Ten Days of Perfect (November Blue #1)

“Color of your eyes; looks good on me, I’d say.” He smirked sophomorically.

“I’ll say. What are we doing today? I need to dress accordingly, lest we run into the likes of Ms. Ainsley Worthington again,” I quipped as I reached for my suitcase.

“You don’t need to be worried about Ainsley, November.” He was annoyed.

“Oh, I know,” I added teasingly, “but I just want to make sure she knows.” I winked.

“What am I going to do with you?” he laughed, as he lifted me in the air.

“As I said, anything you want.” I pressed into his mouth desperately.

*

Our morning was spent ambling through town; it quickly became clear I was with New England royalty. Every shop owner engaged Bo in honest conversation, congratulating him on everything with DROP, and wishing him well with a pat on the back as he left. As we drove back to his house in the afternoon, my phone beeped with a text.

Adrian: You’re in town?

Me: What town? Don’t you live in Boston?

Adrian: Concord, smartass . . . meeting tomorrow, remember?

Me: How’d you know I was here, Stalker?

Adrian: You caught me. I saw you and Cavanaugh walking through town today.

“I didn’t realize Adrian would be at the meeting tomorrow.” I looked from my phone to Bo.

Bo shrugged. “Legal team. Does it matter? I can ask him not to come.” Half his mouth turned up.

“I’m sure you could.” I looked back to my phone.

Me: yea, I’m staying with Bo . . . you really are a hopeless stalker Adrian Adrian: Want to get together before tomorrow? I’m staying at The Centennial Me: Nice try Adrian: What? :) I leaned forward and thumped my head on the dashboard.

“What?” Bo chuckled.

“Fucking Adrian . . . he wants to get together before tomorrow. I told him the other day we could have some time to talk before the meeting Monday. Should I invite him to the apparent party we’re hosting at McCarthy’s tonight?” I asked, reminding him Bill Holder was planning on showing up.

“I suppose. Maybe I could tell Ainsley and we could make a real night of it.”

I flashed him the middle finger before returning to my text.

Me: Bo and I will be at McCarthy’s tonight-9:00. Some of his friends will be there, too.

Adrian: see you then.

“Well, if nothing else, tonight’s going to be interesting. Hey, do you think we should hook Adrian and Ainsley up?” I jested as I pressed my head against the window. “Rachel sure has some choice words for Ainsley, what’s that about?”

“Do you really want to know or are you going to get ‘all girl’ about it and use it to form some jealous rage?”

“Excuse me? What part of the last week and a half leads you to believe I’ll act ‘all girl’ about anything?” My mouth dropped open in mock-horror.

“Ha! True. Ainsley and I dated a bit off-and-on in high school; you know-the whole cheerleader and football player deal?”

“Um, you played football? Oh, please tell me you were the quarterback.” He tried, and failed, to suppress a grin as I spoke. “You were the fucking quarterback? Let me out now so I can go puke in the bushes.”

“Hypocrite. Like Adrian Turner was some wallflower bookworm.” Bo turned up his sarcasm.

“Fair enough. So you and the trampy cheerleader dated, trampy being Rae’s word not mine.” I cocked my head to the side, mimicking Ainsley’s move from the night before, “Why’d you break up?”

“We went to different colleges; I went to UNH and she was down at Northeastern, it was kind of an easy out for me-the whole distance thing, since I didn’t want to be with her anyway.”

“You pig-love it. Rachel said she tried to get back together with you after your parents died? Better words than trampy are typically used to describe that kind of move.” I rolled my eyes out the window.

“Yeah, it started innocently enough; I mean, we’ve been friends since we were little. After a few months she tried to move in on me physically and I called her on using my grief for her gain. She was pissed, but that’s only because I was right.”

“Well played.” I nodded.

“That’s really it. She still flirts with me constantly; it bugs the hell out of Rae and she’s told Ainsley off a few times.” A proud big-brother grin stretched across his face. “So, what about you and Turner?”

“Well, you know about all there is to know.”

“Yea, Blue, I guess I do.”

Ouch. Bo saw the enraged look on my face.

“I’m sorry, that was out of line. Why’d you break up?”

“Well, like I told you, I told him I loved him. He said he loved me back, but I thought it was panic on his part. Wouldn’t have mattered, we were too young.”

“What was it, if it wasn’t panic?”

“Well, the other night he told me he wasn’t kidding, that it was love - that he really did love me then,” I spoke in a near-whisper.

“What? What do you mean the other night?” That was not a whisper.

Oops.

“Oh calm down. He just thought the reason why I’ve basically avoided him since graduation was because I thought he was a jackass-”