There was another reason, too. Her calves, fleshier now than back when they were teens, made Keiran wonder about her thighs. Were they fleshy too? Soft to the touch?

Whoa. Pump those brakes, buddy.

“She seems nice.” Tyler’s words brought Keiran back to the conversation at hand, dragged him away from wayward thoughts of possibly soft thighs.

“Nice?” he scoffed. “Cherisse Gooding isn’t nice.” Nice didn’t mean a damn thing. The word was just too bland to describe Cherisse. She wasn’t nice; she was a nuisance.

“Everyone says she’s nice,” Tyler insisted.

“Okay, buddy, whatever you say.” Arguing with this guy was pointless. Cherisse had maintained a squeaky-clean reputation. Well, except for that major public meltdown she’d had last year, which in Keiran’s opinion had been warranted.

And now it was like she was trying to over-compensate for that one less-than-perfect moment. Seemed exhausting to keep up a front like that all the time. But she was in the public eye more than he was. An intentional move on his part—all that attention made him squirmy—and yet, people still made shit up about him. He didn’t have the time or desire to keep crafting statements to address any of them, so he ignored it all.

His music was his focus. Anything else was an annoyance that didn’t warrant his attention.

Before he could protest further about Cherisse’s supposed niceness, she came back, all traces of her anger gone, replaced by a smile so radiant it almost knocked Keiran back a couple of steps. Aimed in Tyler’s direction, he got the full brunt of it. Tyler didn’t look the least bit affected.

Cherisse waved her phone at Tyler. “Your number, please. So we can settle on date, time, et cetera.”

This was really happening. Keiran struggled not to let his mouth drop open as Tyler complied, typing his number into Cherisse’s phone. Her phone case had tiny cupcakes and donuts prints all over it. Of fucking course it did.

“This is ridiculous,” he mumbled.

“You pronounced hilarious wrong,” Maxine countered.

“See you soon.” Cherisse flashed another of her blinding smiles at Tyler, waved at Maxine, and ignored him completely as she headed back to where Remi was still sitting on the bench. She’d barely gone two steps before a voice rang out.

“Hey, Cherry!”

She turned just as a body barreled past Keiran to wrap Cherisse in a big feet-off-the-ground swinging-her-around hug.

“Scott, oh my God!” Cherisse giggled. Keiran scowled as his best friend finally let Cherisse’s feet touch the ground.

“You’re wearing the hell out of that outfit, I gotta say.”

Cherisse held the ends of her skirt out and struck a pose. “Well, I try to be as fashionable as you sometimes.”

Ugh. Keiran couldn’t believe this. Even Scott was fawning over Cherisse. Wasn’t it common courtesy to greet your best friend first or something? Scott had almost bulldozed Keiran out of the way to get to Cherisse. He wasn’t having any of that. He also needed to get away from Maxine’s annoying snickering. She wasn’t even trying to cover that shit up this time.