I tried to say this wasn’t what it looked like, not by a long shot, but Nick pulled me off toward his car, waving a curt goodbye to Mario.
“Sorry, big guy, but d my girl and I have plans.”
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked, wriggling away only to find that Mario was already walking off. “Are you crazy?”
“Crazy about you, Precious,” he said, lighting a cigarette as if nothing were out of the ordinary.
“You can drop the Precious. It doesn’t suit you,” I said, crossing my arms.
“It doesn’t, right?” He laughed. “Babe, that’s more my style, I think.”
“Why’d you do that?”
“Didn’t you want that? For me to pretend to be your boyfriend?”
“I meant in front of Dan, Nicholas.”
“Ah!” He clicked his tongue. “Help me out, Freckles, you’re confusing me.”
“Now he’s gonna think there’s something going on that isn’t,” I said, unable to ignore the electricity that crackled every time we were together.
“By which you mean…”
“By which I mean us being together.”
“What do you care what that idiot thinks?”
His voice turned gravelly, harsh. We both noticed.
“I don’t want anyone to think you and I are hooking up. With Dan, it was necessary. But now that he’s gone…”
“He’s not gone yet,” Nick replied, throwing his cigarette to the ground. “I bought him a plane ticket, but he doesn’t leave for thirteen more hours. It’s going to be the longest trip in history!”
I felt bad for Dan. Thirteen hours in the airport and another five in the air…
“You think I shouldn’t have done that? I can go pick him up if you want. We can all go get dinner together.”
I had to admit, I liked his sarcasm.
“Thanks for helping get him off my back,” I said, still struggling to believe Nicholas had gone out of his way on my behalf. “You didn’t have to.”
“I’m keeping track,” he responded. “At this rate, you’ll be my indentured servant before my twenty-second birthday.”
I didn’t exactly like what he’d just said, but it did remind me of what it felt like to have his lips against mine, and I thought, You can make me pay you back for as many favors as you like.
Damn his attractiveness…
“So you’re saying you can’t just do something from the goodness of your heart?” I was getting nervous. He was so close to me, I had to lean back to look him in the eyes.
“I don’t do anything out of the goodness of my heart, love.”
That last word almost made my heart stop, but it was even worse when he bent over, grabbed my neck, and kissed me hard. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything…
I saw myself reach up and pull him in. There I was again, trapped between him and the car. He reached for my waist with his other hand, and his muscles felt so hard against the softness of my body. Our breathing grew labored. I wanted more, needed more. Nick awakened sensations in me that had been asleep my whole life.
His knee pressed between my legs, and an exquisite heat suffused my body.
Just when I thought I’d been teleported to another world, Nick’s phone rang, waking us from the trance that simple kiss had become.
He stood back a bit and brought it up to his ear. Looking away, I realized how easily he could seduce me with just a single touch—and right there in public, in the middle of a parking lot!
“I’ll be there in a minute,” he said in a tone of voice as distinct as possible from the one he’d used with me just before.
He hung up and told me, “I’ve got to go. I’ve got something to do.”
I nodded.
“I’ll see you at home,” he added.
What had happened to make him seem so distant?
“See you, Nicholas,” I said, climbing into my car.
What I couldn’t understand, after all that had happened that day, was that his attitude was the only thing that had pissed me off.
22
Nick
My intention hadn’t been to hook up with her in the bar parking lot. Quite the opposite: the conversation in my car with that dumbass Dan on the way to the airport had affected me more deeply than I cared to admit. It kept replaying in my mind.
“You’ve got no idea what you’re getting into,” he’d said after an intense silence in which I couldn’t stop thinking about pulverizing him. “Noah’s hot for sure, but she’s more fucked-up than you and me put together.”
I watched my breathing, tried to stay calm and not enter into his game, but I wanted to know what he was getting at. I wasn’t trying to be in a relationship with Noah, but there was no denying my attraction to her.
I gripped the wheel without responding.
“I’m telling you from experience. That chick’s got a lot more hidden secrets than you’d think at first glance, and—”
“That’s why you decided to come out here, right?” I said, turning onto a side street.
“I guess it’s hard to resist a girl who keeps so much to herself. There’s always another layer you’re trying to peel back.”
I tried to guess at what he meant by that: a girl who keeps so much to herself… I hadn’t met many of those.
“I’m not trying to ruin things for you, but I don’t think you’re the type of guy who’s willing to wait. I don’t know if I’m explaining myself.”
“I can be patient,” I said, staring at the line of cars in front of me, “but I can be impatient, too. Like right now, I’m impatient to pop you in the nose.”
Dan smiled, and it took everything I had not to turn around and give it to him then and there. That dickhead was talking about his ex-girlfriend with no kind of respect whatsoever.
I get it, I was no knight in shining armor, but at least I didn’t try to pretend. I was straight-up about who I was. This dude was a liar and a cheat.
“I’m just warning you, bro. When you let her in, it’s hard to let her go. Just like you said, I’m here, right? If you don’t watch out, you’ll find yourself eating out of her hand, and you won’t know how or why you got there.”
I stopped at the gate at the airport.
“Disappear,” I ordered him with a clenched jaw.
Dan grabbed his bag and got out, but not without a few last words:
“I wanted to fix it. Beth is nothing compared to her.”
And then he turned around and walked off.
* * *
I’d spent the rest of the day on the beach. I couldn’t stop thinking about what Dan had said, and despite his warning, all I wanted was to see Noah and be sure she was okay. I had no idea how to deal with my feelings for her.
I grabbed my surfboard and paddled out into the ocean. I didn’t know what else to do. Having her in my home was torture. I lusted after her like crazy, and whenever I saw her, my imagination went wild. If my father knew what was happening, he’d kill me. I couldn’t forget, Noah was five years younger than me.
Even so, I went to find her at the bar she’d been stubborn enough to get a job at. I couldn’t understand why the hell she’d do that, especially as a waitress. Bar 48 was a place a lot of bands played. My friends and I went there pretty often. The drinks were cheap, and all kinds of people went there. I wasn’t at all pleased to have Noah working there, and it was even worse when I saw her come out with Mario.
He and I shared a past—one I didn’t want Noah ever to know about. The things I’d done when I’d left home, the way I’d acted after my mother had run off… Mario had been there through every stage of it and knew about all I’d had to get through to end up where I was now. I didn’t want those secrets coming to light—certainly not with someone I shared my house with.
Noah’s hair was down. She looked tired. She was clearly stressed out by my presence. She was brusque with me, and her answers made me want to dig at her further. That push and pull between us amused me. I was having fun seeing her grow irate.