I’d fully expected Nadia to slide away—after all, I’d barely convinced her to come with me today—but I could feel her uneven breathing against my ribs. Was she as aware of me as I was of her? Did she feel the buzz every time my fingers brushed her hip?

While Mac talked, Soren looked at his watch, caught my eyes, and raised an eyebrow. I shook my head at him. We’d already eaten, so I wasn’t worried about missing the film time Coach had assigned. As a matter of fact, I planned to get over there early. My motivation wasn’t based only on the fact that I’d get Nadia alone in the film room while the others finished lunch.

I wanted her to understand all the parts of my life—all the parts of me. No one else had ever inspired me to share this much of myself, and I hoped she’d show me what mattered to her. Volunteering, the community center, the reason she had a pair of sweats covered in every paint color imaginable, I was excited for all of it.

The conversation at the table had continued without me, so I nudged Nadia. “You ready to go?”

Eva leaned forward to grab Nadia’s wrist before she could respond. “Please tell me you’ve chosen to overlook D’s many faults and want to eat lunch with us forever. Or just me. Just me would be fine too.”

I groaned. “You’re going to scare her off.”

Except Nadia didn’t look scared. She looked amused. Her eyes glittered like those star earrings she’d worn again. “It takes more than that to scare me. It’s nice that you have such enthusiastic friends.”

Soren grabbed a leftover carrot from my plate and crunched it as he watched us. “Where are you two headed?”

“The film room, as requested. Nadia’s coming with me.” My tone should have been enough to tell him to back off, considering he’d been my best friend for going on three years now. I should have known warning Soren off would only make it worse.

He leaned back in his chair and linked his fingers behind his head. “Don’t forget to lock the door, and don’t take too long. You know Parker and Noah will want the room as soon as they’re done eating.”

The implication that we were heading off to a quickie wasn’t lost on me, but Eva reacted before I could. She smacked Soren’s shoulder with a growl.

He tsked her. “What did we say about touching? Ask first.”

Eva’s eyes narrowed, and I was pretty sure she planned to murder him the first chance she got. “You need to remove your head from your ass and apologize to her.”

Soren turned to Nadia. “Are you angry?”