That cold, distant look that she’d had when I’d first turned around. Like she’d just come from a horror film and it had sunk beneath her skin.

I stepped even closer, watching the debate in her eyes. “Friends can share tacos, right?”

Something clicked behind those eyes when I said the word friends, and I smiled softly at her. She’d told me earlier she’d sworn off guys, relationships, all of it. And I knew that had everything to do with Brandon, I just didn’t know the circumstances. Brandon was an okay guy, I guess. If you liked jocks who played the jerk card too often and thought burping the alphabet was a fun pastime. Or maybe that was just the dude I knew from years of gym classes together. Either way, she’d seemed happy enough with him all last year…but now something haunted her.

And I wanted to know what.

Again, that undeniable sensation to break past the barrier we’d held ourselves at in the past tugged at my core, begging me to get closer.

As friends.

Yes. Absolutely. Just friends.

The sharp twist in my gut thinking the word had me wanting to take back my offer and bolt through the exit, but I told myself to not be a coward.

“Okay,” she finally agreed, her voice so small I almost didn’t hear it.

Tessa slid two trays piled high with four tacos, chips and salsa, and guac toward us. I grabbed them before Amber could change her mind and headed toward a free booth tucked in the back corner near the windows. Setting the trays down, I motioned for her to take a seat while I grabbed the empty cups.

I held one up. “Green tea?”

She smiled. “Yes, please.”

By the time I got back from filling up our drinks, Amber was already halfway through one brisket taco, the queso fresco dropping to the paper beneath her.

She licked some stray pico off her lips as I sat down, and my breath caught for a few seconds.

This girl. I loved how she wasn’t afraid to be herself and didn’t give a damn what anyone else thought.

Hot.

Friends.

I stopped staring at her like she held the key to every secret I wanted to know and handed her the drink.

“Thanks,” she said. “For this, too.” She scooped up her half-eaten taco and finished it off. “I really needed the fuel.”

“Same,” I said. “It’s why I stopped here.”

“I figured you were just checking up on your baby sister,” she said.

I glanced over my shoulder toward the counter where Tessa cleaned the surface, since there were no more customers. I turned back around and grabbed my own taco. “Don’t tell her that,” I said before chomping into the tortilla.

“Never,” she said, chuckling. “I think it’s cute.”

I raised my brows at her mid-bite.