His Forever Girl - Lucy Darling Page 0,3

the way to the NFL that our lives would be made. I’m always planning ahead for our future.

Even though Zoey doesn't spare me a glance anymore. Her best friend Willow looks at me like I’m something she scraped off the bottom of her shoe. That’s on a good day. On others she looks at me as if she wants to murder me. It doesn’t upset me in the least. It makes me happy knowing that Zoey has such a good friend.

We drive toward the square. There are a handful of places to eat there. When I spot Willow’s car, I park a few spaces away from it.

“Fucking hell,” Jackson mutters, knowing exactly what I’m doing. I’m torturing myself. I’m a masochist. I want to look at her. I want to know what she’s doing. I can’t help it.

Thing is it’s getting worse by the second. With football I had somewhere to take my aggression out. Right now, I feel as though I’m a caged beast, and there is only one thing that will calm me.

Zoey Hawthorne.

3

Zoey

I snap a picture of Willow as she takes a bite of her burger. She doesn’t say anything, used to me always snapping random pictures.

We split a cheeseburger and make sure we get an extra order of fries. The Burger House’s burgers are the size of my head. I’m already digging into mine when I see Reid push in the front door. The place isn't packed, so it’s not as if he’s not going to see us.

The hostess puffs out her chest, wanting to show Reid and Jackson what she has to offer as she talks to them. A few moments later they are sitting in a booth behind me. My back is to Reid. Just freaking great. I put my burger down, losing my appetite.

My stomach grows tight. Or maybe it’s all of me that tenses up. Willow fills the air with chatter, trying to distract me. I know what she’s doing. She’s making it seem as though we don’t notice they are even there.

She even goes as far as ordering us apple pie like we aren’t in a hurry to get out of there. When the server starts to head back to our booth with the pie, Reid stands.

“That’s peach, not apple,” I hear him say, blocking the server from me with his broad body when I turn to look.

“You’re right. Sorry about that,” I hear the server say. I snap my head back around to look at Willow, pretending I didn’t hear a thing. I’ve always been allergic to peaches. It’s not that they would kill me, but I would break out in hives and end up scratching for hours. It’s miserable.

My throat grows tight at the thought of him remembering. “Bathroom.” I give Willow a tight smile. She gives me one back, knowing she can’t follow me. It would draw too much attention. But I need a moment to digest what the hell just happened. I don’t understand my emotions. Why can’t I get over this? Over him?

I take a deep breath when I get into the bathroom, willing myself to get my shit together. When I open the bathroom door, I’m met with Reid’s broad chest.

“Hey,” he says to me. Hey? Really. He hasn’t spoken to me in years. He barely even spared me a glance, and now he wants to act as if he can say hey and I’m just supposed to fall into line? I stand there confused and shocked.

“You can actually see me? Wow. All this time I thought I was invisible.” My words are laced with sarcasm. I really don’t understand what he’s doing. First he stopped the server from bringing me the wrong dessert, and now he’s talking to me. What the hell?

He runs his hand through his short hair, shifting from foot to foot. For the first time in my life, I think Reid is feeling unsure of something. Not my problem. I push past him. Obviously he lets me because he doesn’t have to move.

When I get back to our booth, Willow says she’s got the tip as she stands, and we head out the door. “Did he say something to you?” she asks the second we push out the door.

“I guess. If hey is really saying something to someone.” We slip into her car, taking off. I’m not sure where we’re going. I think she’s just driving around. “It’s weird. It’s like he followed me to the bathroom.”

“He did,” Willow confirms. “He