Kissing the Shy Guy - Stephanie Street Page 0,40

you. I mean it.”

After holding her gaze for several seconds, I nodded.

Jenna smiled back and closed her door. I tapped the roof of her car, and she pulled away, waving.

I watched until she turned onto the main road before heading toward my own car and hoped to hell I’d just done the right thing.

16

Jenna

I was an idiot. That’s all there was to it—a complete and utter fool. And I was blind. Or I had been. Why? Because Adam Smith was the whole package. He was sweet, funny, forgiving, so incredibly talented, and HOT.

He had no reason to be kind to me and every reason to hold a grudge. I let him think I manipulated him into helping me by kissing him, led him on, then ripped everything out from under him. That wasn’t really what happened, but it seemed a more straightforward explanation than not wanting to muddy the scholarship waters with a relationship that could blow up in my face and ruin everything I’d been working toward. In the process, I’d destroyed any chance of Adam caring about me the way I’d begun dreaming he might.

Every day I lived in a state of anticipation, waiting for the next glimpse of him in the hall. For hours before our rehearsals, my stomach flipped somersaults, my hands shook, knowing I’d soon be spending hours hanging out with him. Then, for those hours we sang together, it was all backward. When I was supposed to be Maria, I let the growing feelings I had for him out on full display, gazing lovingly, touching tenderly—just as Maria did in the play with Tony. The real test of my abilities as an actress came when we were just Jenna and Adam.

For what seemed the millionth time, we recited the lines of dialogue before the song began. At first, we’d just read them while we blocked out our movements, but we were getting into it now after several days and hours working together. I hadn’t been kidding about Adam’s smolder, it was hot. And he did it on demand.

“Oh, my gosh,” I murmured, pulling away from him, fanning my face with my hands. If he ever decided to use that thing as a weapon, every female in America would fall at his feet.

“What?” Adam sat on a stool, his guitar in his lap. He looked so casual with one foot propped on the crossbar like he hadn’t just rung my bell and made me blush.

“Nothing.” It was so embarrassing! He never appeared to be affected by me at all. It was humiliating! Couldn’t he be the one who got flustered? Just once? “I need a break. It’s hot in here.”

From the corner of my eye, Adam raised one brow as I reached for my water bottle and took several long swallows. I should pour it over my head. My cheeks felt flushed, and every inch of skin inside my clothes itched with heat.

A spray of cool water splashed the side of my face. “Hey!” Reaching up, I swiped at the water spots with my sleeve. “What was that for?”

Adam had abandoned his stool and stood beside me smirking, his own water bottle in hand. “You looked a little overheated.” He widened his eyes innocently. “I was just trying to help.”

That only made me hotter. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to combust. I struggled to get my…everything under control. Once I felt I had, I shot him a dirty look. “I could do without your kind of help, thank you very much.”

But the cutie just smiled. Gah! He was irresistible. I never knew I could fall for such a sweet guy! It didn’t take a genius to realize we were the complete opposites of each other. People at school called me Regina George and the ice queen. I doubted ten people knew Adam’s name or that he even existed, and if they did, they knew him as that shy guy who played the guitar. Even on stage, he melded into the background.

I was about to make a fool of myself. I could just feel it.

“I need to go,” I blurted.

Adam’s brows rose, and one corner of his mouth lifted. I wondered if he could see right through me. “Hot date?”

Oh, lord. Did he have to say that after the thoughts I’d been having about him? My brain filled with images of me going out with Adam. To the movies, holding hands, and sharing popcorn. Making out in the dark after a ride on his