Page 37 of The Keeper

But on the inside, I was still thinking about Carina and praying to god that she never found out I was stalking her profile.

CARINA

I was in bed, trying to keep up with the group chat after Scarlett’s bombshell wedding news and brainstorming bridesmaid/bachelorette ideas with Brooklyn in a separate thread, when the notification popped up at the top of my screen.

@noah123 liked your post.

I shot up straight. I stared at my phone, sure I was hallucinating, but no. The notification was really there.

My pulse spiked. @Noah123 was Noah’s private profile. He had never, not once in the two years we’d been mutuals, interacted with my content in any way.

For some reason, I held my breath as I tapped on the notification. I expected him to have liked my most recent post with the girls, but the tap took me straight to my uni graduation photo.

I checked the list of likes. His was already gone. He must’ve unliked immediately.

But he’d still liked it in the first place. And it was one of my oldest photos, buried deep in my profile.

That meant he’d sought it out instead of just happening upon it while scrolling through his feed.

And that meant he was thinking about me for some reason—enough to check my social media when he should’ve been celebrating with his team.

A swarm of butterflies tangled in my stomach.

Calm down. A like on social media doesn’t mean anything.

The same way Budapest and our little moments around the house hadn’t meant anything. A glance here, a touch there. My instincts told me he felt it too, this…something between us, but my instincts had been wrong before.

I carried residual trauma from the many times I’d thought a boy liked me in school only to find out he didn’t. Danny Lee, Weston Colbeck, Isaac North...It was one of the reasons I rarely made the first move anymore. Rejection and humiliation weren’t a fun combo.

Still, I lingered on the photo Noah had liked and unliked.

Then I opened my DMs, typed a quick message to him, deleted it, and started all over again.

Hi :)

Congrats on winning the match!

How are you celebrating tonight?

Ugh. Boring, boring, cringe.

Eventually, I gave up, deleted all the draft messages, and shoved my phone into the back of my nightstand drawer. I turned off the lights and tried to empty my mind.

But the butterflies in my stomach didn’t go away.

CHAPTER 14

NOAH

Evie was already at school when I got home the next morning. Today was my day off, and I prayed Carina was at the office so I wouldn’t have to be alone in the house with her all day.

Living room, clear. Den, clear. Halls, clear.

I thought luck was on my side until I stepped into the kitchen and was bombarded by the sight of Carina at the counter, making tea. Her open laptop sat on the table next to a half-eaten piece of toast.

She paused when she saw me. “Hi.”

My fingers tightened around the strap of my gym bag. “Hi.”