I almost didn’t hear the distinct clicking sound of a shutter, or the cleared throat that echoed down the hall. I was too consumed by her.

But when I turned around, several cameras were pointed in our direction, and the ASPN reporter was giving me a look with one perfectly raised eyebrow. Andrea Esperanza. I’d slept with her once on the road, and it had been a mistake.

“New girlfriend, Cooper?” she asked, but her voice was frosty. Yeah. I’d hit and quit it once, totally drunk after a particularly hard loss out in Seattle. Andrea looked harder at Nova, who was looking at the sophisticated reporter like she wanted to run away. “Isn’t that the girl Rigby Engman was flirting with at the last game?” Andrea gave me a disappointed and yet somehow gleeful expression. “Your best friend's girl is a bit cliché, even for you, River.”

There was no way I was ever going to get Andrea to change the narrative. So I did the only thing I could think of in that moment. “You’re right. This is my new girlfriend. Now fuck off, Andrea.” With that, I turned on my heel and strode away, Nova’s hand in mine.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I didn’t stop swearing until we reached my car. We had to wait for fucking Rigby to be done. My best friend, who’d told me repeatedly he was interested in Nova. And I’d just claimed her in front of the nation.

I climbed into the driver's seat and slammed my hand on the steering wheel. “Fuck!”

“I’m sorry,” Nova said softly, hunched in the corner of the car like she was scared of me.

I sucked in some deep breaths. I never wanted her to fear me. Never.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. I kissed you. I said those stupid things. That's all on me.”

“I kissed you back…” She trailed off, and my mind was drawn back to the memory of her lips on mine. She shook her head, like she was trying to escape those memories too. “I shouldn’t have. Rigby and I… I mean, this afternoon we—”

“I know what you did this afternoon, Nova. I was in the house,” I snapped.

Watching from the hall like a fucking peeping Tom.

Her face flushed red, and she turned back toward the window. I messaged Rigby, telling him I was heading home. Telling him I was sorry, because now he’d have to go in there and deal with fucking Andrea trying to blindside him.

Me: Reporters caught me kissing Nova. Think I stole your girl. I’m sorry. Taking Nova home.