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My gaze darkened, and my hands clenched into fists. “Seriously? Who does she think she is?” I started for her, because someone had to put her in her place, when I ran smack dab into the middle of a lean hard chest.
One glance at the owner of the lean washboard abs my hand currently rested on confirmed they belonged to Thorne.
I rubbed my nose, which I’m pretty sure made contact with his pecs of steel.We really needed to stop meeting like this.
“Whoa, what’s the rush?” He steadied me with his hands on my shoulders.
“Do you see what you’ve caused?” I said, waving in Gabby’s direction like this was all his fault. “All of a sudden you show up at Lakeview by my side and I have Royal blood. She’s acting like we’ve been best buds for ages.”
“Better you than me.” Penelope grinned, and I shot darts at her with my eyes.
Thorne glanced over at Gabby and shrugged. “Don’t let it get to you?”
I stared at him, open-mouthed. “But . . . but she’s lying. And the Royals are so completely full of themselves. So pompous and self-righteous and entitled.” They sounded a lot like Thorne. Maybe he was one of them. “The last thing I want is for them to think you’re joining the fold.”
“It’s not the first time someone’s pretended to have a relationship with me, nor will it be the last. Better to just ignore it.”
I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest when the warning bell rang. “Or we make it clear that by no means are we falling for their plastic smiles or their artificial platitudes and butt—"
“Hey,” Thorne nudged me in the arm. “How did it end up going with your dad? I’ve never seen someone so . . .”
“Homicidal?”
“I was gonna say angry, but we can go with that.” Thorne laughed.
Well, at least he had a sense of humor about it.
“Wait. What happened with your dad?” Penelope asked, glancing between us.
“You saw the segment on Entertainment Tonight.”
Penelope just stared at me with a blank look on her face.
“That was the first time he found out about Thorne and me. Plus, you know, the whole hotel thing didn’t go over well.”
“Oh, right.” Penelope covered her mouth with her hands. “Which is why you got in trouble.”
“Yeah.” I turned my attention back to Thorne. “Sorry about him. As for how it went, not great. I need to talk to you about that, actually.”
The warning bell rang, signaling I had less than a minute to get to class.
Crap.
“Eep, gotta go,” Penelope called over her shoulder as she took off.
A cacophony of lockers closing echoed through the hall, followed by a mad rush of students.
“Ugh.” I ran a hand through my hair. “There’s no time now.” I sighed. “Later? Maybe lunch?”
He shook his head. “Can’t today. I have a call with Bobby Shein about filming.”
Oh, only Bobby Shein, the biggest Hollywood film director on the planet. No biggie.
“Okay, then later. It’s super important.”
“I’ll catch up with you. I promise,” Thorne said, pulling me toward him. “I had fun last night.”
“Yeah, I did too,” I said, realizing I meant it.
