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He shook his head. “Stop. Something else. Anything. Talk about dance. I was serious, earlier. Why aren’t you trying for a scholarship?”
“You don’t really care.”
“I do, actually. When I was watching you, I was thinking—”
He broke off.
Quinn straightened. “What were you thinking?”
His voice turned sheepish. “Nothing. Forget it.”
She could only imagine what he’d been thinking. “Now you definitely need to tell me. Was it that you didn’t realize a full grown hippo could do spins like that?”
His head snapped around. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I know I’m not built like a typical dancer.”
“What does that even mean? Are you another one of these girls who tries to live on carrots and hot water?”
She waved the taquito in his face. “No, but I probably should be.”
“You’re insane, baby girl.” He paused and rubbed at his jaw.
“I was thinking that Nick Merrick is one lucky bastard.”
Quinn flushed, pleased.
At the same time, she felt a curl of anger. Sometimes she hated being Nick’s pretend girlfriend.
“Yeah,” Tyler continued, “I don’t know a whole lot about dance—just what I remember from Emily—but if anyone is going for a scholarship, you should be.”
Quinn swallowed. “There’s an application fee, and it’s ex-tremely competitive, and I don’t—it’s just—”
“Afraid of competition?” His eyes were dark and shadowed, his voice rough. “You don’t strike me as the type.”
He did not sound sexy. He did not.
Yeah, she wasn’t convincing herself. “I’m not the type to have a spare hundred bucks lying around, either.”
Tyler winced. “Sorry.”
She shrugged and scowled out at the night. “My whole life is full of almosts. I almost made it on the dance team, until the bitch teacher wanted to get rid of me because of my attitude and my body type. I almost made it as a cheerleader, but they all called me Crisco and acted like I was white trash. I almost had a great—”
She cut herself off. She’d almost said, I almost had a great boyfriend, but then I caught Nick kissing another guy.
“Almost what?” said Tyler.
Quinn shook her head, surprised to feel tears hiding somewhere behind her eyes. “Nothing. What I want always seems just out of reach, you know?”
Tyler sighed. “Yeah,” he said. “Sometimes I know exactly what you mean.”
CHAPTER 10
Nick’s morning classes crawled by. He could barely stay awake for Dr. Cutter’s physics lecture. He’d come home late again, dragged himself into bed, and replayed his evening with Adam. Their walk. Their studying.
Adam’s secrets.
After learning about that, everything had felt somewhat raw, as if a scab had been scraped off too early. He’d felt the need to proceed slowly, to let trust grow in the space between them. So he’d come in when Adam invited him, but he’d sat on the couch and sipped coffee and talked, keeping his hands to himself.
