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His eyebrows about disappeared into his hairline. “Really? I mean, I was just joking about the whole making out thing, but if you’re into it...”
Oops. That was so not what I meant. I coughed, my throat suddenly dry. “Actually, I have something I wanted to talk to you about after class.”
“Oh, okay.” The right side of his mouth quirked in a slight grin. “I suppose we can table the whole making out thing...for now.”
The seductive way he was looking at me was going to sap me of all the strength I had left. I would’ve liked nothing more than to meet backstage with only the intention of kissing Gabriel as much as I wanted. But that wasn’t what I’d set out to do today. At least, not until he knew the whole truth and had forgiven me. Hopefully.
With a gulp, I tore my gaze away and focused on getting my computer ready for our presentation. Everything was there: the video clips of the game, the slides we’d used to demonstrate the body’s movements in hockey. It was weird to think that this whole anatomy project had kind of been the thing to ruin my ultimate payback plan. Not that I cared. If not for this project, I probably never would’ve known what a great guy Gabriel was—and what a mistake catfishing him had been.
“Everyone ready to present?” Mr. Hart said as he strolled into the room with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand. He wore a massive grin, even as half of the class groaned into their hands. Looking down at his list, he tapped a finger on his chin. “Hmmm...let’s pick a random victim, shall we? Gabriel and Beth, why don’t you go first?”
A jolt of nervousness went through me. Normally, I wasn’t so worried about giving a class presentation, but this one was so different. We both scrambled out of our chairs and to the front of the room before plugging in my computer to the smart board projector. The beginning of our presentation was a clip of Gabriel’s game. I took a spot next to him off to the side of the classroom as he darkened the lights and the footage rolled. A little bit of heat darted up my arm when he brushed his pinky finger against mine. At first, I thought it was just an accident, but then he did it again. It was a good thing the room was darkened, because I was pretty sure my face was turning beet red.
His gaze shot to mine and he shot me a quick smile before returning his attention to the classroom. I would’ve been lost in that sensation of him secretly touching me, if my gaze hadn’t landed on Michael sitting in the second row, his cold eyes trained solidly on me. There was a conspiratorial tilt to his mouth, as if he knew something I didn’t. It was unnerving. I shifted slightly away from Gabriel, putting a few inches between us, so Michael would focus somewhere else. My eyes flitted toward Charlotte sitting in the front, where she gave me a thumbs up.
At least someone in the audience was on my side.
The shot ended and Gabriel hit the light switch again, the florescent light filling the classroom with an unnatural glow. He brushed by me on his way to the computer, leaving my whole body tingling.
“So, as you’ve seen, we decided to focus our project on hockey and how the human body adjusts to the rigor and stress of the sport,” I managed to eek out in a decibel a little higher than normal for me.
“You’re just trying to get on my good side so I give you an automatic A,” Mr. Hart said with a wink. He’d grabbed a spot next to Charlotte’s desk and was busy writing on his clipboard.
Gabriel chuckled next to me, the sound of his low laughter sending another warm tickling sensation down my spine. “Does that mean we’re already done here?”
“Not yet.” Mr. Hart made a circle motion in the air with his finger. “Keep going and we’ll see about that A.”
That was right. One battle at a time. We both wanted this A.
With a deep breath, I dove into our presentation about the human body and hockey. When my part was done, I sat back and listened to Gabriel speak. He might not have been a man of many words, but when he did talk, it was powerful. The whole class went deadly quiet. I had a hard time doing anything except for stare at his mouth. It was such a nice mouth. And his teeth were perfectly straight, except for the slight overlap of his bottom teeth. That was a detail I never would’ve noticed, if I hadn’t spent so much time around him lately. I learned a lot more about Gabriel every day.
And how much I’d been misjudging him.
Gabriel got us to the conclusion part of our presentation, in which we showed the footage from one of the fights that I’d filmed. I liked the way his blue eyes lit up as he watched the screen. He might not have been going to college for hockey next year, but there was no doubt that that boy loved the game. And I loved that it had brought us together.
“And that’s why hockey is no game for sissies.” Gabriel ended with a good-natured laugh that probably shocked everyone in this room—including me. Talking was one thing. Laughing in front of the entire class was another. He was usually the steady, calm one with the extreme poker face.
A smattering of applause started as people got over their shock. We’d nailed our presentation. I grinned at Gabriel, feeling light-hearted for the first time in the past two days. No matter what my worries were, no matter how much I was dreading spilling the beans to him, I couldn’t resist his good mood. It was infectious. Even Mr. Hart was smiling.
“All right, all right, you get your A+,” he said, making a mark on his clipboard. “And that’s not even because of the hockey. It was just that good. Next up, the other Corrigan twin, Michael, and his partner Everett.”
An A+ on our project was like an omen—an omen that things were going to be fine between Gabriel and me. No matter what.
Suddenly, I wasn’t feeling so nervous anymore. One battle over and won. Gabriel went to sit back down at the desk as I unhooked my laptop from the projector. Our gazes met and I had to smile. He had the softest gleam in his eyes, like he just knew this was a good sign. I tucked my laptop under my arm and made a move toward him, when a shoulder bumped hard into mine.
“Watch where you’re going, Frye,” Michael whispered as I faltered. He held a laptop in his arms, his eyes sparkling with cruelty. Had I been a smaller person, that hit wouldn’t knocked me to the ground. Still, it was going to leave a bruise. He always had to be a jerk. Glaring hard at him, I turned to make my way up to my desk.
“Are you okay?” Gabriel asked as I took my seat. I nodded at him, resisting the urge to rub my hand on my injury. He already looked worried enough. “I’m sorry, Beth. After class, I’ll tell him once and for all to leave you alone.”
“It’s fine,” I murmured. Really, today of all days, I didn’t need to deal with the Michael drama. There were plenty of other things to worry about. “Thanks, though.”
I reached under the desk and grab
bed his hand. He squeezed it tight and then laced his fingers through mine. Inhaling deeply, I tried my best to push out all the bad with the comforting scent of Gabriel’s cologne. It seemed to be working. Already, my anxiety was coming back down.
“Just a second, need to get this plugged in,” Michael said from the front of the class as Everett stood nearby, looking ready to puke.
The kid was seriously bad at public speaking. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he let Michael talk the entire time. Not that Michael needed encouragement to talk. Getting him to shut up was the trick.
