Heart of Thorns (Shadow Valley U Book 2)
Heart of Thorns: Chapter 13

I’m going to have to give him an answer eventually.

I’ve been dragging my feet—no pun intended. Thorne makes me uneasy, but not in the way the rest of the football team does. There is something genuine about him, even when he’s playing football and has that stern, focused glint in his eye.

He has a kind smile. It wouldn’t be a bad thing to get close to him so I can watch some of his teammates without hiding behind the bleachers and taking cover in the weight room.

We all know how that worked out last time.

I came so close to telling him yes the other day in the library. I had already made my mind up. My pros and cons list grew exponentially larger after Marley showed up at the apartment. She and Lydia made their own list which matched mine to a T, except all the reasons relating to figuring out who my arsonist is.

But sitting in the library set me back.

A chill zipped down my spine the second I looked past Thorne’s adorably messy hair. There was a slip in time, and I panicked. All it took was one glimpse of the student in the back of the library wearing a dark hoodie and I got spooked.

There’s a very good chance he doesn’t even want me to be his fake girlfriend anymore.

“Let’s go.” Lydia snaps her fingers at me.

I peek one eye open and see her standing above me. One raised eyebrow later, and she’s explaining herself.

“We have plans.” She doesn’t let me protest, she just continues explaining while gathering her purse and our phones. “The football players are practicing. Marley is meeting us there.”

I spring up quickly. “Absolutely not.”

She ignores my protesting. A pill bottle rattles, and like magic, one of my pain pills is at the center of her palm with a bottle of water in her other. She offers both to me.

“Do I need to go get the pros and cons list off the fridge?”

I snort.

She literally taped the list onto the fridge when she learned that I had fled from the library the other day. She doesn’t know why I chickened out, but that’s semantics.

I growl under my breath.

There’s one teeny, tiny sliver of fear that’s holding me back from finding out who trapped me in that building, or at least getting stronger in case I never find him.

Without saying anything, I take the medicine from Lydia and throw it down the hatch.

I swing my sore legs over the side of the couch and sigh at the sight of her pleased face.

“Fine,” I say. “But we are not sitting beside the jersey chasers.”

They go to every practice, and I refuse to be labeled as such.

Lydia laughs. “You don’t want to be called a jersey chaser, yet you’re about to be dating the quarterback.”

Her laughter doesn’t fade even as we walk out the door.

The crisp air and rigid bleachers are a recipe for agonizing pain. Even with the dose of medicine, I’m still uncomfortable. I refuse to stand beside the group of girls who cheer whenever Thorne so much as blinks, though. So sitting on hard bleachers it is.

“I hope he doesn’t expect me to act like them,” I whisper.

Marley hides her laughter behind her Styrofoam cup full of hot coffee.

Lydia leans into my space. “He’ll expect you to wear his jersey.”

Marley glances over. “Yeah, right. Remember when Ben tried to get her to wear his jersey and they got into the biggest argument?”

I shrug. “I played my best game after that argument.”

My emotions fuel me, and that night, I was angry.

Lydia bumps my shoulder with hers. “You two have a deal, though. You’re going to have to play your part so you can play with us.”

Nerves roll through me when I peek at the field. Thorne, practicing in short sleeves despite the cool temps, steps back and throws a perfect spiral to one of the running backs.

Screams from the girls on the sidelines ring throughout the air, and he looks over at hem.

My nose wrinkles when they get even more excited from his attention.

“The coach should make these practices private,” I mumble.

“If he did that, then this wouldn’t happen.”

I follow Lydia’s line of sight, and my pulse takes off.

“What is he doing?” I seethe.

Thorne, still in the middle of practice, rushes toward the bleachers—and he’s staring directly at me.

I grab Marley’s leg. “Kill me.”

She laughs and hides it with her cup again.

Lydia leans backward to talk to Marley around me. “Should I record this?”

My gaze stays trained on Thorne while they have a quiet conversation behind my back. He jumps up, holding on to the rail to haul himself onto the bleachers. He leans over the bar and smirks at me.

“Briar Hart,” he muses. “To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you at my practice?”

Here we go.

My teeth sink into my bottom lip. I am certain the entire football team is staring in our direction, as well as the wannabe cheerleaders.

Lydia elbows me.

“Yes,” I blurt.

Heat sweeps against my neck.

Thorne’s eyebrows shoot to his sweaty hairline. “Yes?”

His warm eyes move to Lydia and then to Marley before coming back to me. He squints, like he’s questioning my answer.

I nod.

Did we just have a silent conversation?

“Ready to make it official, then?” The corner of his perfect mouth lifts on one side.

Hesitation skips up my spine. I pull my shoulders back. “What does that mean?”

His coach calls his name. Thorne ignores it, but for some reason, it makes me nervous. I quickly stand and get closer to him. The only thing that is separating the two of us is the metal barrier used to keep the fans away from climbing onto the sideline.

“It means I’m going to make you mine, Briar.”