Page 126 of Where Roads Lead

Ava Hughes was a hard woman to please.

Here I’d thought she’d be thrilled over me going out with Theo, yet every time he and I had any semblance of a private conversation, she swooped in faster than my racing thoughts—which also happened to be desperate for an escape from this night.

Will was being broody. Ava seemed to be playing a mental game of tug-of-war with Theo, who seemed as confused as I was about the entire evening. And me? Well, I felt like a jerk for agreeing to any of this in the first place.

I’d been fooling myself thinking I could go on a date and pretend that I hadn’t just realized I had feelings for my date’s best friend.

Maybe I could’ve, if Will hadn’t thrown himself into the mix. But being near him? It was impossible to even appear interested in anything Theo had to say. It was impossible to act like I wasn’t exhilarated at the way Ava’s intervention kept forcing Will and me together.

And it was impossible to pretend that Will wasn’t the one I wanted to be with.

But since he had basically ordered me back into the dating pool, I was pissed at him not only for forcing himself into our date and my headspace, but for also seemingly sabotaging any interaction I had with Theo.

I waited until Ava tugged Theo ahead once more before yanking Will to a stop beside me.

“Why are you walking so close to me?” I asked in a harsh whisper.

I mean, I knew I didn’t like Theo, but how could Will? For all he knew, he was ruining a very real attempt of me moving on.

“This is how close I always stand to you?” he said, though I could see the bullshitting gleam in his eyes.

He wasn’t sorry at all. And he knew exactly what he was doing.

“Yeah, well, maybe not tonight.” I took a pointed step away from him. “Since I’m, you know, on a date with your friend.”

“No, you’re not,” he gritted out, closing the space with a step toward me. “This is just the four of us hanging out.”

“It was supposed to be a date,” I hissed, trying to keep our voices audible only to us two.

“Why?” Will asked, making no such attempt at subtlety.

“What do you mean, why?”

“Theo isn’t your type.”

He made the declaration as if he were the undisputed expert on all things Elsie Cameron.

The absolute audacity of this man.

“You have no idea what my type is.”

“Oh, I think I do,” he said infuriatingly. “And it’s definitely not a guy you have nothing in common with.”

I scoffed, crossing my arms, loathing the fact that he was right about this.

“Unless I’m wrong and you want to enlighten me on all the things you guys have bonded over.”

I glared at him, and he snickered at my silence.

“Knew it.”

“You know what, Will?” I swatted his arm. “Maybe we would’ve been able to connect more if you hadn’t forced yourself into the night.”

“Oh, please.” He rolled his eyes in a way that made my blood boil. “He’s said nothing this entire night that you’d be remotely interested in hearing, never mind talking about.”

“How would you know what I’m interested in hearing about?” I cried, not caring who heard anymore.

“Because I know that you don’t give two shits about the time he crashed his dad’s car in high school,” Will matched my volume, “or how his football team is doing this season. Or how they did the season before.” I scoffed, wishing I could tell him he was wrong.