Page 199 of Playing Dirty

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Not even close.

Serena followed my stare.

“You know,” she said casually, “he looks at you like he’s trying not to.”

“That doesn’t even make sense.”

“Exactly.”

Then she disappeared again before I could answer.

MASON

I shouldn’t have come over earlier.

That was the conclusion I landed on ten minutes too late.

Because now everything felt worse.

Not dramatic.

Just sharper.

Like I’d made the awareness visible instead of contained.

Jace leaned beside me at the railing.

“You’re cooked,” he said.

“I’m fine.”

“You keep saying that like legally someone’s forcing you to.”

I ignored him.

Because Rowan laughed again somewhere behind me.

Not loud.

Still noticed it immediately.

That was the problem now.

Everything involving her cut through noise too easily.

Niko appeared beside us with two girls already hanging off his shoulders.

“Reed,” he said. “You look like someone stole your dog.”

“I don’t have a dog.”

“That somehow makes it sadder.”

Jace laughed.

I didn’t.

Because movement across the rooftop caught my attention again.

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