All Chapters of The Way He Looked at Me: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

My phone jerks me awake with a violent buzz, the vibration rattling across the nightstand like it’s trying to shake my brain loose. I groan and blindly swipe around the table, refusing to open my eyes to the cruel brightness leaking through the curtains. Daylight should honestly be illegal.Eventually, surrender wins. I crack one eye open.My phone isn’t on the table.It’s in the bed with me.So is a wrinkled sheet of paper covered in messy diagrams circles, arrows, random lines in blue and red marker that look like someone tried to plan a football war strategy at three in the morning.I sit up, pushing my hair out of my face, and smooth the paper flat on my lap.Offside.Onside.Both scribbled in huge, chaotic handwriting.Cole’s handwriting.A slow smile spreads across my face before I can stop it.God, he writes like a tornado with a marker.I stare at the page longer than I should, tracing the arrows with my finger as flashes of last night creep back into my mind. Eventually, I fo

“Apple was the right call,” I announced confidently. “No contest. Apple pie wins every time. It’s balanced. Not too sugary. Easy to eat.”I pause thoughtfully.“And cooked cherries destroy my stomach.”Silence.There.Problem solved.They’re no longer the awkward ones.Now I am.Perfect strategy.A few minutes later the two hockey players wave goodbye and head back down the path.Cole and I stay on the porch, watching them disappear down the street.When they’re finally out of hearing range, Cole exhales through his nose.“Apple pie and ice cream for breakfast,” he says slowly. “How does that sound?”“Like the exact missing piece of my entire existence,” I reply.He nods, satisfied, and turns toward the house.I follow him down the hallway.Halfway there, he glances back at me. His eyes flash with the same mischievous spark they had last night the exact one he had when he poured that tequila like he knew trouble was coming.“So,” he says casually, “what was that back there?”I blink.

But every so often I catch her glancing at me with concern.The second time I notice, she quickly grabs a book and pretends to study it with intense focus.The title?Unavailable Men: How To Avoid Them.Wow.Rude.Also… extremely suspicious timing.And somehow…I have a terrible feeling she might be trying to tell me something.It doesn’t help.Not even a little.If anything, it makes things worse.The problem isn’t that Rachel’s wrong. The problem is that she’s completely right and somehow my brain still refuses to accept it.Because despite every obvious fact stacked against me…I don’t see Cole as unavailable.Not really.When I’m around him, something shifts. Something electric sparks in the air between us, like the first crack of lightning before a storm breaks. It feels like the start of something huge. Something that could tilt my entire life sideways.The early stage of something fragile.Dangerous.Brand new.The phase where hands shake for no reason and voices betray you at

They light up.Actually light up.Like humor is bouncing around inside them.“Am I right?” I ask. “Or at least close?”He shakes his head slowly.“Not even remotely.”“Fine,” I say. “Educate me. What’s a book ban?”He sighs dramatically, but his eyes are still sparkling.“It’s when a responsible citizen decides to stop buying books for a while,” he explains, “because their bank account is begging for mercy.”“Oh,” I say slowly, glancing at the stack in his arms.“Looks like that’s going well.”He winces.“Well… technically I didn’t buy these.”“No?”“Rachel bought them for me.”Pause.“Although technically I did buy a few books for her too.”I raise an eyebrow.“That sounds like a pretty obvious foul.”He shrugs.“The rules around book bans are… somewhat vague.”“Intentionally vague?”He points at me like I’ve just solved a puzzle.“Now you’re catching on.”I grin.“See? Not so unbookish after all.”“Oh, you’re still very unbookish, Cole Williams,” he says.Hearing my full name from h

Carter Blake POVOh, for the love of all that’s holy, if anyone deserves a crash course in Common Sense 101, it’s me.I’ve royally, spectacularly, no-questions-asked screwed up. And “screwed up” doesn’t even cut it. Let’s call it a level-five catastrophe. No. Level-six. Maybe seven. I’ve invited Cole Cole Williams, in case your brain skipped over that into my apartment. Cole. Legendary hockey player. Single dad. Tall, dark, devastatingly gorgeous. My huge crush, my secret daydream, my walking, talking nightmare of self-control. And I’ve basically invited him here so I can…well…rub my hands over him. Naked. In my living room.Yeah. That’s happening.And he’s shirtless. Just. Taking it off. As if it’s nothing. Calm. Cool. Casual. No pounding heart, no awkward fumbles, nothing betraying even the tiniest hint of…temptation.His polo disappears in stages. Slowly, deliberately, almost innocuous, until boom abs. A carved, dangerous landscape. A neat trail of dark hair disappears into the wai