Forgotten Rules (Rules 4)

I appreciate my best friend’s efforts at salvaging what’s left of my relationship with my father, but I can’t make excuses for him anymore. He doesn’t care.

Not about me.

Not about Kendrick.

Not about anyone.

“Yeah…” My smile wavers. “I’m sure he has a good reason.”

“How about he’s a pile of fuming shit who doesn’t deserve what he has?”

My pulse speeds up at the sound of his voice. I spin around, only to be met with beautiful, dark, unreadable ocean eyes.

Will’s.

He doesn’t wait for me to answer, invading my space until his mouth hovers near my ear.

“Check your texts,” he says, his breath grazing my skin.

Fuck off, shivers.

Then he walks away.

I don’t move a muscle, my brain lagging for a moment too long before I snap out of it and make eye contact with Morgan.

That’s when I see her O-shaped mouth.

Translation: I am so busted.

“Oh my God…” Her eyes grow two sizes. “It’s him.”

“What are you talking about?” I clear my throat, struggling to regain my composure and saunter toward the teacher’s desk to collect my project. She doesn’t miss a beat, shadowing my every move.

“He’s the dude you’ve been texting when you think we’re not looking,” she shrieks.

For crying out loud, how does she see everything?

“What dude?” I play dumb.

“What kind of moron do you take me for? I thought maybe it was Luke, but then this. It all makes sense. You’re into this Will guy. That’s why you were pissed at lunch!” You’d think she’s about to pat her own shoulder for putting the pieces together.

I pretend I didn’t hear her so that I don’t have to refute her crazy claims and dig through the jumble of projects on Ms. Janet’s desk. Maybe if I don’t acknowledge what she just said, it will be like it never happened. I refuse to consider, for even a fragment of a second, that she might be right.

That I could be dense enough to have a crush on Will.

It’s one thing to be attracted to him—to have a natural, physical reaction to a sinfully hot guy—but a crush?

A whole damn crush?

Nope. Sorry. Not happening. Try again later.

That’s Will.

You don’t fall for a guy like Will.

Guys like Will never catch you…

I practically race to our table, cutting Detective Morgan’s investigation short, but because my bad luck is on a roll, Will calls me out the second I sit down.