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“If things go how I’m hoping, this would be a bit of a second-chance romance, actually,” he said, maybe hamming it up a bit since Quinn seemed to be enjoying this so much.
“Oh my goodness, were you high school sweethearts?” the blonde asked.
“No. I was not smart enough back then for that. Exhibit A, eating paste. Which probably didn’t do anything good for my brains. But I did get to kiss Nova once, and I was never the same after that.”
Quinn sighed. “That’s so romantic.”
It was too bad the woman he was actually trying to impress was looking daggers at him.
“Was it spin the bottle?”
“Uh, no,” Linc said, scrubbing a hand through his hair because his neck was feeling kinda hot and prickly. “It was actually…”
“It was a dare,” Nova muttered, staring into her teacup. “At Senior homecoming, someone dared cool-kid Lincoln Donall to kiss short-on-looks-long-on-brains Novalie Marchand, and he did it.”
“This is like an eighties romcom,” Quinn squealed, but Nova was still looking much less excited. Downright blue if he was being honest. And why?
“It was amazing,” Linc said, shaking his head. “One of the best moments of my life.”
“Which is definitely the kind of thing you never want to repeat,” she muttered, and he wasn’t sure the comment was meant for his ears.
He was distracted by Quinn relaying how Derek had set her and Ryder up, but he snuck looks at Nova every so often. Nova had never been the chipper type but she’d never been one to sulk either. What was going on with her?
Eventually Nova had drained her tea and set the empty cup down on the saucer with a clatter.
“I should really get back to work.”
“Okay. Well, it was super nice to meet you, Linc,” Quinn told him with a sweet, genuine smile and then turned back to her friend. “Nova, are you going to Sadie’s sleepover on New Year’s Eve Eve?”
“Yes, I’ll be there.”
“Great! See you then.”
There was that same tight smile when Nova bid her friends farewell. Did Quinn and Ryder see it or was he the only one to notice that and the stiff way she held her shoulders as they left?
Chapter 14
Linc wanted to take Nova’s hand on the way back to her office but there was something foreboding about her that told him to keep his hands off. He would walk her to her door though, whether she liked it or not.
Once they arrived, Nova let herself into the office and sat down at her desk. Ouch. Linc didn’t even dare go inside so he leaned against the doorjamb. “Hey, are we okay? Did I do something?”
Nova looked at him like he’d just told her the internet was a series of tubes or something equally cockeyed.
“Did it ever occur to you that that’s not a fun story for me?”
“The one about you telling me to stop eating paste?” he asked, feeling so behind the curve his brain may as well be made out of paste.
“What? No,” she said, shaking her head. “The one about you kissing me on a dare in front of the entire school. Did you not think that it’s actually really embarrassing?”
He was missing something for sure and he wished he could figure it out on his own but they didn’t have that kind of time. “I know why it’s embarrassing for me. Why is it embarrassing for you?”
“Because— Wait, what?” Nova wrinkled her nose like a bunny rabbit. “Why is it embarrassing for you?”
“Are you kidding me? It makes me sound like a total asshole. Like what kind of dickface can’t say no to his friends when it really matters? It makes me sound fucking unwise to boot. What kind of person gets a chance to kiss a smart, cute girl they’ve been crushing on for years, has a magical moment, and then royally fucks it up? This kind, right here.”
Nova looked at him, dumbfounded. “I’m so confused. Okay, I get how you could seem like a punk but ‘boys will be boys’ and all that other toxic nonsense people say. Most people are going to think that’s just teenage hijinks. But I was there, Linc. You kissed me on a dare in front of everyone. And then so quietly no one else could hear, you said you wanted to do it again.”
“I didn’t say it quietly because I was trying to hide it. I’d honestly forgotten anyone was there. I was quiet because you knocked my fucking socks off, shortcake, and I could barely breathe.”
