Breaking Stars - J. Sterling Page 0,34
as he kicked at the ground. “Is that so?”
“It sounds like fun,” I said, and he raised his head to look at me.
“So you want to go?” he asked, almost as if he couldn’t believe it.
Brina moved toward him again and he put up a hand to stop her. She placed one hand on her hip and said, “You don’t have to come along, Tatum. We all know how much you hate socializing these days. She can come with us. We’ll take good care of her. Promise.”
My insides twisted. The party had sounded fun and I did want to go, but not without Tatum. I wouldn’t even consider going if he weren’t there. There was no way I trusted Brina to be alone with me at some random party. Too many things could go wrong. If anyone wanted to set me up or mess with me here, I had a feeling it would be her.
“If Paige wants to go, I’ll be the one who takes her,” Tatum informed a now-scowling Brina.
“I’m pretty sure Paige can make decisions for herself. She doesn’t have to go with you if she doesn’t want to,” Brina shot back, clearly pissed off for whatever reason. They both turned to look at me, while Celeste quietly observed the chaos. Maybe she was used to the two of them acting like this?
They all waited for me to say something, and I wanted it to be clear that my loyalties, however misguided, lay with Tatum, so I said, “If I decide to go tonight, I’ll go with Tatum.”
His mouth began to turn up into a smile before he bit it back and turned toward Celeste. “Is it at Luke’s farm?” he asked, completely ignoring his ex.
“Like always,” she responded with a tight smile. I could tell she was holding back a laugh. I realized in that moment that I liked Celeste.
As Tatum held out a hand to me, I instinctively reached for it as if it was the most natural thing on earth. Under normal circumstances I might have fought him on it, but Brina made me uncomfortable, and I sensed he didn’t like me hanging out with her. He pulled me to my feet and I fought the urge to grip his hand in mine so tightly that he couldn’t let me go. Instead, he released me easily once I was standing, and my body mourned the loss of his energy that trickled through me whenever he touched me.
After I shimmied into my cutoff jean shorts and threw on my tank top, Tatum grabbed my towel and motioned for me to follow him. “’Bye, you guys. I guess I’ll see you later.” I waved at the two girls, who were leaning toward each other whispering something I couldn’t hear.
“See you tonight. ’Bye,” they both yelled before returning to their private conversation.
Tatum walked in front of me as he tossed Buster’s toy for him to fetch. Once we were out of earshot, I teased, “Well, that was the quickest swimming-hole excursion I’ve ever had.”
He stopped on the path and turned to face me, his expression serious. “Stay away from Brina, Paige. I mean it.”
“She found me, not the other way around,” I said innocently as he moved closer toward me. With each step he took, my heart thudded more painfully inside my chest. He leaned toward me, his lips mere inches from mine, and I held my breath in anticipation of what might come. Fighting my attraction for Tatum was a lot of work.
“You can’t trust her,” he whispered, and I prayed for him to close the space between us completely. Instead, he turned back around as I stood there dumbfounded, fighting for air.
Field Parties Are a Bad Idea
Tatum
Seeing Paige with Brina royally pissed me off. I had been so happy for all of two seconds when I first saw Paige in the clearing, her black-and-white bikini showing off way more skin than I ever thought I’d see. But then I noticed we weren’t alone, and any happiness I felt evaporated into the hot and humid air. The last thing I needed was for Brina to go filling Paige’s head with lies, stories, and her version of the truth.
“Paige, did you ask the girls not to tell anyone you were here?” I asked, suddenly remembering that Paige was trying to recover from heartbreak and she needed space.
She shook her head, her long brown ponytail moving with it. “I figured if we were going to a party tonight, that’s