. Then he reached into his own jeans pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, slipping it into my palm. I just stared at it, feeling too weak and shaky to be able to open it. Too scared that my own hope for what it said was setting me up to be disappointed by what it actually was. But when I didn’t move, Zach unfolded the paper for me and there it was, in his beautiful perfect handwriting.
I LOVE YOU
I gasped and brushed my fingers against the paper. “But when…”
