Page 22 of His Reckless Freshman

I put her out of her misery. “We can meet up again.”

“Really?” Her voice pitches in surprise. “Thank you. I’m free early next week if that works for you.”

“Yep.” I check my schedule on my phone. “Games for the season haven’t started yet, so my time’s a little more flexible. I could meet you on Tuesday, before my practice. Say… three o’clock?”

“Excellent. That would be amazing.” She laughs, like she still can’t believe I said yes.

To be honest, I kind of can’t either. Seriously, what am I doing?

I point at her. “Do you need to check your schedule? If you have a class or⁠—”

“I will skip anything to meet with you. Three o’clock will be fine. This article means a lot to me and takes precedence over everything else.”

It’s impossible not to return her beaming smile.

Those dimples, man.

Dangerous.

I glance away from them, standing from my chair as she walks around the table.

I tower over her, which I’m used to, but with her, it feels different. She’s so slight a strong breeze could blow her over.

“Thanks so much, Ben.” She smiles up at me.

I return her grin. “I’ll catch you later, Jolie.”

“Yes, you will.” She does a little spin, then heads for the door.

I watch her go, surprised by how painless that interview ended up being.

7

JOLIE

“He answered the questions so well and even agreed to meet with me again next week!” It’s impossible to hide my excitement. I am on a high. This afternoon went way better than I expected, and now I’m on a date. Like, a real date. Kieran has taken me out to dinner and everything.

He’s watching me, sipping a glass of wine while I regale him with every detail I can think of. I don’t tell him exactly what Ben said—I want to save that up for the article—but I let him know that Ben is an impressive man with a good soul.

“You’ve got a good soul too.” Kieran smiles, reaching forward to take my hand.

His fingers curl into my palm, and a pulse of heat starts beating in my stomach. When his thumb gently caresses the top of my hand, I think I’ve gone to heaven.

Seriously.

This is magical.

I spent most of high school falling for guys who didn’t even know I existed. I went to prom with the only person who asked me, but I wasn’t really into him. We kissed at the end of the night. I also made out with a guy from my biology class my junior year, but that was more experimenting what it felt like to touch our tongues together, so it wasn’t romantic or anything.

But this.

This right here.

It’s so romantic.

Kieran is smiling at me like he’s enjoying himself. His gentle gaze is making me feel heard, seen, important.

It kind of steals my breath, and my epic interview sputters into the most unimportant thing that happened today. “So… enough about me. Tell me about your day.” I reach for my cutlery, my food now lukewarm.