The Backup Girlfriend (Grove Valley High #2) - Emma Doherty Page 0,102

you too, a lot, but we’re way better off as friends.”

He smiles.

“It took me a long time to realize it, but for me, you kind of sucked as a boyfriend.”

He starts to laugh. “I did, didn’t I?”

“You and Livy work way better than we ever did.” It’s the truth, and I’m okay with that. “Go find your girlfriend. She’s probably out back somewhere freaking out that she’s going to get expelled for cutting or something.”

He laughs louder at that, agreeing with the sentiment. Then he steps forward and hugs me.

“I’m really proud of you, for everything.”

“Me too, and we don’t need to talk about this again—about you feeling guilty or how messed up we were. We were kids and now we’re friends. That’s all we need to know.”

He squeezes me tighter before pulling back, his eyes landing on something behind me and a small smile playing on his lips. “I think I’m making somebody uncomfortable.”

I frown, turning to see what he’s talking about, and I see Brett sitting behind me. He’s with his friends but not even pretending to be paying attention to them. His eyes are focused on Chase and me.

I turn back to Chase. “Huh?”

“He’s been watching us this whole time,” he says, still with that same smirk on his face.

I can feel myself blush. “Stop, it’s not like that.”

“Uh-huh,” he teases.

“Seriously, we’re barely friends. He tolerates me at most.”

“If you say so.”

“I’m being serious.”

“I’m only telling you what I see,” he says with a wink. “And I see him looking at you—a lot.”

He has no idea how much I wish that were true, but Brett proved it wasn’t the other day.

Chase laughs at the look on my face before he takes pity on me and decides to stop giving me a hard time, grabbing a red cup and disappearing out back, presumably to find Livy.

I take a deep breath and turn around, ready to make conversation with people, but when I do, Brett’s right there.

I don’t know what to say to him. All our conversations have always linked back to him tutoring me, and now that’s over. I want to talk to him about his summer, his plans, the future, his family—I want to talk about it all with him, everything. I want him to help me make plans for my future. I want to work through my ideas with him, taking his advice and listening to his suggestions because he’s so smart and thoughtful and I know they’ll be helpful. I want to listen to his enthusiasm as he talks about his future and how he’s going to be a success and let it rub off on me so I know I can be a success too. I want to do all that and more with him, but I can’t.

Because we were never about that. He had a job to do and he’s done it, and now I don’t know how to be around him.

But even more than talking to him, I want to kiss him. I want to kiss him now. I want to kiss him tomorrow. I want to kiss him the day after that.

But it’s not me he wants.

“That looked cozy,” he says after a beat.

“With Chase? He was just saying he’s proud of me.”

He raises an eyebrow, not looking the least bit impressed.

“What?”

“I’m not sure Livy would like you guys being all over each other like that.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

My jaw drops. “He’s been my closest friend since I moved here,” I tell him testily. “And he wanted to tell me he’s proud of me for pulling my shit together the last couple of months and actually managing to be in a position to graduate.”

He doesn’t say anything to that.

“Chase is in love with Livy,” I point out. “And she’s in love with him. They make a great couple, and they’re going to college together and will probably get married and have kids and live happily ever after. And I really hope they do.”

“You do?”

“Yes! I want him to be happy and she makes him happy. And I like her, too. She’s kind and considerate and beautiful, and I know I couldn’t compete with that even if I wanted to…which I don’t, by the way.”

He still doesn’t say anything.

“But it’s really nice that after all this time we’ve spent together, you think I’d actually be capable of that. You actually think I could be so spiteful and so petty as to try to steal her boyfriend away from her after everything she’s