The Nerd Who Stole The Quarterback (Astra and Zayne) novel Chapter 188

12:03 Thu, Aug 13 F

The Nerd Who Stole The Quarterback

“Astra.”

“I’m fine.”

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“That wasn’t what I asked.”

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I caught his wrist and guided his hand away before he could start examining me like evidence at a crime scene. “It was an emotional conversation. That’s all.”

Not exactly a lie.

Zane kept looking at me as though he expected the truth to reveal itself if he waited long enough, so I gave him another smile and changed the subject before the interrogation could continue.

“Come on. I want to see Mom.”

Zane fell into step beside me. “You sure you’re not too tired?”

“Yes.”

“Hungry?”

I gave him a look. “No.”

“Dizzy?”

“Zane.”

“What?” His expression suggested these were perfectly reasonable questions.

“You’re doing it again.”

“Doing what?”

“Acting like I’m going to spontaneously collapse if you stop monitoring me for thirty seconds.”

He considered that with far more seriousness than it deserved. “You might.”

I rolled my eyes and headed down the corridor, knowing before I heard his footsteps that he would follow. He caught up almost immediately and reached for my hand, my fingers closing around his without thought.

“Kingsley is about twenty minutes from here,” he said. “The driver should still be downstairs.”

“Okay.”

“We can stop somewhere first if you need anything.”

“I don’t.”

“Trouble.”

“I promise.”

That finally seemed to satisfy him, and we continued toward the elevators together.

My attention wandered to our joined hands, then to the bruises still covering his knuckles-the same hands that had torn through every obstacle between us the moment he learned where I was.

My smile faded.

The Nerd Who Stole The Quarterback

He noticed immediately. “What?”

I looked up. “Nothing.”

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His brows drew together. Before he could ask again, I leaned into his side and rested my head against his shoulder. After a second, his arm came around me. I closed my eyes.

For now, I let him hold me.

I wasn’t ready to let go yet.

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12:03 Thu, Aug 13

The Nerd Who Stole The Quarterback

Tomorrow Is Trouble’s Birthday

ZANE

Astra had been smiling for the last ten minutes.

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Not the careful little smiles she’d been giving everyone since last night. Not the ones that appeared for a second before something dragged her back into her own head.

A real one.

She sat beside her mother’s bed with both hands wrapped around one of hers while Aurelia Hawthorne studied her daughter with the kind of attention that made me feel like I was intruding just by being in the room.

“I missed you,” Mrs. Hawthorne said.

Astra’s smile softened. “I missed you too, Mom.”

“You’ve been busy.”

There wasn’t even a flicker of hesitation before Astra answered. “Yeah. School and work have been a little crazy.”

Mrs. Hawthorne reached up and touched her daughter’s cheek. “You look tired.”

Astra laughed quietly. “Everyone keeps telling me that.”

“Because you are.”

Astra glanced over her shoulder at me and caught whatever was on my face. “Don’t,”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Her mother followed her gaze and noticed me properly for the first time. For a second she simply looked at me.

“Zane?”

I straightened from where I’d been leaning near the window. “Hello, Mrs. Hawthorne.”

Her face brightened. “You came too.”

“Couldn’t get rid of him,” Astra said, tossing me a sugary-sweet smile over her shoulder.

The little shit knew exactly what she was doing.

Mrs. Hawthorne laughed, and Astra turned back toward her. Seeing them together should’ve been enough to quiet everything else in my head, but Dad’s private conversation with Astra refused to leave me alone.

They’d been in that room for nearly twenty minutes. When she came out, her eyes had been suspiciously bright, and she’d avoided almost every question I threw at her before holding my hand the entire way through the hospital.

Whatever Dad had said had gotten to her.

She seemed better now, though. There was no trace of the guarded silence she slipped into whenever something upset her, and she hadn’t pulled away from me once.

For now, I could live with that.

I’d find out eventually.

12:03 Thu, Aug 13

The Nerd Who Stole The Quarterback

While Astra and her mother talked, I glanced around the room and felt an old memory begin to surface

I’d been down this corridor before.

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While Astra was missing. I’d come to Kingsley to check on her mother and find out what she’d been told about Astra’s absence. I never made it into the room. Aurelia already had a visitor-a man whose face I couldn’t see from where I stood.

At the time. I’d barely cared. Astra was missing, I was losing my fucking mind, and some stranger visiting her mother had ranked pretty low on the list of things demanding my attention.

But I remembered his voice.

There had been a familiarity to it that I couldn’t place then and still couldn’t now.

“Zane?”

Astra’s voice pulled me from the memory. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” I gave her a slight nod. “Just thinking.”

She held my eyes for another moment before turning back to her mother.

I pushed the memory aside. I’d figure out where I knew that voice from later.

Mrs. Hawthorne was running her thumb affectionately over Astra’s fingers when a knowing smile slowly spread across her face.

“I know what you’re thinking.”

Astra blinked. “What am I thinking?”

That I forgot.”

The amusement faded from Astra’s face. “Forgot what?”

“Your birthday.”

Astra froze.

What?

Mrs. Hawthorne looked incredibly pleased with herself. “Tomorrow.”

Tomorrow?

I turned toward Astra, but she seemed to have forgotten anyone else was in the room. She was staring at her mother with an expression I couldn’t immediately make sense of.

“You remembered?”

The disbelief in her voice hit me harder than it should have.

Her mother frowned. “Of course I remembered.”

Astra’s eyes filled before she could stop them. “Mom…”

“Oh, don’t do that.” Mrs. Hawthorne reached up and brushed away one of her tears. “You’ll have me crying too.”

Astra gave a shaky laugh before leaning forward and wrapping her arms around her mother.

The Nerd Who Stole The Quarterback

I stayed where I was.

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Whatever smartass comment might normally have come out of my mouth had no place here. Astra held her mother with her eyes closed, and Aurelia wrapped both arms around her daughter as though remembering tomorrow mattered more than either of them could put into words.

Maybe it did.

Alzheimer’s had already stolen enough from them. Somehow, Astra’s birthday had survived.

November sixth.

Her birthday was tomorrow, and from the stunned look still lingering on her face when she finally pulled away, she’d forgotten it herself.

“I can’t believe I forgot my own birthday.”

Her mother looked far too satisfied. “Good thing one of us remembered.”

Astra laughed and wiped beneath her eyes. “I guess so.”

“Eighteen,” her mother said, smiling. “My baby is going to be eighteen.”

Astra groaned softly. “Mom, please don’t call me your baby.”

“You’ll always be my baby.”

“That’s embarrassing.”

Her mother gave her hand an affectionate squeeze. “I’m allowed to embarrass you. I’m your mother.”

Astra laughed and wiped beneath her eyes.

How the fuck had I known this girl for years-spent enough of them tormenting her to recognize every glare she had, then months living under the same roof learning all the little things I’d never bothered to notice before-and somehow never learned when her birthday was?

Unacceptable.

Astra glanced over and caught me watching her. “What?”

“Nothing.”

Her eyes narrowed immediately.

Yeah, she didn’t believe that for a second.

Good.

She could be suspicious all she wanted. I wasn’t telling her shit.

Tomorrow was my girl’s eighteenth birthday, and I had less than twenty-four hours to make sure she had a reason to remember it.

I could work with that.

By the time we got home, half the school seemed determined to prove to Astra that nobody had forgotten she existed.

I heard priya before I even made it through the front door.

The Nerd Who Stole The Quarterback

“You are never allowed to disappear again.”

Astra’s answer came immediately. “I’ll add it to my schedule.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am 1. Thursdays are looking pretty open.”

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I followed their voices into the family room and found Jason sprawled across one end of the sectional while Chloe and Elizabeth occupied the other.

Priya had claimed the spot directly beside Astra, close enough that she looked prepared to prevent another kidnapping through proximity alone, while Jaxon and Tyler had taken the armchairs opposite them.

Astra sat in the middle of the chaos.

Everyone was talking over everyone else. Priya was arguing about something while Elizabeth kept interrupting her, Jason had stretched halfway across the coffee table in pursuit of whatever snacks the staff had brought in, and Astra was laughing at something Tyler said.

I stopped in the doorway longer than I meant to.

“Zane!”

Mason had appeared beside me without my noticing. He followed my line of sight toward the couch, then lowered his voice.

“Why are you staring at Astra?”

I ignored the question and caught him by the shoulder before he could join the others. “Where’s Lucas?”

“In the kitchen.”

“Come with me.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so.”

Mason gave me a suspicious look but followed anyway.

Mom was in the kitchen with Lucas, going through something on her phone. She looked up when we entered.

“How was Aurelia?”

“Good.”

“And Astra?”

“In there being harassed by half her school.”

Her expression softened, but the moment I shut the kitchen door, concern replaced it.

“What happened?”

“Nothing happened. I just don’t want her hearing this.” I waited until I had everyone’s attention. “Her birthday is tomorrow.”

Mom’s eyebrows rose in surprise, but Mason beat her to the first question.

“Can we get her presents?”

The Nerd Who Stole The Quarterback

“I’m getting her one,” Lucas announced.

Mason immediately turned competitive. “Mine’s going to be better.”

“You don’t even know what you’re getting.”

“Neither do you.”

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Mom stepped in before they could turn it into a full argument. “It isn’t a competition.”

“Yes, it is,” they said together.

I should’ve seen that coming.

Lucas went quiet as he thought about it. “What does Astra even like?”

“Drawing,” Mason said immediately.

Lucas brightened. “We could get her art stuff.”

“I’m getting her art stuff.”

“I just said it first!”

“That doesn’t mean you own it.”

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Mom let out an exasperated sigh. “There are plenty of things you can buy for someone who draws. You don’t have to get her the same thing.”