With that, she hurried off, her head down and her face still flushed, pulling Ella along with her as they walked away.

On the way back to class, Ella whispered, “Raegan, you have no idea how nervous I was just now. But you handled it perfectly.”

Raegan knew Ella was referring to the moment James had tried to accuse her of clinging to him. She smiled casually,

“Ella, if it weren’t for your help today, things wouldn’t have gone so smoothly.”

Indeed, when ...