Fall Forever (Fall For Me)
Page 7
Though Lacy had gone to middle school with us, boys and girls didn’t really mingle too much back then—but Ava had been popular. I knew Lacy would remember her. And she did—I saw her eyes narrow with a jealous glint in them. Before she could say anything though, Riley cleared his throat.
“Jones—what I was saying tonight—in my office—I was trying to tell you Ava’s having a hard time with it … but we’re over.” He gave me a level stare. “Completely over.”
My heart did a little flutter at his words. And the way he was looking at me. And the way he had said that—all husky and meaningful. Like he was conveying a message.
But then my heart sank as Lacy seemed to interpret his message differently. She gushed out, “Maybe you could take me for a ride in your new car.” She pushed away her half-finished dinner and smiled up at him all flirty and I’m easy like. “And take me dancing.”
Riley rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes cutting to me before he answered. “You mean the three of us?”
“No!” Lacy laughed. “Zoey isn’t into cars, or dancing. She likes to stay home with her brothers and sisters since her dad died and her mom is … struggling.”
Okay, that was true, what she said, but it suddenly made me feel boring (and I’d told her about my mom in confidence, so I was also kind of fuming).
“I like hanging out with Jones’s brother and sister too,” Riley said, and I could have kissed him. In fact, I wanted to full-on make-out with him right there on the table. Suddenly, he was the sexiest guy on the planet.
Take that Lacy! Who’s boring now?
But Lacy let the remark slide, as though it hadn’t even been uttered. Instead she turned all chit-chatty, changing the subject. “Why do you call Zoey, Jones?”
Riley took a drink of his soda. He rubbed his mouth with his palms before answering. “Back in middle school, when I first met her—I just wanted to make it clear—let her know: her last name wasn’t Oaks.” I blinked. (Oaks was Finn’s last name.) Riley’s eyes locked on mine. “—not yet.”
Missiles shot through my body. I choked out. “Riley, it’s not going to be Oaks. Ever.”
He raised his eyebrows. “You sure about that, Jones?”
I swallowed. “Riley, I’m completely over Finn. Despite what you think—or what Finn’s mom tried to feed you—we’re not going to get back together.”
Riley’s eyes clung to mine, then he leaned his head back, staring up at the ceiling. “That’s not what he’s saying, Jones.”
I wanted to tell him so bad, “Finn’s not who I want anymore. You are.”
I wanted to express everything in my heart. How much I longed for him to be my boyfriend. For a crazy, psycho moment, as I stared into his warm, hopeful eyes, I felt I could. Felt I could pour out my heart and soul—even though it would be in front of Lacy.
But just as I opened my mouth to confess my feelings, Lacy broke the moment. Shattered it.
She clutched Riley’s thigh. “So, let’s see how fast your car can go!”
She snuggled up close to him and gave him a skanky smile, fluttering her eyelashes. “And we can check out the back seat.”
Riley glanced at me, as though for permission. Or at least to see what I thought of this. He had to be sorely tempted. I mean, Lacy was beautiful and had killer curves and she was blatantly throwing herself at him. He had to know if he went off with her he was going to score big time, no doubt about it.
I shrugged at him, like whatever. After all, I wasn’t exactly into my dear friend Lacy anymore—it seemed. I mean, I hadn’t seen her since middle school, and now I hoped I’d never see her again, ever. So, she might as well get lost. At least that’s what I tried telling myself. But in truth, I knew I’d die if Riley left with her.
Still, what could I do? I held my breath, waiting for Riley’s answer, knowing he believed Finn—that Finn Oaks and I were fated to be together. Forever. That though Finn had made a horrific error in judgment I’d eventually forgive him. Because that’s what I do. Over and over.
Riley took another drink, then flexed and unflexed his jaw muscles a moment—something he does when he’s thinking. Apparently, weighing the situation in his mind.
Finally he drew in his breath and said, “I think I’m going to pass. Jones’s brother and sister are at their grandma’s tonight.”
I jerked my head up at him in surprise. How did he know that? He must have overheard me talking to the other waitresses earlier.
Riley went on, kind of confidential-like, “I’m pretty sure Jones planned on this being a girl’s night.”
Now I felt lame. And pathetic. He felt sorry for me. Ugh! He must have heard how excited I sounded to have my dear old friend in town, heard all my silly plans that I had gushed to the waitresses in the break room about—just trying to lift my spirits and seem like I had a life outside of work and my family. Groan.
Riley rose from the table, giving the excuse he had work to finish in his office.
“It was nice meeting you,” he said to Lacy before walking away.
Lacy watched him go with her mouth hanging open in disbelief. I mean, she had thrown herself at him. I’m sure she hadn’t expected him to brush her off.
My spirits turned toward the heavens. Yay Riley! You rock!
I so wanted to follow him into his office and pin him against his door. Lock lips with him again and get reacquainted with his thrilling, tantalizing tongue. I wanted to so incredibly bad.
Having Lacy around wasn’t what stopped me. Screw Lacy, I thought, I’m just going to go for it.
But then she started whining about how she missed her boyfriend and how she felt sad and alone and ugly.
And of course Riley’s rejection crushed her.
Ugh.
So, of course, I had to take her to find chocolate. Lots of it—fast. And it couldn’t be here, in the booth she’d just been jilted in. I took her downtown to a restaurant that served chocolate decadence to die for. But when we got there the place was hopping busy, so the hostess offered us a table in the bar, where there was a table-for-two that just opened. “Otherwise, it’s an hour wait,” she said.
So, we took the table and didn’t mention we weren’t old enough to eat in there. “We just won’t order any drinks,” I told Lacy.
But Lacy only shrugged, like her heart wasn’t into anything we did anyway. So, anything was as good as anything else and everything sucked.
As soon we sat down, I got a text. The phone number it was sent from looked slightly familiar. It made my stomach clench seeing it, but I wasn’t quite sure why … until I clicked on the message. It was from Bianca.
She had sent me a picture … of her and Finn. They were totally mackin’ in front of Blanket Grove Mental Hospital.
A chill crawled down my spine. So much for Finn’s speech about his faithfulness to me. I felt like I was going to be sick, knowing there was a time I would have totally fallen for his speech … and been heartbroken by the picture. But now I was only disgusted.
Bianca sent a message with the picture—of course—making sure her victory (well, victory to her) dug in deep. It said: “See? I told you he’d be kissing me again before you could re-connect the chain you had him locked to. Ha-ha!”
I cringed. Wow, she’s a witch.
I shuddered, realizing she was going to be a huge part of Finn’s life for a while. It made me nauseous, but I tried to shrug the feeling away. At least his descent into skank-dom would happen without me having to be part of it—or anywhere near it.
I didn’t mention the text to Lacy. It just sat in my stomach like a pile of churning rocks. But no way did I want to talk to her about it.
Instead, while we waited for our desserts to arrive, I listened like a good, supportive friend as she sobbed about her break-up. But I noticed she kept glancing at the bar while she dished her troubles. When I followed her gaze, she giggled as though she’d been caught.
“The bartender’s to-die-for cute,” she admitted with another sheepish l
augh, like she was embarrassed she’d been caught checking the guy out while she grumbled about her break-up. But still, that didn’t stop her from adding, “I’m going to go order us some drinks from the guy.” Then she added before I could even open my mouth, “Virgins drinks—with no alcohol, of course.”
She came back at the same time our chocolate arrived. As we ate and dished, things started to click between us. It must have been from the chocolate—put us on a sugar high or something. We giggled and giggled as we whined about boys, drinking drink after virgin drink from the cute bartender Lacy was flirting with.
We were having a great “girl’s night” until Lacy announced, “I have an idea!” She took another sip of her drink before suggesting, “Let’s go to Riley’s.”
Well, I have to say, that idea sounded good to me. But even in my sugar-high state, I knew three was not what I wanted. Three was bad. I wanted Riley all to myself.
“It’s late,” I said. “He’s asleep.”
“Good,” she grinned. Then she told me this joke-idea she had. We’d move Riley’s car, and in the morning he would think it was stolen. Well, I was higher on that sugar than I realized because that sounded super funny to me. And besides, it put me in the proximity of Riley. I liked that.
So, we drove out to Riley’s. His car key was under his front right tire, where he always kept it. Why, I don’t know, but he’d been keeping car keys there since he got his license almost two years ago.
We crept into his car, Lacy behind the wheel, and she didn’t want to turn on the lights because it might wake up Riley. And once we were a little away from his house—just a tiny bit—she gunned the engine and then sped-out just for fun, but his car had a lot more power than she expected … and she accidentally sped into a tree.
A tree!
I couldn’t believe it!
We’d totaled Riley’s car.
CHAPTER 20
I couldn’t believe what we had just done!
Riley’s car was wrapped around a tree.
I jumped out and looked at the damage and started bawling. And calling Lacy a bunch of horrible names. They just flew out of my mouth. I was so mad at her … and myself.
What had we done? Ruined Riley’s pride and joy—the only thing that had made him smile in months. I felt sick. I really did. I puked. Then puked again and again and Lacy ran off, because, lets face it, I was a witch to her.
I puked a couple of times more and then, still crying hysterically, staggered back to Riley’s.
I pounded on his front door, and when he finally answered—his sweet, sleepy eyes full of concern—it made me cry even harder. He put his warm arms around me, holding me tight. “Jones, what happened? Are you okay?”
“I am, but your car—”
Riley stiffened. “My car?!” His eyes darkened and his jaw muscles tensed. “My car that I told you not to touch?”
I sobbed, explaining the whole thing, ending with the plea, “Don’t hate me Riley. Please don’t hate me.”
“I don’t hate you, Zoey. I don’t. But I am mad. And you’re going to have to pay me back. Do you understand, Zoey?” He raised his eyebrows. “Do you understand how you’re going to pay me back?”
I swallowed, feeling sick. I’d never seen Riley mad before—well, not mad at me.
I nodded at his question though I didn’t really know how he intended me to pay him back. I didn’t have a clue. And the way he kept saying my name instead of Jones unnerved me. He never did that—ever. It sent chills down my spine.
I felt dizzy. The room kept spinning. What was I going to have to do? Give him all my tips … forever? Scrub out the men’s toilets in the restaurant’s bathrooms for the rest of my life? Fine. Whatever. It didn’t matter. I would do it. I’d do anything.
Riley looked deep into my eyes, his voice impassive. Like a calm, stern order, “Take off your jacket and go sit on my couch.”
I stared at him, uncertain. What was he planning to do? Lecture me? Yell at me? Couldn’t he just do that right here?—with my jacket on?
It was the middle of the night and I really didn’t feel like I could take him yelling at me right now. I knew I deserved it, though—of course. Only, I wanted to stay by the door while he did it, so I could run away when he was through killing me with his anger.
Only I didn’t want to protest, so instead I brilliantly said, “Huh?”
He said it again, exactly the same.
“Take off …?” I stared at him. “Are you kidding?”
“No Zoey. I’m completely serious,” he said, sounding completely serious.
What the …?!
“It’s late Riley. Can we do this tomorrow?”
He gave this little moan … with a smile. “Zoey, we can do it whenever.”
I blinked at him, but before I could get out another brilliant “Huh?”—shock!!!—he tenderly cupped my chin in his warm hands.
Now it was my turn to moan. My breath caught as his yummy, soft lips slowly pressed against mine, first lingering lightly, ever so gently. So warm and sweet my insides danced and tickled. Mmm.
Nothing in the world could be better than this, I thought dreamily.
But then I was proven wrong.
His kisses grew in intensity. He wrapped his arms around me tighter, making my knees go weak. His velvet tongue slid through my lips, tantalizing my mouth in the most delicious way known to man. Tingles sparked through my body, all the way down to my toes.
He leaned into me even deeper still, his lips insistent, his hot tongue searching—searching, searching—his fervent eager hands tangling in my hair. I was putty, melting into a puddle,
But then—
His doorbell rang, making me jump.
Riley groaned, giving me one last tender kiss, then pulled away reluctantly, groaning against my mouth. “We’re going to do that forever, Jones. It’s your punishment.”
He pulled open the front door. “What do you want?”
“I—uh,” Sabrina, a girl from school stammered, shocked at Riley’s rude greeting. She was beautiful and used to guys gushing at her feet. Of course most guys she probably didn’t just interrupt from a mind-blowing kiss.
She cleared her throat and went on, “I was just letting you know, Lacy called me. She’s in my car now. She’s going to spend the night at my house.”
“Awesome,” Riley said, and shut the door.
He turned back to me with a smile. “Where were we? Oh yeah.” His lips twitched a grin. “You were going to take off your coat and sit on my couch … and promise to be my girlfriend.”
I breathed out a laugh. A delighted one, but also bewildered. “When did this happen? I thought you needed time.”
“I did, Jones. Time to make sure you weren’t making a mistake. But—tonight I got an interesting text from Bianca.”
I cringed, knowing exactly what he was talking about. That picture of her and Finn kissing.
Riley watched my eyes closely, reading my expression. Apparently, it let him know I’d seen the picture. He didn’t say another word about it. Thankfully.
“I didn’t really need the text though, Jones. Not really. I believed you at dinner tonight.” He edged closer and closer to me, backing me against the wall. “Your eyes said it all. You want me. Not him.”
I nodded, barely able to speak. He had that exactly right. “My eyes said that?”
His answer was a slow, hungry nod.
“You wanna know what else they said?” His hot breath on my ear and neck made my knees go weak. “It involves a lot of kissing, Jones.” He drew closer. “Your eyes said they want my mouth on yours.”
“I do.”
He smiled. “Okay … I’ll give you what you want Jones, I always do. But first your punishment—” He started helping me off with my coat as he went on with what he was about to say.
But I interrupted him with a gasp, the total horror of what happened less than a half-hour ago washing over me anew. “Riley, I’m so sorry about your car.”
“Drunk? No! … Oh. Maybe.” Suddenly, those “virgin” drinks didn’t seem so virgin anymore.
Riley tilted his head. “Don’t accept drinks from people anymore, Jones.” His voice was teasing, but his eyes were serious.
“No. Okay. Yeah, I won’t. But Riley, I’m so sorry about your car—” He placed two warm fingers over my lips. “No, Jones. Don’t apologize again. The car—I don’t even care about it. It’s you I care about.” He raised his eyebrows, searching my eyes. “You’re alright?”
I nodded shakily, a jet of warmth shooting through my body from his kind, sweet words and the way he said them. It made me all gooey inside. And all emotional. My heart did a gigantic jig of joy. “I’m wonderful.”
He raised his eyebrows with a grin. “Okay, then on to your punishment.” His eyes twinkled. “Take off your coat, sit on my couch and let me do what your eyes were begging for.”
“And I’m going to be your girlfriend—for real this time? For more than a minute?”
“Forever, Jones. I swear. When I fell for you in middle school—I fell hard.” He looked deep into my eyes, melting my heart with his fervent gaze. “I fell forever.”
He finally did what my eyes (and heart) begged for—he kissed me. And this time he didn’t pull away. This time it was for forever.
RAFE’S FOREVER
The boy had prayed to die. That was how Drake found him. It was the child’s silent prayer (his wish), “Please, let me die.” He prayed it constantly. Over and over. “Let me die. Let me die.”
But the boy, Rafe, he was so young, too young. Drake couldn’t do it, end the boy’s life. But once finding him, Drake felt responsible. He couldn’t just leave him there, alone to fend for himself. He couldn’t. Not with those people. They were deviant, cruel. And the boy was good. Drake could feel that about him. So sometimes he would help the kid out—enter the boy’s body when his agony was unbearable. Take the kid’s pain.