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“Just stay out of trouble.”
“I’m afraid I can’t promise that. Can you?”
As I looked back at Violet, I wasn’t sure I could.
10
VIOLET
“Reed Darling is watching you, again.”
Mia’s words made my stomach dip as I followed her gaze past the dancing flames of the bonfire and found Reed staring intently at me. His expression was closed, and with the flickering glow of the fire between us, he looked as devilishly handsome as he was dangerous. He stood with his younger brother, and the people around them seemed to be giving them a wide berth. As our eyes met, Reed appeared to fight back a smile, and I quickly glanced away.
I wrapped my arms a little tighter around my body, doing my best to pretend that one look from Reed hadn’t raised my temperature more than the bonfire between us. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Mia’s eyes narrowed at me with suspicion. “And now he’s smiling. Why is he smiling at you, Vi?”
My cheeks warmed in response, and as much as I would have liked to blame the heat radiating from the roaring bonfire, I knew it had everything to do with Reed. I was tempted to look over at him again, but I somehow managed to keep my eyes firmly on Mia. I couldn’t let myself get trapped in his gaze once more.
“Well…” she prompted.
I still hadn’t told Mia that Reed had mentioned I should come tonight. She was extremely wary of him, so I knew she would only take it the wrong way. Given the critical look in her eyes, she was already leaping to conclusions.
“He’s probably just being friendly,” I said. “I told you he helped me with my car.”
“Vi, there is absolutely nothing friendly about that boy. And I doubt he looks at his friends that way. Hell, he probably doesn’t have any.”
I really wished Nicole were here already. She might have put a stop to Mia’s interrogation.
“Maybe he’s not as bad as you think,” I suggested.
“Don’t let that gorgeous face and beautiful body blind you from the fact that boy is one hundred percent trouble,” she replied. “He doesn’t play by the same rules as the rest of us.”
“It was just a look. You’re reading too much into it.”
“I’m not,” she insisted before lowering her voice. “If one of the Darling Devils was looking at me that way, I’d be running in the opposite direction as fast as my legs could carry me…”
“Oh, and how exactly is he looking at me?”
“Like if you smiled back at him, he’d leap right through those flames, pick you up, and carry you back to his cave like some barbarian.”
I rolled my eyes at her but swallowed a lump that had formed in my throat. “Well, thankfully, none of that is going to happen. I don’t even want to look at another guy right now, and I’m definitely not smiling at any. Not after Jeremy.”
“Yeah, I know.” Her face fell as she nodded. “Where is Captain Douche tonight?”
“I haven’t seen him, thankfully.” I was still reeling from our confrontation yesterday. The way he’d behaved all week, flirting with girls while pretending to be the victim, only to then turn around and expect me to just forgive him, left me with an ominous feeling in my gut. Jeremy wasn’t going to accept this breakup easily. He always got what he wanted. And if he still wanted me, I feared it was going to take something extreme to make him give up on us.
“You’re not considering getting back with him, are you?”
“What? No, of course not.” My eyes darted back to meet Mia’s. “I will never be able to look at him the same way after what he did. And I’d definitely never be able to trust him. I just need to move on.” I only wished it were that easy. Recovering from your boyfriend cheating on you wasn’t a simple matter, especially when you had to see him at school every day. The fact he wanted me back was only going to make it harder still.
“Yeah, well, it seems to me there’s another hockey player who would gladly volunteer to assist with that…”
“Mia!” I gasped.
“What?” she replied. “I know Reed Darling is bad news, and he’s a total player. And I know you’ve written off hockey players for life. But Reed is incredibly hot, and he seems interested in you. It would kill Jeremy to see you with him too, so I’m sure we could make an exception for one night.”
She went to continue, but I cut her off. “You literally just told me I should be running away from Reed Darling. Now you want me to date him?”
