Bring Down the Stars (Beautiful Hearts Duet #1)(33)

It was perfect. And he’d been a perfect gentleman. But our conversation was a seesaw of warm moments and awkward. Zing and silence.

I touched my fingers to my cheek where Connor’s kiss still lingered.

“God,” I sighed, slumping against the door. I needed Ruby, but she was out—a note on the counter said she’d gone to Debra and Julie’s place down the hall. Just in case.

I thought about joining them but they’d ask a million questions about the date. Including if I was going to see Connor again.

A question I didn’t know how to answer.





Weston



In the space between us

A thousand unspoken words

Hang

A noose tightening

Around my throat

choking me silent

Heart bleeding

For autumn colors

Red and gold

And red again

Drowning in my

every thought

that is

for



you



I put down my pen and blinked at what I’d written.

I’d been working on the Object of Devotion poem a week now. Long stretches of absent-minded doodling, followed by bouts of writing, letting my mind spill onto the page however it wanted. Pretending the subject of these hopeless words wasn’t on a first date with my best friend. Or that I’d had a hand in orchestrating said date.

I read over the lines again, remembering what Professor Ondiwuje said about form—that how a poem looked on a page could have as much as impact as the words themselves.

My poem was arranged in a column. A scaffold of words with a lone you at the end, separated from the rest. The object separated from the devotion.

“Not too subtle there, Turner,” I muttered.

I flipped to a blank page to start over. I had a shit-ton of Econ reading on exchange rate regimes, but I couldn’t concentrate.

Are they hitting it off? Is she falling for him? Is he kissing her right now?

The front door opened, jarring me out of my thoughts.

“Hey,” Connor said. He shut the door without taking off his jacket and headed to the kitchen.

I glanced at the clock that read a little before eight o’clock—a solid three hours earlier than his usual date schedule.

“You’re early,” I said, keeping my eyes on my paper. “How did it go?”

“Different,” Connor said. He rummaged in the fridge for a beer, popped the top and leaned against the counter, a strange smile on his lips.

“Different, how?”

“I’m back before dawn, for one thing,” Connor said. “It was strictly dinner and goodnight.”

“Isn’t that what she told you when she agreed to go out in the first place?”

After she read my text.

“Yeah, it was.”

I shrugged. “She means what she says.”

“Yeah, she does,” Connor said. “She’s pretty hard-core with her double major and getting up at the ass-crack of dawn for a job that can’t pay all that well. And none of the stuff that usually impresses girls impressed her. She couldn’t give two shits about the Hellcat. We didn’t even kiss.”

My head whipped up. “You didn’t?”

Connor shook his head. “A peck on the cheek and I’m home by eight o’clock.” He laughed. “The sky must be falling.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him I was sorry it didn’t work out between them, better luck next time, other fish in the sea…but then a slow smile spread over Connor’s lips.

“But you know what? I really dig that about her.”

My jaw stiffened. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.” Connor whipped a chair out to sit across from me. “She is different. She’s not falling into my lap and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t give a shit about my money.”

“Yeah,” I said, slowly. “You’d never have to wonder if that’s all she cared about.”

“Right? She’s the kind of girl you have to work to keep. My parents would eat her up with a spoon.”

“But Con—”

“I know, I know, it’s not about them. Yet. I like her. I want to see her again.” His smile dimmed. “But it’s probably too late.”

“Why?”

“She was telling me about her ex. Some guy she’d been with for two years. Mark.”

“And?”

“He cheated on her.”

Which made Mark not only a dumbass, but king of the dumbasses. But Autumn had pride. She didn’t strike me as someone who’d volunteer such a painful piece of information on the first date.

“I’m sort of surprised she brought that up,” I said slowly.

Connor’s gaze slid away from me. “She didn’t. She said her relationship ended badly and I asked how.”

“Point blank?”

He nodded.

“Jesus, man.”

“I didn’t know what to say. I started babbling about keeping things casual and going to Lake Onota or some shit. She wasn’t happy.”

“Of course she wasn’t,” I said. “She told you something incredibly personal and embarrassing and you steamrolled over it.”