mouth, even though I told myself to say nothing.
He exhaled, closed his eyes briefly, and looked at the guys. I saw a muscle tic in his jaw before he looked at me once more. “I’m sorry. I’ll be back.” He didn’t move for a suspended moment, but then he did finally stand and make his way over.
I felt this weight leave and breathed out slowly. God, he had such an effect on me.
“Amelia,” my father called, and I straightened my shoulders and looked over at where he stood. I felt guilty for some reason, like he’d caught me doing something wrong. He waved me over, and I looked to where Braxton was, his back to me as he started speaking with the men, their conversation seeming deep.
I stood and reluctantly went to my father, knowing I’d get swallowed by the crowd, knowing I should have taken that moment to talk with Braxton instead of just staring. And staring. And staring.
But how was a girl supposed to be immune to a man who looked like that?
How was a woman supposed to be immune to the man she was in love with?
4
Amelia
“Come on, it’ll be fun.”
I looked down at the brochure my best friend, Keely, handed over. I was already shaking my head. “I’ll get my ass kicked for sure.” I gave her the brochure back, and she rolled her eyes.
“They are self-defense classes, not cage fighting matches.”
I laughed and curled my legs under me as I sat on my couch. She’d come over an hour before with a stack of interior design magazines in her arms. She decided to redo her entire living room and kitchen, and apparently wanted my opinion, even though she described my place as “retro-grandma chic,” whatever that meant.
“When I mentioned I wanted to experience new things, I wasn’t really talking about this.”
Keely was looking at the brochure, concentration on her face. “I didn’t even know Cherry Falls Fitness offered these, but I mean, look at the people in this thing.” She opened the trifold and showed me the fit and muscular men and women who graced the glossy pages. “They look like they know what they’re doing.”
I pursed my lips again. “You and I both know we’ve never even stepped foot in a gym, let alone done anything like this.” I shook my head, but I knew this was a losing battle. She had too much determination written across her face.
“Come on, just one class this weekend? I really want to get some self-defense classes in.”
I narrowed my eyes and really looked at her. She was picking at the edge of the brochure as if she couldn’t sit still, as if she had idle hands. And then I realized what was going on. “You’re into somebody there, aren’t you?”
She snapped her head up from looking at the pamphlet, her eyes round and... guilty.
I felt my grin widen. “So that’s why you’re so adamant on doing these classes. Who is it? Somebody actually in the class, or…” I paused for effect and suspense, and when she started biting her bottom lip, I knew what I was about to say was the truth. “Is it the teacher?” Her cheeks instantly got red, and I threw my head back and laughed, wiping tears out of my eyes. “Oh my God. It is the teacher.”
“Shut up,” she mumbled, but there was no heat in her voice or behind her words.
“Keely, you got the hots for your teacher?”
Her lips thinned, and she kept quiet as she folded the pamphlet up before shoving it in her bag that sat by her feet on the floor.
“If you saw him, you’d want to take this class too.”
I curbed my laughter when it started again, but my smile was still in place.
“Why do you need me to go with you?” Although I already knew the answer to that. Keely was just as shy and reserved as I was, probably wanting me there for moral support. And although I was not the gym-going type, and certainly didn’t ever see myself taking any kind of self-defense classes, I wouldn’t leave her high and dry. No matter how many times I told her it wasn’t for me.
But she must’ve seen that realization on my face, because she gave me a small smile and said, “Thank you. I know this isn’t your thing, but I’ll be a spaz and a freak around him if I don’t have some backup.”
“Not sure I’ll be any kind of backup. I’m just as