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I shoved him backwards and followed his retreat, step for step. “You don’t touch her.”
A tiny hand on my chest was all it took for Ella to take over the situation. She looked up at me and flashed me a bright smile. “Thanks, Booth. I’m okay.”
I searched her face to make sure she was telling the truth and relaxed the slightest bit when I saw that she was. I glared back at Billy, though, and practically snarled at him. “Stay away from her.”
Fisher stood next to Ella and wrapped his arm around her. “I’ve never seen you so close to tackling someone outside of a game, man. I don’t think most of the people on campus have ever heard you talk, much less raise your voice.”
I looked at his arm around her and got hit with such a wave of jealousy that I had to put some space between us. I took a few steps back and nodded, doing my best to hold it together. “I’ll see you both later. I need to go do something.”
“Booth, wait-” Whatever Ella was going to say, I missed it. I tucked tail and jogged away. I didn’t stop until I was home and breathing so hard that I had to stop at the bottom of the stairs and catch my breath before I could climb them.
Feeling frustrated, I paced my room and tried to calm down. I was fighting my attraction to Ella so hard to be a better friend to Vaughn but it was a losing battle. I wanted her. Seeing her ex touching her, seeing Fisher touch her when I couldn’t, it was making me nuts. There was something about her that was just different and I felt something akin to panic at the idea of never getting to touch her again.
I checked my watch and saw that I was missing a class but I didn’t care. I wouldn’t have been able to focus anyway. Without knowing what else to do, I called the one person who’d always been able to calm me down.
She answered right away. “Boo? Hi, honey! You never call me during the day. What’s up?”
Mom had been my entire support system growing up. She was still the person I depended on for most things.
“Hey, Mom. I just had a minute and figured I’d check in.” I knew she could tell I was lying right away. She’d been a bit of a helicopter mom when I was growing up. She didn’t like me having to deal with any bad emotions so she’d tried hard to save me from them. To a detriment at some points. When I was young, her solution had been to ply me with food to keep my happy. She was a young mom and hadn’t known what to do. Food cheered me up, though, so that’s what she leaned into. Even when I’d gotten chubbier and chubbier.
“Something’s wrong. Tell me, Booth.”
I blew out a rough breath and sank down on my bed. “Everything’s fine, Mom. I just… I think I really like this one person who’s off-limits.”
“It’s a professor, isn’t it? Which professor? What’s his name? I knew this would happen. You didn’t have a dad and now you’ve got daddy issues. Is he using his power over you, baby? Tell me everything.”
I gaped at the phone for a few seconds before I could find my voice. “Mom, what the hell? I’m not gay.”
She seemed genuinely shocked. “You’re not?”
“No, I’m not. Why do you think I’m gay?”
“Well, you never talked about girls. I’m very open to the idea of you being gay, Boo. Don’t make any decisions right now.” She sighed. “Are you sure it’s not a male professor?”
“It’s not a decision I’d need to make, Mom. I’m straight. Sorry, but I was just born this way.” I had to laugh. “I just had to come out to my mom as straight. Wow.”
“Oh, anyway. Moving on from that bit of disappointing news. Is it a female professor?”
“It’s not a professor, Mom. Jeez. I don’t have daddy issues. Some would argue I have mother issues, though.” I rubbed my face. “I think I have feelings for Ella.”
“Your roommate? Why is she off-limits? That seems stupid. You’re both young and straight, I guess. Where’s the harm?” She called out to her secretary. “Melissa, Booth just told me he’s straight and likes a girl.”
“Okay, this was a bad idea. I’ve got to go. I love you, Mom. Bye!” I hung up before she could argue and groaned. That hadn’t gone quite as planned but I was distracted from all my jealousy over Ella, I guessed.
34
***Ella***
When I got home that night, I rushed upstairs and straight to Booth’s room. I knocked before I could chicken out and as soon as he answered, I wrapped my arms around him in a tight hug. “Thank you. For earlier. I didn’t get a chance to thank you because of…everything…so I just wanted to say it… So, thank you.”
He leaned against his door frame after I slipped out of his arms and watched me. “I’m sorry I ran off. I was jealous.”
I rocked back on my heels like he’d slapped me. I had to open and close my mouth a few times before I could form my thoughts into a sentence. I wasn’t used to such blatant honesty. “You were jealous?”
He nodded. “I’m doing my best to be a better friend to Vaughn but it isn’t easy. Seeing Fish get to touch you is hard. So, yeah, I was jealous. I wanted to be the one holding you.”
My cheeks heated and I stammered. Hearing him admit it so openly was somehow both butterfly-inducing and a balm to my wounded ego. I’d been convinced that he hadn’t liked what we’d done or that Vaughn had told him about what we’d done in the library. He’d pulled back from me hard and while I understood it, I didn’t like it. “You were jealous.”
