Page 47 of Falling Stars

“Okay.”

“No, it’s really not okay. I’ve thought long and hard about that night and about what I said to you.”

I wince. “We really don’t have to rehash it.”

“I think we should clear the air. We never discussed it, and it’s been festering this whole time. I know I hurt you and pissed you off.”

I glance down. “You hurt me when you took Nicole Ashbury to homecoming instead of me.”

It’s his turn to wince. “Not my best moment.”

“I’m not sure putting you on the spot like that was my best moment either. I’d seen this dumb thing online, the ‘kiss your best friend’ challenge, and I got carried away.”

He plays with a strand of my hair. “You used to love those social media challenges.” His eyes meet mine. “You stopped posting them.”

“I felt stupid doing them after what happened.”

His brows furrow. “It was a collision of bad timing.”

“What do you mean?”

“That afternoon, Gus took me aside and warned me not to get you pregnant. Rhett kinda saved me from that conversation, but then he asked if you and I were an item. I told him no, but I don’t think he believed me because he cautioned me about how quickly sex can change a friendship. And he warned me not to mess around with you if I wasn’t serious because he didn’t want either of us to get hurt.”

I consider what he says. “That’s a lot.”

“I was overwhelmed. My friends were teasing me about you and saying how we’d get married if we started hooking up, and it got me thinking. I was about to go off to college, and?—”

“And I wasn’t.” My heart sinks. I remember how he asked me that night if I’d thought about going to Lone Star State too.

He laces our hands together. “The idea of dating long distance felt like a lot of pressure. And if we went down that road and we didn’t work out, I’d be ruining the best friendship I’d ever had.”

I sigh. “That makes a lot of sense.”

“But I did lie that night.”

“What do you mean?”

“When I said I didn’t think of you like that, when I said I didn’t have feelings for you. I lied. I did have feelings for you.”

For a moment, I can’t breathe. Then I pull my hand away. “So I felt like I was going crazy for no reason?”

“I panicked. I was young and dumb and so out of my league with you.”

I scoff. “Okay.”

“I’m serious, Baylee. You’ve twisted me up like no woman ever has.”

“I’m not sure that’s a compliment.”

“Let me put it this way—no woman has ever compared to you. Trust me, I’ve looked.”

“Oh, I heard all about how you looked long and hard incollege.” I turn my back to him and pull up the covers. My eyes sting, and I quietly sniff.

“Don’t do that,” he calls out behind me. “Don’t shut me out.”

“I really don’t want to hear about all the girls you fucked in college, Maverick, so spare me.”

He groans. “I wasn’t the manwhore you think I was. Yeah, I dated, but I didn’t sleep around like Jace.”

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