Page 28 of Reckless Love

“What? No.” I laughed. “You look as beautiful as ever.”

It wasn’t unusual for me to tell her she was beautiful and I knew she thought I was attractive too. Maybe a little too attractive if anything.

She flushed a little and grinned. “You’re looking at me funny tonight.”

I lifted my eyebrows, smiling at her until she sighed and gave her head a little shake.

“Anyway…” She cleared her throat and set her mug down. “Alfie asked me out!” Her voice rose at the end, giddy.

I sat up and ran my hand over the back of my neck. Did I just hear her right?

“He’s cute and safe and…he feels like a good way to put Tristan out of my mind for good.”

“Tristan?” I echoed. “You’re still…hung up on Tristan?”

“Yeah, I’ve been out with other guys, but I haven’tbeenwith anyone since Tristan, and I need to get back on that horse.” She laughed and jumped when our waitress set the pizza in front of us.

“And Alfie’s the guy you want?” I asked, feeling the steam from the pizza as I leaned in.

“We’ve talked about this, how we want to have fun in college and not get stuck in anything that would hold us back, right? You’ve said that as much as I have.”

I regretted ever saying those words right now. “But why Alfie?”

She leaned close enough to whisper across the booth. “Honestly? Because I don’t see forever with him.At all.And that’s exactly what I need right now. You know? I had sex with Tristan thinking we were gettingmarried…” She shook her head and looked down at the pizza like she’d forgotten it was there. “It feels so twisted now. The whole thing. I’m not saying I want to have sex witheveryoneI go out with,” she said under her breath. “But I don’t know…I’m trying to figure things out still about what I believe about all of it, and…Alfie seems like a nice, safe bet.”

“Elle, I—” I took a deep breath. “I’m not going to try to talk you out of getting over Tristan. You know how I feel about that bastard. But going out with someone because they’re not who you want to be with forever doesn’t feel like the right move either. Just…don’t make any rash decisions without thinking it through, okay? I…I care about you so much and I want you to be okay. You don’t have to figure it all out right now. Yes, you should go out, have fun, dance all you want to…”

“I do have fun when we go dancing,” she said, raising her eyebrows.

So far the only time I’d gotten my hands on Elle was when we danced. There had been a couple of parties that we’d gone to, and inevitably, we’d end up dancing together for hours. For someone who had been sheltered for most of her life, the girl could dance better than anyone I’d ever danced with, and the best part was that she’d claimed that dancing was our “safe zone.”

I was pretty sure she’d felt how hard she made me when she ground against me on our last dance night, but she didn’t call me out on it, and I didn’t want to say anything that made her stop rubbing that sweet ass against me.

“Except I’ve already said yes to going out with Alfie,” she said, doing a little dance in her seat, “and I think you should say yes to Maren. That girl isdyingto go out with you, and she’s really nice.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not into Maren, Elle.”

“Yeah, but you agreed that she’s pretty.”

“Lots of girls are pretty. That doesn’t mean I’m into them.”

“What happened to you being footloose during your freshmen year?”

“Maybe that’s not the most important thing to me anymore,” I said.

I looked at her and willed myself to go there…to say the next thing that could change everything. It could get me what I wanted and she’d consider being with me. Or it would send her running in the opposite direction. Our eyes didn’t break as we stared at each other. I didn’t take another breath until she spoke again.

“I just think my heart is still too fragile for anything serious,” she said softly. “You know that, right? That’s why you’re my best friend. You know me better than anyone, Rhodes.”

I leaned back in my seat and broke eye contact with her, studying something across the room without really seeing it at all.

Did she know what I’d been about to confess?

It was late that night, long after we’d hugged each other goodbye, that I realized neither one of us ever touched that pizza.

CHAPTER NINE

I SEE YOU