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I feel my eyes snap wide. “What?”

“They went to a movie the night before you moved to Rubble Ridge. He broke it off the day you moved in.”

I don’t even know what to say to that. I feel bad, but it’s not like I can change it, so I change the subject instead. “What about you and Micha?”

“We’re friends.”

I give her ‘the look’. “You are so not just friends.”

She turns beet red, and I know I’m right. “Shhh, kay?”

“I won’t tell anyone.”

“I have the biggest crush on him, but he really does just think we’re friends.”

“I don’t think so. He likes you; I can tell.” How can these two be so oblivious to each other’s feelings?

“He flirts with everyone, it’s just who he is.” She rolls her eyes, brushing off my observation.

“He doesn’t flirt with me.”

“You’re Holt’s.” She deadpans. “He knows better.”

Speaking of Holt, he’s finally clawed his way out of the boy scuffle and is making his way back to us. He looks deliciously dishevelled, his dark hair a mess. I can’t help it when heat begins to dance in my belly, erupting into something more than I can describe when he catches me around the waist and tugs my back into his chest.

He’s so much taller than me, I feel so safe in his arms like this. Like the whole world could come tumbling down around us and somehow, I’d stay unscathed, protected by him. I decide that this, right here in his arms, is the best place in the whole world.

He drops his lips to my ear. “Sorry about that. Micha’s an ass.”

“I heard that!” Micha says loudly from where he’s joined the group, looking just as dishevelled as Holt, if not more so. His cheeks are ruddy and I’m pretty sure there’s a bruise forming on his jaw.

I twist in Holt’s arms to get another look at him. No bruise. Good.

“Look what happens when you pick a fight with Holt.” Andy pokes Micha’s budding bruise. “It happens every time and you never learn.”

“You like it when I look all roughed up,” Micha taunts, winking at her.

She rolls her eyes. “I’d like it more if you won, for once.”

“Aww.” Micha grabs for his heart, dropping to his knees dramatically. “You wound me.”

Andy huffs, rolling her eyes again. “As if.”

Micha chuckles, climbing to his feet as he crowds her. “And here I thought you liked patching me up.”

She shoves her hands into his chest, but he’s not deterred. She throws sass. “Watch it or I’ll have to rough you up next, and I think you’ve had enough of that for one night.”

Micha’s eyes glitter. “Oh, baby, don’t tempt me with a good time.”

Andy scoffs, and I twist in Holt’s arms. “How doesn’t she see that he’s totally into her?”

“I have no idea.” Holt’s hand moves down my arm, drawing goosebumps to the surface before he weaves his fingers with mine. He pulls me closer until my front is pressed against his. Inside my chest, my heart pounds a wild and restless beat. “It’s a good thing we don’t have that problem, isn’t it?”

My head tips back so that I can look up at him. “We don’t?”

He shakes his head, a grin in his eyes. “You know I’m crazy about you.”

“Do I?”