“I still don’t know why she came,” Gibsie muttered, watching her from the kitchen doorway like she was some mythical creature let loose in the wild.
Johnny didn’t answer. He couldn’t. He was too busy watching her too.
The student council president. Miss polished uniform. Miss “no public displays of affection in the halls”. The girl who corrected his grammar once in front of an entire classroom and didn’t flinch when he winked at her.
Now?
Now she was absolutely hammered.
She sat cross-legged on the couch in his mate Joey’s living room, a half-empty red cup dangling from her fingers, cheeks flushed, hair a mess of once-straight curls. She giggled at something Hughie said — or maybe didn’t say — then blinked up at Johnny like he’d just walked into her dream.
“There he is,” she slurred, finger pointing with zero aim. “My favorite rugby lad.”
Johnny smirked, but his heart was racing.
Patrick snorted. “Mate, she’s gone.”
“Shut up,” Johnny murmured, pushing off the wall and heading toward her. Her eyes tracked him the whole way.
She reached for his shirt as he knelt beside her. “You’re not supposed to be this pretty,” she whispered, poking his chest. “It’s distracting. And dangerous.”
“You’re drunk.”
“Drunk and honest.” Her smile wobbled, and she leaned in, nose brushing his. “I think about you all the time, Johnny Kavanagh.”
His breath caught. “Yeah?”
She nodded solemnly, and then added, “Even in assembly. Especially in assembly.”
He laughed, couldn’t help it. “You’re gonna regret this in the morning.”
“Not if you kiss me first.”
Johnny froze.
The party moved around them — the music, the shouting, the lads laughing somewhere in the kitchen — but all he could focus on was her.
The most put-together girl in school.
Completely undone… for him.
She hiccupped and leaned forward until her forehead touched his. “I’m not supposed to date, you know. It’s like... illegal in my house. But if I was allowed... I’d pick you. Every time.”
Johnny swallowed hard, voice low and hoarse. “You’re going to destroy me, sunshine.”