Matchmaker (Empire High #4) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,134

“Don’t be embarrassed. I know I’m the hottest of the four of us. I don’t blame you for having a thing for me back then.”

Kennedy looked over at me. And she didn’t need to say it. I could see it all over her face. She didn’t think Rob was the hottest. She thought I was.

“Sorry to cut the night short,” I said. “But I have to get going. Kennedy, can I walk you out?”

“Yeah, sure.” She stood up. “It was really nice seeing you guys again. We definitely need to do this again sometime.”

“Anytime,” Mason said. “I’m so glad you’re back in the city.” He hugged her goodbye, giving me a not at all subtle thumbs up behind Kennedy’s back.

She gave hugs to everyone else too. Tanner whispered something in her ear and her face flushed.

Seriously, what kind of stuff had he been saying to her all night?

“Later, guys,” I said as Kennedy joined me by my side. I didn’t care that we’d just told all of them we were friends. I put my arm around her shoulders as I led her to the door. Friends did that too, right?

“You’re really bad at this,” Kennedy said as we stopped in front of the elevator.

“At what?”

“The friends thing.” She lifted my arm off of her.

“Friends touch each other too,” I said.

She laughed. “Not the way you want to touch me.”

I smiled. “And how do you think I want to touch you?”

She rolled her eyes and stared at the elevator doors. “I think Tanner’s right about you.”

“What did Tanner say about me?”

“Oh, a lot of things. He was wingmanning hard for you tonight. I like him. He’s an interesting guy.”

“That he is.”

“And the things he was saying were particularly interesting.”

“Are you going to make me beg you to tell me what lies he was spewing?” I asked.

“Lies? I highly doubt that he said anything untruthful.” The smile playing at the corner of her mouth was driving me insane.

All I wanted to do was kiss it right off her face. I was having an increasingly hard time keeping my hands to myself. “What did he say?”

The elevator doors dinged open.

She walked in backward so she could keep her eyes trained on mine. “That you’re madly, desperately, insanely in love with me.”

The doors started to close and I quickly hopped in, closing the distance between us. She stepped to the side, trying to move away from me. But I kept advancing until her back was pressed against the side of the elevator. I couldn’t even be mad at Tanner. Because Kennedy was looking up at me like she felt the same way I did. Her chest rising and falling faster and faster as she stared into my eyes.

“And how did that make you feel?” I asked.

“Terrified.”

I swallowed hard. “Are you scared of me, Kennedy?” I reached out and touched the side of her face. “Or of what we could be?”

“It’s just…what if Tanner’s right? What if it was always supposed to be me and you? And it just took us some time to find our way to each other?”

I knew Tanner had a meddling hand in that. But I believed it too. She was standing here in front of me for a reason. There was a reason I couldn’t stop smiling for the first time in years. There was a reason why it had been easier to breathe since Kennedy had come back into my life. There was a reason for all of this. There had to be.

My fingers slid to the side of her neck. “What can I do to make you feel less scared?”

She stared at me. “I don’t know.”

“Would it help if I told you I might have a way out of this thing with Poppy? I’m meeting up with a friend tonight.” Since when had I considered Nigel a friend? “He has connections all over the city. If anyone can help me dig up dirt on Poppy, it’s him. I’m going to keep Scarlett safe. And I’m going to get to be with you. You have my word.”

“Well…” she bit the inside of her lip as she looked up at me. “I mean, I guess that makes me feel a little less scared.”

“What else?”

She didn’t say a word.

I smiled at her. “It seems like all you really want is for me to get down on my knees and beg you for information tonight.”

She laughed as I got down on my knees in front of her. I leaned forward and kissed