Rhys pov
I'd gotten good at watching them without letting it show on my face.
Cole and Kayla sat across the library table from each other, heads bent over the same laptop, arguing lightly about some detail in their project, and I sat a few feet away pretending to focus on my own reading, the same paragraph blurring in front of me for the third time in a row.
She laughed at something he said, that easy, unguarded laugh she'd started giving him more and more lately, and something in my chest tightened in a way I'd gotten too practiced at hiding.
I looked back down at my book.
I'd told myself, weeks ago, that this was fine. That waiting patiently, being the steady one, the one who didn't push or pressure or make her choose, was the right thing to do. I still believed that, mostly.
It ju
