Page 2
Gabe’s eyes sparkle, and when he looks past the group of people waiting on him and his gaze connects with mine, they crinkle with happiness.
My shattered heart tries to knit itself back together.
I hold up my hand in a tentative wave, and there’s nothing tentative about the way Gabe cuts through the group of Very Important People and wraps me in a bear hug.
“Bethy, that was incredible.” He presses his nose into the crook of my neck, and I feel the heat of his skin against the chill of mine. “I can’t even believe it.”
“Yeah.” I swallow. “You were incredible.”
It’s the truth. I wish my voice wouldn’t sound all wobbly, but I can’t help it. Two truths can exist at once. Gabe is incredible. Onstage and off. And also, I don’t want him to do this.
“Thanks.” He hits me with a sheepish smile. “Let me wrap things up here, and then we can grab food.”
I nod. “I’m starving.”
“Same. Bubba’s?”
I scoff. “As if you have to ask.”
Bubba’s is our favorite bar. It’s several blocks off campus, so it’s not as popular as some of the closer establishments, but Gabe and I love it there.
He grins at me. “Five minutes and I’m all yours.”
He winks and turns back to the crew who’s waiting on him.
I bite my lip. I have a feeling he’s never going to be all mine. No matter how badly I want him to be.
Chapter 2
Gabe
Beth slides into the booth at Bubba’s, and I debate for all of two seconds before following her and sitting down on the same side.
She arches her eyebrows. “Um, hi?”
“Hi.” I beam back at her. I can’t help it. I don’t care if I’m acting like an overeager puppy, lapping up her attention. I’m high on adrenaline from the concert. More than that, I’m high on Beth. I want to be close to her. I want to have this DTR conversation. The one that we’ve been circling around for the past couple of months. It’s time to define the relationship.
Because I want Beth.
There’s not a doubt in my mind about it.
Maybe I should feel weird about that. She’s my best friend. Her twin brother is my other best friend. The three of us are basically two—three—peas in a pod.
Beth has always hung around with us. She and Jack are close, so it made logical sense that when I hit it off with him at a football camp the summer before our freshman year of high school, I’d become friends with Beth too.
Jack and Beth had just moved to my hometown of Dasher Valley. Their grandparents wanted them to go to high school in a small town, so they relocated from Chicago.
After our senior year, Beth and I ended up in Madison for undergrad. Jack was getting his teaching license at UW–Milwaukee. He wanted to come to my performance, but he’s student teaching, and his class had their Christmas concert that he was required to attend.
I don’t mind. I love him like a brother, don’t get me wrong, but I’m glad it’s just Beth and me tonight. I haven’t told Jack that my feelings for Beth have somehow hopped from completely platonic to I can’t get enough of you, and I don’t want to be with anyone else. I’ll figure out a way to talk to him at some point, but first, I want to make sure Beth feels the same.
I think she does. Gosh, I hope so.
The waitress swings by our booth, and we place our orders. Two brandy old-fashioneds, burgers, and fries with a basket of cheese curds to share. When she leaves us to ourselves, I swivel in my seat so I’m facing Beth.
She turns her body so she’s facing me. She’s so beautiful. I don’t know how I didn’t fall madly in love with her the second I met her, but we were kids then. I was awkward and shy. She was bossy and busy. We were so close, the three of us, that it was natural to be just friends. It’s only in the past year that things have shifted for me. Now, I want to run my fingers through her long brown hair. I want to press her glasses up her nose when she gets so animated that they slip down. I want to memorize all the freckles in her hazel eyes. Maybe write a song about them too.
But first, I need to know if she wants me too.
