Chapter 9: Chapter 9 : Brunch and Bastian

Hayden’s POV

She kissed me.

I could only stand still and watch frozen as Eleonore shot a beaming smile up to me, her face wide and bright with joy and appreciation as she looked up to who she assumed was Rhett.

She waved goodbye to me as she left the room back through the study’s doors she came in from and I felt my heart tear out of my chest and go with her. Good. It was better with her than hammering inside my chest, constricting and squeezing in pain.

When did she and Rhett become so close? I wondered. I knew they had been spending time together at the library... but what else had happened besides the two of them studying together? I hadn’t assumed Rhett would even have enough time to speak to her considering she was working all the time.

The days I would see her on campus and out on the fields she had always seemed happy to see me—was that just me? Was I seeing things that weren’t there? No... it couldn’t be...