NOVA
She grabbed the explanation before it could get away from her.
"I've always been like this." Too fast. She knew it was too fast, but she kept going anyway because stopping mid-sentence was worse. When I push hard or get nervous, my skin heats up. Cheeks, neck, all of it. It's just how I'm built. Nothing to do with you."
Caden looked at her.
She looked back and held it and did not blink and did not look at his mouth, which was right there and which she was absolutely not looking at.
"Right," he said. Something moved at the corner of his mouth. Not a smile. Something more private than a smile, like a word he'd decided to keep. "I was just saying. You've got real talent."
She breathed.
"Especially", he said, quieter, "when you stop fighting yourself and just throw."
She opened he
