Page 63 of At First Catch

“I hate both of you.”

“Read it out loud.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

I turn away from them, as if that protects my privacy while texting in the middle of my kitchen, surrounded by emotional vultures.

Nolan

Your mother threatened to send leftovers to the marina.

Me

That’s how she traps people.

Nolan

I’m beginning to understand that.

The smile spreading across my face feels impossible to control now.

And apparently impossible to hide.

Because Bailey points dramatically. “There. That face. She’s gone.”

“I am not gone.”

“You’re practically writing his last name in cursive.”

I choke on air as Ivy dissolves into titters beside her.

“This is awful,” I inform them.

“No,” Bailey says cheerfully. “This is romance.”

That should make me panic. Instead, my pulse flutters harder.

Bailey and Ivy stay another hour.

Eventually, Bailey leaves for the bookstore while Ivy heads back toward Rowan’s place to work on revisions for her next song. Before she goes, though, she pauses near my front door and studies me carefully.

“You know he looks at you the same way Rowan looked at me before either of us admitted what was happening, right?”

My pulse stumbles unevenly.

“Ivy.”

“I’m serious.”

The wrinkles between her brows fall away. “You don’t have to run from this one.”

That’s exactly what I’ve been doing since the morning I slipped out of Nolan’s bed before sunrise. Running before something could become real enough to hurt me.

The problem now? It already matters. Enough that the thought of Nolan deciding he’s done trying feels physically painful.

After they leave, I spend twenty full minutes pretending I’m going to answer emails before finally giving up and driving into town. It seems I’m incapable of staying away from the marina for longer than half a day.