Page 39 of Heavensent & Hellbent

Zain smiled, gazing down at Ehsan. “Nice to meet you, Ehsan.”

“Your hair is really cool,” Ehsan said. Annoyingly, I had to agree. Zain had a natural curl to his dark blond hair that looked both styled and like he just woke up like that.

Zain laughed quietly. “Well, thanks. You can put your stuff down in that corner, and we’ll start doing some warm-ups and introductions in five minutes.”

Dylan called Ehsan’s name.

“Go,” I said. He didn’t need to be told twice and ran over to his new friend, leaving me with Zain.

“Well,” I began. “I didn’t realize you would be here.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Zain had his hands inhis hoodie pockets and was rocking on his heels, a small grin on his face.

I didn’t know how he could look so relaxed given everything that had happened.

“It’s not—it was just an observation.”

“We do need to talk about yesterday,” he said, his voice low.

That’s better.

“Later,” I said, conscious of everyone around us. To change the subject I said, “Cleo saw us together and had questions. She seems to think it’s weird that you’d speak to a mere mortal like myself.”

His eyebrows raised. “You didn’t…?”

“No, I didn’t tell her you’re a…you know. But I didn’t really know how to explain why we were together, either.”

He took a step toward me and bent down so we were at eye level. “You could have said we were on a date.”

My heart stopped for a moment. I was very aware not only of the people around us, but of how close Zain was. I felt like he knew what he was doing to me, that I obviously found him attractive and felt this pull to him. But I wasn’t sure if the pull was because of Rabiya’s love for Zal or in spite of it.

“That would be lying,” I said as coolly as I was able.

“It doesn’t have to be.”

OhGod.I couldn’t tell if he was joking, and my heart speeding up signaled that I clearly hoped he wasn’t.

I noticed him staring at my neck, and I felt myself flush.

“Your hair up suits you,” he mused. “I can really see your face.”

My mouth went dry. He was about to speak again, but we were interrupted by a mom who asked when practice would get going, seeing as it was two minutes past start time. Zain straightened to his full height and flashed his most charming smile to the mom and apologized.

“I’ll leave you to it,” I said quickly.

I sat cross-legged on the grass, a little away from the parents. There were about twenty kids Ehsan’s age playing. Zain led the warm-ups, making them stretch before asking them to run around the field twice. He was good with kids, laughing along with them when they whined about doing another lap.

Despite trying not to look at him too much, I felt my gaze naturally going over to Zain, noticing little details about him, like how tight his jaw was, except when he was speaking to the kids. His long, strong legs as he did high knees. That was when I mentally slapped myself and took my book out of my bag. I had begun reading the one Cleo gave me, and even though it took some time to get into—because of my state of mind— I was enjoying Sabaa Tahir’s writing. But right now, as I tried to read, all I could think about was Zain being close by. And how ironic it was that my dad had led me straight to him.

Sighing, I closed my book and checked my phone. I had messages from Nic.

Nic

I hate boys.

Specifically Jack.

I need an American boy who’ll take me on cute dates, not KISS OTHER GIRLS.