Kiss and Confess (Love Unscripted Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

his knee and rested his forearms on his leg, bending forward. “I was an ass. You know that. I know that.”
    “Tell me what happened. That’s the only way this is a real apology.”
    He shook his head. “It’s been too long, too much has happened. Doesn’t matter now.”
    “It matters to me.” Her breath caught. She swallowed hard and went on. “So if you can’t give me that much, you’re not only an ass, you’re a fucking coward.” The words bounced off the stones, rang in the silence, and hung between them.
    He held her gaze for a moment then broke it to stare at the house. When his eyes returned to meet hers, there was a flash of raw emotion that wrenched at her. The virtual bodyguards surrounding her heart each took a knee and aimed their weapons. Nothing leaves, nothing gets in.
    She couldn’t trust herself to speak without tears. So she didn’t. Instead, she looked out across the vast lawn, at the winding stone path that didn’t look as though anyone ever walked on it. Someone had taken a lot of time to carefully lay the pattern. Stay back , she warned the tears.
    “I was failing my classes,” he said.
    “No.” He was smart, confident. They had studied together. Or meant to, anyway. Before it always turned into something else.
    “Yes.”
    “But you never said anything. I could have helped.”
    “I had my pride.” He gave her a half-smile she didn’t buy.
    “And the athletic department had tutors.”
    “Yeah, wasn’t into that. Didn’t want people to know.”
    “They wouldn’t have known when you flunked out of school?”
    He flinched. “Never said I thought things through.”
    “What about your scholarship?”
    He hesitated. “I was going to lose it.”
    She drew back. “No. Luke, that’s huge, that’s—”
    “Yeah.”
    Luke had loved playing on the basketball team, was close friends with his teammates, had been talented enough to earn a full scholarship. Losing all that—she couldn’t even imagine how much he’d been hurting. And she’d thought they kept nothing from each other.
    She’d been wrong. That hurt. A punch to the stomach kind of hurt. “How could you not tell me?”
    “Would have ruined everything.”
    “And your leaving didn’t?” Her voice broke. She felt as though she were in a snow globe with someone shaking the contents, making it hard to keep her balance, to see clearly. She needed to know that it hadn’t all been a lie back then. That what she’d felt hadn’t been one-sided, delusional.
    He looked away.
    She got up and stepped in front of him, put her hand under his chin and lifted, forcing him to look at her. The touch of his skin on hers left her fingers trembling.
    In his eyes, she saw the tenderhearted Luke she’d once known, now filled with regret. The virtual bodyguards around her heart looked at each other and slowly, tentatively lowered their guns. Aww…Luke.
    Too soon. A shadow crossed his face. He straightened, pulling away from her hand. “That was the past. I’m not that guy anymore.”
    He’d slammed a door in her face. Her hand hovered in the air. She let it drop. “Not that guy,” she repeated.
    “Don’t you get it? I was young. I screwed up. I said I’m sorry and this is where it ends. We’re at different places in our lives now. I’m a producer. You’re a contestant.”
    “So I understand.” No. She didn’t. All she’d done was sign up for a reality show. She did not sign up to have her past slap her in the face and pry open wounds that had barely healed over.
    “We’re good now. Nothing else to say.”
    If he could slam the door, so could she. “Sure. We’re good. Hella good. As far as I’m concerned, I never met you before yesterday.” She whirled on her heel and headed back to the house, not looking back.
    The Luke she’d known was gone. Dead and buried. Flowers on his grave.

CHAPTER THREE
    Make Me a Match
    Episode Two
    Rooftops and Rocky Starts
    By the time Charley reached the side door of the house, she