Page 30 of Broken Romeo
I laugh out loud and quickly cover my mouth to stifle the barking sound. “And you still didn’t learn your lesson?”
He shakes his head and grins down at me. “I know. It’s shameful.”
He’s standing so close that as he swings his bag over his shoulder, I get a whiff of his warm, slightly sweet scent. It’s nice. He’s nice, despite forgetting my name.
“Maybe I can make it up to you,” Nolan says, still grinning. “Take you out to—”
From just over my shoulder, Holden claps his hands together. “Okay! Time to get started. Everyone out except Kate.”
How the hell did he sneak up on us like that?
“Good God,” I say to Holden. “Are you secretly a ninja as well as an actor and director?”
Nolan’s brows lift higher, disappearing beneath the mop of hair across his forehead. “See you later… new girl.”
Nolan’s walking away as I whip around and whisper to Holden, “I’m supposed to get a thirty-minute break before we begin.” My stomach growls viciously, reminding me I haven’t eaten more than a yogurt and a protein bar today.
His eyes narrow, drifting over my shoulder to wear Nolan laughs with Maggie.
“You want thirty minutes? Fine. You’ve got twenty-five left.”
He stomps to the last row of the theater, dropping into a seat there. Nervously, I sit in the front row, as far away from Holden as I can sit and pull a granola bar from my bag as well as his journal.
Nolan’s laugh booms in the theater again before I hear Holden’s voice roar, “What did I say? Everyone out!”
I peek over my shoulder to catch the glimpse of Nolan exiting, along with the other crew members and Maggie.
Leaving me alone with the one man in all the world who can tear me apart with a single scathing glance.
CHAPTER NINE
Holden
Five Years Ago…
I’m staring at Katherine from across the cafeteria like some fucking weirdo stalker.
Not like the senior starting quarterback I am.
Professor McCay hasn’t said a word to us about the fact that we found her wrapped around a random guy in the janitor’s closet. But that first day of classes, she glared. She glared so fucking hard that I thought she might burn a hole through my forehead.
So I’d sat as far away from Katherine Harris as I could at our next class. The girl had bad news written all over her. Not because she was bad. It was totally the opposite.
I was bad.
I would ruin her.
Sweet girls like her shouldn’t fall for jock assholes like me.
The further away I stayed, the better.
Even still, I smiled thinking about the spray of pink that flushed across her cheeks when she got mad. Who would have thought calling a girl by her full name would be such a trigger? I shouldn’t have pressed her buttons so much, but I couldn’t help myself. Maybe I wasn’t any better than Addison, hazing her in my own juvenile way.
Except, Addison is jealous of her. And I want her.
And Addison had made it perfectly clear that she was interested in me, seeking me out in the theater building before and after every class.
I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes.