Page 82 of Riot’s Revenge

I stared at her. “What?”

“Outside.”

I was off the stool before she’d finished the word.

Maria stood near the picnic tables with her arms folded against the cold.

I stopped a few feet away, just waiting.

She looked at me. “You meant it.”

I frowned.

“What you said.”

My stomach tightened. “You heard that?”

“Most of it.”

Fuck.

I shoved my hands into my pockets. “I wasn’t trying to make you hear it.”

“I know.”

Something about the way she said it made my chest hurt.

“I think that’s why it mattered.”

Neither of us spoke for a moment.

Music thumped faintly through the clubhouse wall behind us.

“I meant what I said too,” I told her. “I’m not asking again.”

“I know.”

“And I’m not expecting anything because you heard me tell Sylvie to fuck off.”

Maria’s mouth twitched. “You didn’t actually tell her to fuck off.”

“Trying to grow as a person.” I shrugged.

A laugh slipped out of her.

Fuck, I’d missed that. I smiled before I could stop myself.

Maria looked down, then back at me. “You said you’d prove it.”

“Yeah.”

“You’re doing a pretty good job.”

My heart started beating harder. Don’t push. Don’t fucking push.

“Okay.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “Okay?”