“Thank you, Knox, for that incredibly helpful observation.”
He straightened up and grabbed a handful of the apple slices off my plate without asking. I turned to object and found him already eating them, completely unbothered.
“Those were mine.”
“There’s a whole apple in the bowl.”
“That’s not the point?—”
My phone lit up on the counter beside my laptop. Then again. Then three times in quick succession, buzzing against the marble.
I glanced at the screen and found a text from Brianna Wilson, who I’d spoken maybe twelve words to in my entire life.
heard you like chase henderson. rachel is SO mad at you lol
My stomach dropped to the floor.
Two more texts came in. One from an unknown number, and one from Madison, who’s been Rachel’s best friend since kindergarten and therefore the last person I wanted weighing in on anything involving me. I didn’t open either of them.
I told one person about my crush on Chase.
“You good?” Knox was still standing at the island, looking at me over his water glass.
“Yeah.” I flipped another page in the textbook I wasn’t reading.
I could feel him watching me the way he sometimes did. Quiet and intense, like he could see through my skin.
My phone buzzed again and I flipped it face down.
“Thorne.”
“I said I’m fine.”
He reached over and picked up my phone before I could stop him.
“Knox! What the hell?”
He turned away to read. I watched his jaw tighten, his hand clench around my phone. Then he set it back on the counter, screen down again, and was quiet for a moment.
“How’d that Brianna girl find out you like Chase Henderson?”
Heat crawled up my neck, probably coloring my face like a strawberry. “I don’t know…It’s not—” I sighed then pressed my lips together. “I told Owen. In confidence.”
He picked up his water glass and drank, not saying a word, just staring at the back wall of the kitchen.
“Don’t say anything,” I said.
“I didn’t.”
“You were going to.”
He looked at me, and there was something in his expression I didn’t have a name for. It wasn’t pity. I’d know that look. It was almost like he was angry on my behalf. Which was probably worse, because what was I supposed to do with that?
“Chase Henderson’s a tool anyway,” he said finally. “And what’s the deal with Rachel? They dating?”
“No. But she likes him.”
He shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. “So you like the same guy. That’s not a crime.”
