She stopped, turned to me, and scowled. Her lips pouted the tiniest bit, and I wanted to grab her and kiss her, bite that lip. “It’s not weird. Try some and you’ll soon see the way.” My heart raced as I pictured her feeding me the slice of pizza…naked.
“Um…” I trailed off, all coherent thought had fucked off, and I was left with the very nice image of a naked Summer. She rolled her eyes and sat down in the booth. I sat next to her and pressed my leg against hers. She tried to hide her smile by biting the inside of her mouth, but she didn’t do a very good job. She grabbed a menu even though she’d just admitted she already knew what she was having. Summer’s pizza was chicken, sweet corn, pineapple, and bacon. I’d drop all the yellow crap. I didn’t know how she could eat it.
“So this pizza?”
She turned and smirked at me. “Yeah?”
“How the hell did you get there?”
“I dunno, I just like all that stuff. Trust me, it’s good.”
“You gonna feed me some?”
“Why? Haven’t you learned to do that for yourself yet?”
I laughed and shook my head. Yeah, I should have expected that one. I pouted. “Nope. I’ll need your help.”
She smirked. “You need someone’s help.”
“Coming from the girl that’s mixing chicken, pig, corn, and fruit together.”
“He’s got a point, Sum. It’s pretty gross,” Henry said, siding with me. Summer rolled her eyes and muttered whatever.
The waitress arrived and took our order, and I spent the whole time trying not to stare at Summer like a stalker. It annoyed me how much I liked her. If I’d never realized she liked me, I wouldn’t be obsessing about her constantly. I hated that I felt like a damn teenage girl when it came to her.
I watched her face as our food was brought to our table. Her bright green eyes lit up and she grinned, eager for food. I dragged my eyes away from her and dug into my normal person’s BBQ pizza. “Try it,” Summer instructed, holding a slice of hers out to me.
Turning my nose up, I bit into the pizza. It wasn’t bad—nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be—but I definitely wouldn’t be ordering it. I chewed slowly, turning my nose up.
She rolled her eyes. “It’s not that bad. You’re lying. It’s the best.”
I swallowed. “No, Sum. You’re just weird.”
“Liar. You like it.” She nudged my side with her elbow. I grabbed her arm and she squealed and wriggled in her seat. Her side was pressed against my chest. I held her close and faked trying to tickle her.
“Picture,” Kerri shouted. Summer stilled and looked at Kerri, smiling. We were in the same position, her lying against me and my arms around her but we were both looking at the camera. If it wouldn’t make me such a pussy, I’d ask for a copy of it.
30
LEWIS
Tuesday, February 29th (Present)
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Henry muttered, tapping his knee and shaking his head. He’d said that about four fucking thousand times already.
“We need to do something. You know there’s something off about Colin.”
My car was parked in the field near his house, hidden by the tall bush. We could just about see the opening of his driveway. I didn’t know what time he left for work, so we had been parked here since seven in the morning—one hour and twenty minutes ago. “How long do you think he’ll be?” Henry whispered.
“You know we’re in the car, right? He can’t hear us, and I don’t know how long,” I replied, staring down at his house. He lived alone in the middle of nowhere. He could have easily done something to her.
“It’s him, isn’t it?”
My heart dropped. “Yeah. Why’re you so sure now?”
He gulped. “I’ve run out of alternatives. I just want to find my sister, even if she’s not…”
“She’s alive,” I snapped. Henry blinked, shocked.
“Sorry,” I muttered, running my hand over my face. “I just can’t take people assuming she could be dead.”
“It’s all right.”
“She not dead, Henry,” I said more forcefully.
He nodded. “I know. Wait, did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” We fell silent and heard the quiet roar of a car engine. “Come on, you bastard,” I whispered, watching his house. A minute later, a silver BMW backed onto the road. Colin was alone in the car. He stopped to change gears and drove off. “Let’s go,” I said as soon as his car was out of sight.
We got out and walked toward the house. “How are we going to get in?” he asked.
“There’ll be a way.”
“How do you know?”
I stopped in the middle of the road, facing his drive. “For fuck’s sake, Henry, we’ll get in somehow.” What the hell was wrong with him? “Go back to the car if you don’t wanna do this.”
“She’s my sister. I’m doing it.”