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31
Willow
Last week, I’d found an alcove on the opposite side of the football field where I could live in peace, without any of Camdyn’s minions sniffing me out. At lunchtime, I’ve retreated to the tiny slice of sanctuary. I’m sitting on a cage-like partition that separates the side of the bleachers when I see Jamie slinking across the emerald-green turf. He’s alive, all his bones intact.
Running a Fuji apple over my stiff blazer, I nod toward him. For a guy who never lifts his gaze, he climbs up the cage with ease and settles next to me.
“You got my text?” I take a crunch of my apple.
He nods.
“Then it’s unnecessary to reiterate how I’m completing my own project.”
“Willow, we already started researching.”
“Have at it. Now, please go away. This is my self-care time.”
“Until Tuesday of last week, this is where I came to do just that.”
I push off the cage, but he grabs my arm, firm yet less of a bone crusher tactic than his brother.
With his mouth so close, his panted words scatter softly across my ear and cheek. “Don’t go, please. That came out a little rougher than I meant.”
I settle back down next to him, smoothing out my pleated skirt.
He pulls out a pack of Nutter Butters, opens it, and holds it out.
A smile shoots over my cheeks, and I tighten it. “The entire, sane world, who lacks allergies, loves peanut butter. You can’t offer—”
“Take it.”
“Oh, I am,” I smile again, grabbing one. “Thanks. Now, FYI, Tatum divulged how you and Cam never argue or fight. I’m taking two cookies for all my troubles. I’ll let you tell me what the heck got into the two of you. Then this discussion is over.”
He nods. “Our family believes in kinesthetic learning.”
I snap, “So you and Cam were sparring the other night?”
Jamie pulls his peanut butter cookie apart, raking his teeth over the inside. “He was too high to fight.”
“You sure? Because he crawled onto my balcony and ended up in my bed.”
Fury flashes in Jamie’s eyes, and he tosses the uneaten cookie.
“Excuse you. You don’t have a right to assume about my sex life, and how dare you throw away a perfectly good Nutter Butter.” I return to my half-eaten apple and lean back against the cage. Jamie slides the Nutter Butter package back over to me. I shake my head, watching as two football players and a cheerleader head toward us.
Jamie and I push our bodies against the fence. My fingers tuck into the barrier beneath me.
“The people at this school get it inlike crazy,”I murmur, observing the trio until they pass by, most likely headed to an empty weight room.
With my face to the side, I’m a fraction away from Jamie’s arresting eyes, and he is staring at me.
I shift in my seat. “What’s with you and Cam?”
“He always gets the girl. Every last one of them here, at our last school too, everywhere.”
“So, you’re saying Camdyn exhibits hoe-like tendencies. Well, don’t worry. He’s not adding me to his collection. Neither are you, kid. I’m eighteen now.” I still can’t believe it.
Jamie places his hand into his uniform jacket and retrieves a velvet box. It’s what any girl in her right mind would go gaga eyed over.
