Lake and Adalyn looked at each other when Angel didn’t stay outside the door but instead followed them into their classroom.

“What are you doing?” Adalyn asked when he ended up taking a seat behind them.

Angel reclined back in his seat, getting comfortable. “I don’t want to stand outside like a dog. I can watch you both better from here, can’t I?”

“He’s right,” Lake said, agreeing too easily with him.

Narrowing her eyes, she stared at her friend. You just want to look at him. “I’m not sure if he’s allowed.”

The end of his lip tilted up. “It’s a big class in a big college, sweetness; no one’s gonna notice an extra person.”

Lake practically swooned when she heard him say sweetness. “Yeah, no one will notice.”

Adalyn had to contain herself from rolling her eyes at her friend and at Angel, who seemed to be getting a kick out of Lake agreeing with him.

Looking toward the front, she could see the girls glancing back to get a look at him as well. He was hard not to fucking miss, considering he stood out like a sore thumb with all his tats. Her friend was one of those girls, too, who couldn’t look away and hadn’t turned her head back toward the front to mind her own fucking business.

“Are you not in pain?” Lake asked, concerned about his bruises and his condition.

Angel made a slight wince behind his shades. “A litt—”

“He’s fine,” Adalyn sharply cut off his charades while glaring at them both.

“Adalyn, quit being so rude! Look at him. He’s clearly in pain.” Lake tried to get closer to see the bruises on his face when he raised his sunglasses.

“Oh, he’ll be hurting when I get Lucca to take a baseball bat to his ass,” she muttered angrily to herself under her breath.

“Did you say something?” Lake asked her when Angel had abruptly placed the shades back on his face.

Giving a fake-ass smile, she silently murdered them both in her head. “Yeah, I said poor baby.”

“Who would do that to you?” Lake asked in a nurturing voice.

I wish I did.

“I don’t know, Lake. Maybe you should ask your boyfriend,” Adalyn emphasized with another fake-ass, million-dollar smile to, you know, remind her that she had a fucking boyfriend!

Lake snapped her head back to the front then, before quietly speaking after clearing her throat. “I’ll do that.”

Adalyn, on the other hand, looked back at a content Angel, whose eyes were clearly grinning behind his shades. That’s it. I hate him again. And you … She turned her head back to her friend and opened her mouth for only her to hear. “So you know …”

Lake was practically in daydream land, fantasizing about Angel being on a skateboard again, but she managed to look over at Adalyn to hear what she had to say.

Sitting up straight, her face took on a very smug turn, proud for the words that were about to come out of her mouth. “He can’t.”

Slumping over, it was like all the air had been let out of her as Lake rested her chin on her hand. “Thanks a lot.”

“No problem.” Adalyn continued to sit there, feeling smug, not caring if she had told a lie or not. Truthfully, she hadn’t asked him yet. Either way, she wasn’t going to let Lake find out if he could.

Now aggravated, she felt like the class seemed to creep by and, with Angel sitting behind her, she couldn’t sit comfortably, feeling him staring at her back. She couldn’t wait for it to be over, and when it finally was, she stood up suddenly, grabbing her things and quickly leaving that cramped room.

They had to catch up to her; Lake had to practically jog.

“Will you slow down?” Lake huffed once she reached her.

“I was giving you alone time with boyfriend number two.” Adalyn didn’t bother lowering her voice.

Lake did care if he heard as he was following just a short distance behind them, whispering over to her, “I’m sorry. I can’t help it. It’s the sunglasses. He looks like someone I met while I was in Treepoint, Kentucky—”

“Oh God, not this story again.” Rolling her eyes, she did not want to hear this fictional bologna again. Grabbing her by the shoulders, she gave Lake a little shake. “We’ve told you before; super sexy, hot guys in motorcycle clubs is shit that only happens in romance novels, especially when they’re covered in tats and have names like Razer and Viper.”

“It really happen—”

“Were any of them ugly or even a little bit overweight?” Adalyn asked in all seriousness.

Lake had to think about it a second. “No …”

“See? Fictional!” She let her go and kept walking. “Your crazy-ass grandparents probably just slipped you some of their crazy pills, is all.”

Lake wasn’t going to let it go. Looking behind her, she made sure to keep her voice down. “Angel’s covered in tats, and he’s hot.”

“Yeah, but this is real life, and he doesn’t drive a motorcycle.”

“Ooo … maybe he does. We should ask him.”

Adalyn grabbed her friend’s arm, squeezing it like the jaws of life.

“Or not!” Lake said in a high-pitched squeal, pulling her arm back. “I’m just trying to prove my point that it really happened to me. I wonder if his brothers and the rest of the Lucianos are attractive. Then maybe you might believe me.”

Hmm … That might be something she could get behind, considering Angel wasn’t working out for her anymore. Quickly glancing back at him, she honestly couldn’t be mad at her friend. Angel was like a rare gem in their world with his tattoos.

“No way. I bet he got all the looks in his family. It would be another romance novel if any one of them looked anything like him.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Lake said in defeat. “I’m sorry if I upset you. You know I love Vincent. I’m just excited for you ’cause he’s the first one you’ve liked who doesn’t have a girlfriend. Plus, we talk about Lucca all the time, so I didn’t think you would care. I won’t talk about how good-looking he is again,” she promised.

“First off, I don’t like him anymore.” She paused when Lake was the one to roll her eyes. “And secondly, you’re right. I know you don’t mean anything by it because, if you had picked someone hot who wasn’t my brother, I would probably act the same way, too.” And that was the truth. She just didn’t like how Angel was milking the fact that Lake obviously found him attractive.

“You mean, you would be acting like me but times a thousand.”

Okay, that may be true, too.

She laughed; there was no denying it. “Probably.”

Happy that they were friends again, Lake got serious, wanting to be on her friend’s good side. “Okay, so we hate Angel again, got it?”

Adalyn nodded triumphantly. “Yes, we do.”

Walking into their next class and taking their seats, Angel lazily sat behind them again.

Before class could start, a huge pair of boobs entered her view and a girl who could almost rival Maria as a supermodel stopped in front of her.

“Is he your boyfriend?” she asked Adalyn while staring at Angel like she wanted to rip his clothes off. She had also asked the question loud enough to where he could easily hear.

Looking at her strangely, Adalyn couldn’t believe this girl had asked her that. “Um … no.”

“Good.” She beamed, already going up to him. “Would you like to go out som—”

“No thanks,” Angel cut her off in a cold voice without even looking at her.

Blinking with holy-fuck-did-that-even-happen, that-shit-was-cold, I’m-a-heterosexual-girl-and-even-I-looked-twice faces, both Lake and Adalyn couldn’t believe what they were witnessing when the girl walked away, practically in shame. Turning their heads to look at each other, they could only stare at the other in shock for a few minutes.

Okay, maybe we are in a romance novel.

Swallowing hard, Lake looked like she was getting hot as she tried her best to whisper over, “So, we like him again?”

“Definitely.”