Page 118 of Rules, Roses, and Rivals
The smell of it hit like a wave. Carbs and sugar.
“Okay,” I said, blowing out a breath as I let go of Archie’s hand. “I want to get part of this over with right now.”
That earned me four matching expressions of confusion.
“I have a question,” I said, pointing a finger around the room like I was conducting a very weird orchestra. “And I want an honest answer from each of you.”
Jake frowned. Bubba leaned forward like I was about to reveal national secrets. Archie just lifted a brow. Coop flipped open a box of pizza and started filling a plate.
I zeroed in on all of them. “Are any of you Mr. Thorns?”
Jake blinked. “Who?”
“Mr.Thorns,” I repeated. “The guy who’s been leaving roses. At school. At my door. Randomly in my locker like a very floral stalker.”
“Oh.” Bubba leaned back and squinted. “That’s not creepy at all.”
“It’s not creepy, it’s—” I stopped, because okay,sometimesit was creepy, but also it was a little thrilling in the romantic mystery kind of way. “It’s a thing. Someone’s been leaving roses and notes and I started calling them Mr.Thorns cause there’s never a name.”
“Not it,” Coop said before he took a bite of pizza.
“Nope,” Archie said, popping thep. “Not me.”
I turned to Bubba.
He shook his head. “I have a black thumb. Plants fear me.”
My eyes landed on Jake last. His gaze finally met mine for the first time since I walked in. “I told you already, wasn’t me.”
I didn’t know what I was expecting. Relief? Disappointment? Proof one of them was secretly a romantic weirdo in disguise?
Instead, I just felt this hollow kind of thud in my chest. Like a door had closed before I even knew it was open.
“Well,” I said, forcing a shrug. “That’s disappointing.”
Bubba actually looked down about it too. “I kind of hoped itwasone of us.”
“Same,” Archie muttered, then cleared his throat. “I mean—not that it’s not weird. Just that you’ve got this whole Jane Austen meets ‘You’ vibe happening and it’d be nice if the guy was someone we could yell at.”
Coop set a hand on the small of my back. “Still cool if I punch him when we find out who it is?”
“Why do you get to punch him?” I asked. “Also, did you have to bring up the Joe Goldberg of it all?” Now I really was a little freaked out.
“Cause I called dibs,” Coop said with an oh so helpful grin.
I stared at the table as my lower abdomen reminded me that today was, in fact, asituation. The kind of cramp that felt like myuterus was trying to eat itself. I winced and grabbed a bottle of Coke, mostly for something cold to press to my stomach.
“You need something?” Archie was already heading for the kitchen. “We’ve got Midol. Or whiskey. Possibly both.”
I stared at Archie for a long moment. “Do I want to know why you have Midol?”
One corner of his mouth curved upward into a teasing smirk. “For you, babe, obviously. You’re the only reason I even know where that aisle in the grocery store is.”
“That’s—,”
“Creepy,” Coop muttered as he pulled a chair out for me and I smacked his arm.
“It’s not creepy.”
