Page 39 of Heartbeat

“Hey.” I sat at the counter, resting both elbows on top of the marble. “You got home late.”

“I did.” He put down his bowl of cereal and turned to get a coffee mug from the cupboard, then handed it to me.

“Did you have fun?”

“Yeah. Cynthia Thompson blew me off, but I met another girl, Kim—”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Uh-huh.” He nodded. “She’s not a senior, so I don’t think you know her. She’s awesome though. I took her out to grab a slice after the party, and we ended up talking for most of the night.”

“Sounds cool.”

“I’m seeing her again this afternoon,” he said, beaming. “We’re going to the park.”

“Cool, Noah.” I added sugar to my coffee. “Very nice.”

“How about you?”

“What about me?”

“Your night. How was it?”

“Oh,” I said, deciding what and how to say it. I settled on a simple: “It was pretty awesome.” Because that was precisely how I felt about it.

“I can see that.” He casually scratched his neck as though to show me something.

I had two choices here. Either I played dumb, pretending I had no idea how the silver dollar–sized bruise had wound up on my neck, or I could act as though I owned that fucking hickey. I chose the latter, mostly because I felt weirdly proud of that mark. I’d even made a few of my own, and the thought of bumping into Ethan on Monday and finding him branded was a bit of a turn on, to tell the truth.

“Oh,” I said, smiling.

“Is he cool?”

For that I wasn’t really prepared, I must admit. “W-what?”

“The guy who thought no one saw him sneaking out of the house this morning. The one responsible for that.” He pointed at my neck. “Is he cool?”

“Oh, uh—” I knew not what the fuck to do. “He is, yes.”

“What’s his name?”

“Ethan. Ethan Cooper.”

“Cool.” And he went going back to focusing on his cereal.

“Cool?” I repeated, intrigued.

He looked up at me as if waiting for me to elaborate, which was exactly what I thought he was going to do.

“Should we—do you want to discuss it?” I awkwardly asked him.

“No, I’m good.”

“You are?”

“Uh-huh.” He nodded. “Listen, anyone who manages to put that big of a grin on your face is fine by me.”

Fuck. So apparently, I’d been grinning and not noticing it. Check.

---