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“Understatement.”
He smiles. “You didn’t give him much, so once I opened the conversation with him, he didn’t let up until I’d filled in the sizable gaps in our history.” He levels me with an accusatory look.
“Um...” I neverhadtold my family who my tutor was. Or anything else about Noah.
“Annnd...” He draws out thenlike a full sentence, letting me off the hook momentarily for hiding him from my family. “Then I asked him about you. He put two and two together, and since he hadn’t heard of you dating anyone...”
He scolds me again with his eyes. I show him some teeth and try to look innocent.
“He convinced me I should make a move.”
“Huh?” He never asked me out.
“Literally.”
Ohhhhhh. That’s why he wasn’t surprised to see me at the YCS activity.
“So I moved, sought you out, and found—”
“Alec,” I whisper.
His nose scrunches in adorable distaste. “Not exactly what I was expecting. You really ought to work on communicating with your family.” Another visual scolding. “But... I was kind of committed at that point, so I just laid low.” He tips his head. “Mostly.”
“Running,” I say.
“My one indulgence. It gave me appreciation for a sport I didn’t previously enjoy.”
I can’t contain my laughter. He’s looking at me like I’m a little crazy, which clearly, I am.
“Are you laughing at me?” he asks, half-amused, half-worried.
I shake my head and wipe my eyes. “I’ve been on that running trailevery dayfor the past two weeks! Ihaterunning!” I ask him again, “Where have you been?”
“You’ve been running? You hate running?” He’s grinning like this is the best news ever.
I slap him on the thigh, successfully retrieving my hand before it gets ideas and sets up camp.“Where have you been?”
“Hiding,” he says. “I didn’t know you’d broken up until Ryan called last night.”
“But you saw Jamie—”
“Who conveniently neglected to tell me about the breakup. I wasn’t about to ask about you and Alec.” He groans. “I should have known from the non-update.”
“Huh?”
“She’s always telling me how good you guys are together, how much fun you have, how much you enjoy—” He cuts off. His eyes fall to my lips, and I fill in the blank.
I cringe, dropping my head into my hands. What else has she told him? When I sit back up, my arm rests against the back of Noah’s hand.
“Embellishment?” He sounds hopeful.
I cough-laugh. I’m so not going to discuss kissingAlecwithNoah. I mean, it was nice at first, but the longer we were together... so yeah, embellishment. Time to change the subject. “What happened in Moab?”
That gets his attention. “Huh?”
“That look over the campfire.”
A frown plays on his lips as a player sprints across our end of the field. “Alec was—” He stops himself. “I wanted to tell you how good your work is, how much I admire it.”
