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Several feet away, in Nathan’s line of sight over Tully’s shoulder, the other game had stalled to a snail’s pace. Clarissa Montague must have been next, but she was frozen with a ball in her hands and poorly concealed attention stuck to the pair like glue. Her friends were no different. They leaned into each other like they were having a conversation, but no one was talking. One of them accidentally met Nathan’s eye and startled when she realized she’d been caught. Nathan stepped closer to Tully. He lowered his voice and leaned in. “To make sure any rumors stop before they get anywhere.”
Nathan never expected that he would be living this life. Faking a relationship with a girl he barely knew three weeks ago. But he had an unprecedented skill at this—one he didn’t even know about until he met Tully. Years of flirting and noncommittal flings made it easy to know exactly what would get a reaction.
From behind he reached past her side, his arm close enough to brush the sleeve of her glowing shirt, but not close enough that they were touching. She went rigid. Her fingers, which had grabbed hold of the ball but not yet lifted it, didn’t move.
Nathan doubted himself for a minute when his fingers came into contact with the ball right next to hers. They weren’t touching, but this may be too far for her. He never asked her how close was too close.
A fist could come flying into his face, and he thought he would deserve it.
But she didn’t move. She didn’t flinch, she just held perfectly, utterly still.
Then she jumped. Sideways, backwards. Hitting his shoulder in her retreat as she spun to face him. Her green ball abandoned, she exhaled sharply in surprise.
Nathan couldn’t help it. He grinned and shook his head, laughing. “Okay. Maybe not the best move. There’s no way that is going to convince them.”
Tully was unreadable. Her lips were tugged tight, and her hands opened and closed at her side. “Convince them what?”
So part one failed, fine. He should have warned her, explained it better, and asked her the exact length of her boundaries. But backing down now wouldn’t help, he needed to be clear. He needed to be so damn convincing that no one would question it.
He took a tentative step forward again but left a foot of space between them. “By now most of the students believe that we cheated. I can’t have that kind of stuff spreading around, so what we need to do now is convince all of them it wasn’t random. From now on, you and I are soulmates. Meant to be together. If we can convince them of that, no one will question what happened before and the talk will die before it ever starts.”
Tully stayed quiet for a long, drawn-out moment. Her eyes flicked back and forth between his as she contemplated it. But she wouldn’t turn this down. She couldn’t.
Truth of the matter was, they were both desperate for this entire operation to work. Different reasons, same determination. She needed this as much as him. That’s why he couldn’t let it all go just because she made a mistake.
He spent all night plotting a solution that would work for both of them.
He was angry with her for hours after leaving school. So mad that he avoided looking at any of the flashcards she’d given him and didn’t even bother taking her notes out of his bag.
So she better accept this, because as far as he was concerned it was the only way to not ruin things for her or him. It didn’t hurt him to admit that he didn’t want to hurt her either.
“You think that will work?” She was backed against their lane’s ball rack, one of her hands gripping its top shelf.
“About eighty percent sure,” he shrugged. Her foot tapped rhythmically, in beat with his pulse, then she set her shoulders. He was more than pleased to see the edges of her mouth curl upwards a centimeter.
“How do we do that?”
“Yes or no?” he whispered, and this time he could tell from the clarity in her eyes that she understood the question right away. No explanation was needed.
She nodded. “Yes.”
“We do it like this.”
Nathan reached forward, his hand led by the tips of his fingers until they brushed against her temple, pushed a stray curl from her eye, and dipped it behind her ear. That was all he was planning, but he got a little carried away.
He had experience with this stuff, he knew what made people swoon. A touch on the cheek was cute, but it wasn’t enough. They had an audience, engrossed. He needed to show them something undeniable.
Plus, her mouth was parted, her eyes wide and looking up at him through dark lashes. A burning tilted the bottom of his stomach and his heart paced, sending his blood rushing.
“Don’t hit me,” he whispered and closed the space between them.
thirty
tully
Nathan could convince even a fly that it was real.
He’d already convinced her.
