Page 63 of Cheap Shot

“Oh, definitely the beach.”

“Same.” I tried to think of another question when our waitress arrived with our meals and set the steaming plates in front of us. “Thank you.”

She nodded and disappeared again.

“Okay, would you rather read a book or watch a movie?”

“Book, they’re always better.”

I laughed. “But if you just watch the movie, you don’t know the difference.”

She scrunched her nose. “But you’re missing so much!”

“Fair.” I lifted my glass and took another sip. “Favorite childhood movie?”

“Beauty and the Beast,” she replied confidently.

“Really?”

She nodded. “Have you seen the beast’s library? That’s all I wanted as a kid.”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course. I should have thought of that.”

“What’s yours?” she asked while cutting up a meatball.

“I loved Toy Story. When I was little, I’d try to sneak into my room to see if my toys were alive.”

She chuckled. “How’d that work out for you?”

“They were sneaky.”

Her eyes twinkled in the dim light, and I couldn’t stop staring. I took my first bite then swallowed. It was the first time I could actually taste the flavor since we sat down. Now that I wasn’t wrapped up in nerves.

This night was going better than I could have dreamed, but I still felt like there was something huge standing between us. “Haley? What made you transfer to West Penn?”

Just like that, her face dropped, and she pulled away, curling her shoulders into herself. I hated seeing her shrink away like she was hiding. I never wanted her to feel like she had to do that around me.

“I’m not ready to tell you about that.” Her voice was barely a whisper, but it told me more than her words did. She was hurt. Recovering. And I needed to be there for her. More than I ever could have imagined.

“Okay.” I picked up my glass and took a drink, trying to act normal and make her comfortable enough to come back to me.

She stared down at her lap, and after a few seconds she scooted back and sat up a bit straighter. “Thank you.”

I felt like we were making so much progress, running forward together, only to slap into a brick wall.

Would she ever let me in?

Chapter 21

Haley

I hurt him. I saw it in his eyes. We’d been laughing and flirting, and everything was so perfect until he asked the one thing I wasn’t ready for. He carried on through the rest of dinner like things were fine, but we both knew that was a lie.

He hugged me when he left me at the entrance to my dorm building, but it felt like a goodbye. Not the beginning of something more.

We were so close. He told me he wanted me. I agreed.

Why wasn’t that enough for me?