The Pass (Smart Jocks #5) - Rebecca Jenshak Page 0,21

you… shit, it was like he’d found his soul mate.”

My insides feel all squishy. “I feel the same about him. He’s the best.”

“But just friends?”

“Yes.”

He looks over to where Tanner’s dancing. “Well, that’ll make all the girls happy, anyway.”

“And what about the guys? They don’t care that I’m single?”

“Oh no.” His expression is serious. “They all know Shaw would kick their ass if they touched you. I’d do it just to get a rise out of him, but I play for the other team, so I doubt he’d care.”

I roll my eyes. “He wouldn’t care regardless. I’ve dated lots of guys and he hasn’t touched any of them.”

Lots is a stretch, but my point stands.

“Well, in that case, do you want to dance?”

I place my hand in his and let him pull me to my feet.

When we get close, Tanner spots me and smiles. We all dance for several more songs before taking a break. A bunch of us jump into the water to cool off. I grab on to Tanner’s back to stay afloat while he sits on a noodle.

The number of times people make some offhanded comment assuming we’re together becomes laughable. I guess since everyone at Valley knows, I forgot how interesting people find it that we’re as close as we are but not dating.

“He’s like my brother,” I insist, although as soon as I say the words, that feels weird too.

“I’ve seen Shaw with Tara. He isn’t like that.” Jonah raises his brows and smirks at Tanner.

“You’re telling me that you two have never hooked up?” Ollie asks.

“We kissed once years ago,” I say as if it meant nothing. Another thing on the list of my self-imposed rules around my best friend—don’t mention that kiss. But the truth is, we kissed and we’ve still managed to be friends after.

I think I’ve pacified them until Ollie says. “Show me. Kiss her, Shaw.”

He laughs but soon all twenty or so people in the water are chanting for us to kiss.

Kiss. Kiss. Kiss.

Tanner glances to me with an apologetic expression.

“Fuck off y’all,” he says. “We don’t have to prove anything.”

They keep chanting.

“Sorry.” His voice is low so that only I can hear. “Ignore them.”

“It’s fine. We’ve done it before. It’s no big deal, right?”

He still looks hesitant, so I make the move. Pulling his head to mine, I press my lips to his.

It’s two long seconds that my mouth is on his before he kisses me back. Slowly at first, but then his tongue is demanding entrance. My heart hammers in my chest and I tighten my hold around his neck and press my body underwater closer to his.

I kiss him to prove that we’re just friends. That just because society has this idea about guys and girls not being able to be friends, we don’t have to fit into that mold. What we are is something so much more. Something that can’t be defined, but definitely doesn’t mean what they think it does.

With the taste of alcohol and lake water on our lips and cheers among the group all around us, I realize the only thing that I’ve proved is that I was so very, very wrong.

9

Tanner

There are some things men do out of pure self-preservation. We pretend we’re as handsome as Henry Cavill and as funny as Trevor Noah, we joke about how our balls are gonna sag one day (so we don’t have to think about it happening for real), and we absolutely don’t allow ourselves to picture having sex with our best friend.

As Sydney finally pulls back from a kiss that’s left me speechless, my self-preservation dies a hard, blue death. At least they’re still hanging where they should and not down at my knees.

My best friend still has one arm wrapped around my neck and holds the other over her head in victory. “See?”

Yeah, see? Uhhh, wait, what?

Jonah shakes his head. “Damn. I got turned on just watching that kiss.”

I steel my expression when Sydney looks back to me.

“Sorry about that. You know me, I can never back down from a dare or competition.” Her voice is tight and brittle. Awkwardness fills the space between us.

“I’m not sure kissing me was the best recourse this time,” I say with tease in my tone. “I’m so good-looking it was bound to look hot to them even if you and I both know it was just a kiss.”

My words do the trick of chasing away the weirdness and Sydney smiles and rolls her eyes. “You made