Page 39 of I'm Gonna Get You Back
But I couldn’t help but wish my mom never knew what my dad did. To spare her that pain and the ways she’d plummeted since. Even morethan the rumors about using Josh for a Legacy spot, it was not wanting to hurt Amaya that kept my mouth shut.
Reid wove his arms around me, and the uneasiness melted away as my attention narrowed just to him. We began to sway.
“What’s his problem?” he asked, glaring at Josh over my shoulder.
I took a deep breath, trying to quell the heat rising to my skin. “Haven’t you heard the rumors about me and him?”
Reid shrugged. “Yeah. But I don’t believe rumors.”
“What if this one’s true?” I challenged.
He was quiet for a beat, studying me. “Is it?”
I swallowed, my pulse racing so hard I was sure he could feel it under his hands. I didn’t want it to be true. It shouldn’t matter that it was true. And I wanted him—needed him—to keep looking at me likethat.
“No,” I lied.
Though he tried to hide it, his expression softened with relief. “Which is exactly why I don’t believe rumors.”
Desperate to change the subject, I infused my voice with as casual a tone as possible. “What about the Bop til You Drop rumor?”
His eyes flew wide, and a little color drained from his face. Oh, it was too good seeing the unflappable Reid Rousseau… flapped.
“I’m going to murder him,” he growled.
I shook my head slowly. “You already look like…thatand are freakishly athletic. Give the people some hope that there’s a part of you that’s dorky as hell.”
The corners of his eyes crinkled as his chest shook with laughter against me. “I still have the T-shirt,” he admitted.
My laugh exploded out of me. “Oh, please wear it sometime. I beg of you.”
The shy roll of his eyes was totally disarming.
“You’re blushing,” I teased, trying to make him laugh again.
Instead, he swallowed and looked unnerved. “I know.”
He pulled me a little closer, and I concluded then the woodsy smell was cologne. He used just a hint of it at his throat, and I hoped it would linger on me when we broke apart. When his warm brown eyes fell closed for a moment, I realized I’d been absently stroking my fingertips through the hair at the nape of his neck. I stopped and he took a deep breath.
My camera bumped against our hips as he turned me.
“Is everything you’re recording really for the yearbook?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Mostly. But I’m also applying for this really exclusive film school, and I need to submit a sample. I was thinking of doing something on the Legacy Program.” Feeling all too exposed I quickly added, “But you never know what might end up in a sweeping doc about my life someday. Or, more likely, yours.”
He frowned a little. “What do you mean?”
“I heard you were talking to college recruiters,state champion.”
He nodded.
“That is…socool. You’re like the poster child for a Legacy. I can see it now, you coming back as the guest of honor next year, having broken some record. We’ll say we knew you when, and I’ll have all the footage to prove it when they make a docuseries about you.”
Reid laughed, but it sounded uncomfortable. “God, I hope not.”
I frowned. “Why not?”
“I mean, my dad would love it. It’s been his plan all along. But isn’t it a little weird? All of this?”
