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"Hey," I curled my hand around his neck, "I felt it"

Jake studied ave hi him down for a kiss so I didn’t have to see the disappointment in his eyes

Desperate to move past those three little words and the sudden disconnect between us, I broke the halfhearted kiss to change the subject "I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner about Alex"

Jake rolled off me to lie on his back I was relieved when he curled an arm around ress"

"That we are"

Silence, not entirely uncomfortable, fell between us and I didn’t knoho e the moment with another "I love you"

Chapter Nine

In silent reement, Claudia and I didn’t talk about Lowe’s party She kneas final betweenany new requests to hang out with the guys She seemed fine with that because it uys in losing Jake Especially Lowe, despite his move to the dark side We’d traded a few texts over the last feeeks but it was clear that our friendship wasn’t really going to go anywhere if I was hell-bent on avoiding Jake

Senior year and studying for the LSATs were a great distraction fro planned for us on the weekend I wanted to be distracted from Jake He was a lost cause for me

My parents weren’t a lost cause, however, and it was becoe Jake finally brokethe weekend before Halloween and headed to Lanton

Dad didn’t see with his since he lovedwhen I was a kid I was his little assistant Andie was never interested in cars, but I was curious about anythingand he loved that he could share his ith ot to his auto shop and instead of stopping to have coffee and donuts with the two guys on his payroll like he norht to work He left e who’d worked for hihtly unkeraduated high school with his GED and coht to ith Dad because he loved carselse

Jed frowned at the door as Dad walked out "I suppose I’d better get to work too, then," he gru out

I picked up a donut and looked at Milo "You going too?"

He gave rin and leaned back in his chair "Nah We don’t start for another ten minutes" He nodded toward the door "What’s up with Jiainst the wall After sing, I replied honestly, "I’m here"

Milo raised an eyebrow "He thinks the sun shines out of your ass What the hell could you have done to piss hihed and shoved the rest of the donut in my mouth

Milo s?"

I finished eating "No Like I said, it’s coether "Now I’m curious I want to knohat the Great Charley Redford could seriously have done wrong"

Noas hed "Yeah You have to know you’re kind of a legend around here Supergirl"

I tried not to flinch at the nickname "I’m not perfect"

His eyes raked over me "I don’t know about that," he ht now?"

Eyes filled with laughter, he shrugged "Can’t a man appreciate a pretty wohter"

"See, now you’re just turningto seriously kick you in the nuts"

"There she is!" he laughed and stood up "It’s not like you to walk around town looking like a kicked puppy I don’t like it It throws everything off"

Grimly, I stared out of the office "Yeah, well,me feel like a badly behaved four-year-old"

"Huy that was here a couple of weeks ago, does it?"

My eyes snapped to his face "What guy?"

"That kid" He gesticulated with a donut in hand "The kid… you know… the kid you used to date Jesus, I can’t remember his nahtly faint as my heart rate knocked itself out of whack "Jake? Jake Caplin?"

"Mmm-hmmm!" Milo nodded profusely as he chewed

Jake had co

I hurried out of the office and across the workshop to where Dad was glowering at a co but we need to talk"

He didn’t even look up at rowled, "Jake came here and you didn’t tell me?"

Dad froze for a second but only for a second because suddenly,us both through the auto shop and out back into the courtyard