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She didn’t get it herself. For all intents and purposes, she really should have just butted out. Whywasshe so interested in helping him?
“Well?”
Faye snapped up her head which was a grave mistake. Now she was caught in the snare of his gaze. If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought he could read her mind—something she was already having a hard time trying to understand. Faye swallowed down the lump that had formed in her throat and shoved aside every irrational thought that continued to bubble to the surface.
“I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
He took a step closer to her, and her breath hitched in her chest. When his voice lowered to a husky level, she knew she was a goner. “Oh yeah? Why is that?”
“Because—I—if you die, who’s going to fix my mom’s truck?” Her voice wavered, breaking in weird places and making her sound like some poor unfortunate teenager.
What was happening to her?
The right side of Adam’s face scrunched up. He tilted his head like a confused puppy. For a second there, she thought he would call her a liar. Mostly because that’s exactly what she felt like. She wasn’t being honest with him, but she wasn’t quite being honest with herself either.
Adam lowered his face closer to her, and for reasons beyond her ken, she closed her eyes. His voice broke through the loud buzzing in her ears. “I’m not going to die before I fix your truck. I promise you that.”
Her eyes fluttered open when she felt him shift in front of her.
He straightened, shoving his free hand into his pocket before he took a sip of his coffee. “And if you’re going to make it a habit of offering your advice as it pertains to my love life, perhaps you should try to become my friend first.” Adam brushed past her, whistling a familiar tune and leaving her behind, frozen in place.
It was as if her feet had grown roots and decided to plant themselves right there in the concrete. Her heart flitted madly in her chest. Her skin hummed with a strange kind of electricity. Every one of her senses screamed for her to hit the rewind button so she could enjoy that brief moment in slow motion.
“You coming?”
She jumped, spinning around. Adam was a few yards away, casually standing in the middle of the sidewalk as if he hadn’t just caused the universe to shift and tilt on its side. Once again, she found herself asking the same question.
What was happening to her?
Faye had to be sick. That was the only logical explanation. She’d come down with something and she probably needed to just go home and take a nap.
But one look in Adam’s direction, and she knew she’d hate herself for making such a decision. She wanted to investigate these new sensations that had awoken in her body. She needed to be near ground zero.
“Wait, did you sayfriends?” She walked toward him cautiously so as not to give away just how excited this notion made her.
Adam shrugged, falling into step beside her. “Why not?”
There were several reasons. Wasn’t there some unspoken rule that girls and guys couldn’t be friends without making it incredibly complicated? Not only that, but she wasn’t sure they would click. Friendships were supposed to happen organically.
In a small cloud of red smoke, that little version of herself appeared with a wicked smile, insisting that she deserved to have a little fun and that Adam was the first exciting person she’d interacted with since before she could remember.
Faye could feel his gaze on her as they continued walking. Every last drop of will she possessed went into not falling prey to his attention. She lifted a shoulder as nonchalantly as she could and brought the straw of her iced latte to her lips. “Sure. Why not? Friends, it is.”
* * *
“Ha! You were wrong.”Faye plopped onto Grace’s bed, causing her sister to bounce with the inertia. “Adam has zero interest in me. He said so himself.”
Those words were enough to garner Grace’s attention. “He told you he wasn’t interested in you?” Her voice dripped with disbelief. “Guys don’t typically share that kind of information on their own…” Realization slapped her across the face. “Oh, Faye, please tell me you didn’t.”
“What? I didn’t do anything!”
Grace put aside the book she’d been reading on the bed beside her. “You didn’t ask him to confess anything? Or bring up the subject of your budding relationship?”
“Friendship,” she corrected. “We’ve agreed to be friends.”
Grace placed her palm on her forehead. “Why do I always feel like I’m the smart one in the family?”
“Maybe because you are.” Faye sprawled on her back and stared at the ceiling. “We had fun doing some car stuff today, but before we got started, he wanted to get some coffee.”
