JACE
Spending one day with Violet Reed was proving far more dangerous than avoiding her for weeks.
Every time she laughed at a stupid joke I made, another massive brick of the unyielding captain armor I’d built over my heart crumbled into absolute dust. By the time the mid-afternoon sun started dipping behind the campus library, the strict rulebook I had been hiding behind felt less like a shield and more like a self-inflicted prison sentence.
"If you don't eat this other half of the turkey panini, Jace, I'm going to feed it to the campus squirrels," Violet threatened, sliding the paper basket across the wooden picnic table. We had managed to sneak away to a quiet concrete courtyard behind the field house for a quick lunch break between charity events.
"I’m a growing athlete, Vi. I don
