I Heart Geeks by Aria Glazki, Stephanie Kayne, Kristyn F. Brunson, Layla Kelly, Leslie Ann Brown, Bella James, Rae Lori

laugh that surprised her.
    “Been trying to figure out how I’m going to survive three months of filming in it.”
    A small smile tugged at her lips. “Can I quote you on that?”
    She heard a loud thump of something falling onto a soft surface. Turning she found him sprawled on the plush love seat, legs dangling over the arm.
    “My junk is not for public consumption.”
    A beat of silence passed between them. Then another. The moment seemed to grow and lay heavy between them, like a bubble about to burst. The tension built and built until—
    Snort.
    Willow slapped her hand over her mouth and nose, but not before Jack heard a second, soft snort followed by giggling. It’d been over a decade since he’d heard the sound. It was comforting, warm, and missed.
    Missed very much.
    At eighteen, Jack had seen the quirky girl as his best friend. Willow had been his best friend since they were in diapers. Their moms were best friends so it was only logical that their kids became friends as well.
    “You look good, Cabbage,” he told her back. She stiffened, but still didn’t leave. Which he liked to count as a victory.
    When he’d saw her, looking at the poster, he’d lost his breath. His Willow—his little cabbage—was at once comfortingly familiar and refreshingly different. She was his personal paradox wrapped in a curvaceous body he was itching to unwrap and explore.
    “I’m not a cabbage,” she said, low and soft. So soft that he almost missed it.
    “You’ll always be my little cabbage.”
    She turned, her eyes darting around the space, looking at everything in the room save for him. He watched her fingers clench into a white-knuckled grip around her bag. With a deep breath and a nod to no one but herself, Willow raised her head and looked him straight in the eye.
    He stifled his gasp and sat up. It was his first true look at her in thirteen years—besides her videos. Her face was still pale as newly churned cream and her brown eyes shined like tempered chocolate. Her skin looked smooth and satiny like—
    With a quick shake of his head, Jack cleared the flowery thoughts from his mind. It looked like a bit of Jane Austen was still lurking in his psyche after playing Darcy in a Pride and Prejudice musical for the past theatre season.
    “Not anymore,” she said.
    “What?”
    “I’m not your cabbage. Not anymore,” she said firmly. The finality of her statement irked him.
    With a smile, the charming one the audience always ate up, he said, “You’ll always be ma petit chou, Willow.”
    Jack’s smile dimmed as he watched her eyes narrow, losing that glistening sheen of tears she’d had.
    “If you call me that one more time,” she grounded out as she stalked up to him.
    “I will tell everyone on the internet why I call you Speedy. The. Real. Reason.” Emphasizing the last part by jabbing his chest with her finger.
    Gone were the almost-tears, replaced by flashing eyes that had darkened to rich espresso in her anger. He wasn’t surprised that she was still upset, but the sheer intensity of her anger could flay a man alive if he wasn’t careful.
    “I mean it, Jack. It’s bad enough that you dragged me here for some reason, but you don’t get to act like everything is hunky dory between us.”
    “Will—”
    “No, Jack. Just…” She suddenly looked lost and young. “You can’t come back and think I’m okay with what you did to me. I’m not okay and… and I don’t think I’ll ever be.”
    She was backing away from him, leaving. Retreating from the field of battle. If she left then that would be it. Everything that came before and everything that they could be wouldn’t matter and wouldn’t exist.
    “Willow, wait,” he said. “You can’t leave yet.”
    Pausing, she asked, “Why?”
    This was it. His moment. The time when the hero lays it all on the line to get the girl. Captain Wentworth’s letter. Lloyd Dobler’s boombox. Darcy’s broody confession.
    “Because…” His mind went