Nick’s neck was bent, his head bowed. As I brought my hand back up, he angled his eyes toward mine. I tried to view this situation objectively. Objectively, he had the longest eyelashes I’d ever seen on a guy. Objectively, his expression was annoyed, borderline pained.

Objectively, that expression changed when I touched his hair.

“Use both hands,” Lily said, and I did, pushing my fingers along his scalp, separating locks of hair until Lily decreed that we’d reached ideal levels of mussed.

Nick didn’t look away from me once, and if I’d let myself, I could have imagined exactly what it would feel like to curl my fingers in his hair, tighten my grip, pull his head back.

Bring my lips to his.

Instead, I stepped to the side, trying not to think too much about my hands and where they’d been a moment before.

“If anyone asks,” Lily told Nick, “you’re James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause.”

“Wrong decade,” Nick responded.

I shrugged and offered him a crooked grin. “That’s how you know you’re a rebel.”

He almost smiled back.

“It’s better than the tux and theme-adjacent,” Lily said firmly. “As long as you’re with Sawyer, you’ll be fine.”

“And what am I supposed to do . . .” Nick glanced at me, and I wondered if he was thinking about the feel of my hands in his hair. “. . . with Sawyer?”

“Mingle.” Lily smiled softly. “A dance or two or seven. Maybe a stroll out onto the patio.” She leaned her head slightly to one side. “Just pass the time.”

I turned my attention to her, keenly aware that Nick’s was still on me. “Are you talking about us,” I asked Lily, “or you and Walker?”

“Walker Ames?” Nick said. I didn’t need to glance his way to know that his expression had darkened.

“Is it so wrong to want things to be the way they used to be?” Lily asked me wistfully. “For just one night, I want Walker to forget about—”

“Lily.” I cut in before she could say anything about Walker’s father or the events of the past year. She stared at me for a moment, then glanced toward Nick. Her brown eyes widened.

“I apologize,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking about your brother, Nick. You must think I’m absolutely—”

“No,” Nick said, interrupting her. He looked down at the ground, then back up at Lily. “It’s not wrong to want things to be the way they used to be,” he told her gently, “just for one night.”

I liked him more for biting back his resentment of the Ames family and assuring her of that than I’d liked anyone, regardless of gender, in a very long time. Somehow, that felt a hell of a lot more dangerous than running my hands through his hair.