More of Us ( A Love You More Rock Star Romance #3) - Laura Pavlov Page 0,10

met him for lunch. It was great to see him.

Me ~ Yeah. He told me he saw you. How was he?

They’d been close when Cruz and I were together, and my dad had taken on a fatherly role with him.

Cruz ~ Really good. I think he and Sara are getting pretty serious. He talked about her a lot.

My chest squeezed. I wanted my dad to find someone, and I loved Sara.

Me ~ Yeah. I think it’s been a long time coming. That was nice of you to go to lunch with him. I’m sure he appreciated it.

Cruz ~ You know I love your dad. He’s as salt of the earth as you get. Just like you.

“Jade, you coming out?” Richard peeked his head in the doorway.

I jumped off the bed and hurried to my feet. I don’t know why I felt guilty taking a minute to myself, but I did. There wasn’t a lot of alone time here at the compound.

“Yeah, I’ll be right there.”

He studied my face. “You okay?”

“Yep. I’m good. See you in a minute.”

He walked away, and I typed out a quick message.

Me ~ He’s the best. I hope I got some of that goodness from him. I need to go. There’s a soccer game going on outside, and they’re one man down.

Cruz ~ Okay, I love you, Jade.

My eyes watered and I took in a deep breath to try to push away the enormous lump in the back of my throat. Why did this always happen?

Me ~ I love you too. Bye.

It was the one thing I couldn’t deny him. I loved him. I didn’t say I loved him more, which had always been our shtick. I couldn’t go there. But I also couldn’t deny how much I loved him. But I could protect my heart from getting hurt again. The love was there. It always would be. It didn’t mean it was good for me to act on it. It wasn’t. And I wouldn’t. But I could still feel it. I could still feel everything about Cruz.

I dropped my phone in my backpack and jogged outside. Back to my reality. My new normal. I shook off the sad feeling weighing me down and ran to the end of the field where Jessica and Richard stood.

“It’s about time. Come on. Get in here. We’re getting our asses kicked,” Richard said. He raised his T-shirt to wipe his forehead, putting his chiseled abs on display for everyone to see.

I caught the ball with my foot when he kicked it to me, and I charged down the field. Well, I tried. Someone from the other team stole the ball about halfway down the grassy field and ran in the opposite direction, before scoring a goal.

“Moore, you were supposed to be our ringer,” Richard bellowed out in laughter.

“What can I say. I’m better at school than I am at sports.”

“You don’t say,” he said, rumpling the top of my head with his hand.

We played for another hour, and it felt good to relax and have some fun.

We grabbed dinner, and then a group of us settled out on the grassy field on a few blankets and passed around the mini bottles of tequila from Richard. Jessica moved to sit beside Dean. He was in our small group, and they’d been flirting for the last month. She liked him. She wriggled her brows at me from across the circle and I laughed. The area was lit by a few overhead lanterns, and the stars twinkled above.

I wondered what Cruz was doing. I wondered if he was dating at all. I told him he should date multiple times. I didn’t want him to wait for me, because I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to trust him again. I wanted to see what he did in our time apart. If he could stay sober. If he could be on tour without numbing himself to deal with the pressure.

“So, you and your boyfriend broke up before you came here?” Richard