by A. M. Mahler
Was that something that Ryan was concerned about—repercussions if they asked too many questions? How had such a sweet girl gotten sucked up into a situation like this? But then again, maybe she wasn’t being sucked up into anything at all. Maybe Jimmy Reilly really had a heart attack behind the wheel. It’s what the coroner’s report said, and without another valid opinion, that’s what they were stuck with.
Maybe it was really just weird Cooper they had to worry about. Danny had a different perspective on him since he was on the outside looking in. Other than his feelings for Jackie—which he was realizing were more significant than he thought—he didn’t have any emotional skin in the game. He had no dog in the fight of Jimmy Reilly versus Toby Willis, or Jimmy Reilly versus whoever.
He crossed the room, yanked back the covers on his bed, and climbed underneath. It had been a strange night. His weekends were typically uneventful. He’d see Jackie a few times during the short break, sure, but she never came to his room. She usually spent the majority of their time off from classes studying, and he spent it watching her study.
Now he was in his bed alone, and she was all the way over on the couch. If he was smart, he would have pulled the futon out before she’d settled in. It was a full-size bed when fully extended. That way he could have claimed to have fallen asleep while watching a movie, and slept beside her all night.
And just how pathetic is that, McKenzie?
Since when did he have to resort to subterfuge to get a girl in his bed?
Since you met one that’s way out of your league.
He was startled out of his thoughts when Jackie suddenly sat up with a gasp. She looked around wildly, clearly not remembering where she was.
“It’s okay, Jacks. You’re okay.”
She looked over at him, still confused.
He thought she might still be trapped in her dream.
“I guess I’m a little jittery,” she said softly. “I don’t even remember what it was about.”
“No worries.”
“Did I wake you up?”
“No, I just got into bed. You missed your brother. He came to check on you a few minutes ago.”
“Of course he did,” she sighed. “I must have really been out. I didn’t hear a thing.”
Thank God for that.
“I’m surprised he didn’t haul me over his shoulder and drag me back to our room.”
“Well, I’m sure he considered it,” Danny smirked. “But you were exhausted and not in any danger. He was here for a while, but since you didn’t stir, he didn’t want to disturb you.”
“Would you mind…never mind.”
“What’s wrong?”
She was chewing on her lip, which meant she was nervous. He was pretty sure that even if they spent every waking moment together from now until eternity, she’d still get nervous around him.
“Tell me.”
“Would you mind…sleeping here…with me?”
He was stunned for exactly one second before he grabbed his comforter and bounded over to the futon. “Stand up, I’ll pull it out.”
She grabbed the quilt and did as she was told. She had a slight smile on her face as Danny pulled the futon out and extended it to its full size.
When it was set up, he grabbed his pillow as well as Doug’s and tossed them down, then spread out his comforter and the quilt she was using.
“Do you want me to give you something to sleep in? I’ve got flannel pants and a T-shirt. You’ll be swimming in them, but at least you might feel more comfortable.”
She blushed, looked away, and then back up at him under her lashes. “Okay.”
He dug in his dresser for a minute before emerging with a pair of red-and-black flannel pants and a Rolling Stones T-shirt. When he handed them to her, she looked around the room. He realized it was because she was trying to figure out where to change without doing it in front of him.
“Let me check the hall and make sure it’s clear. You can use the bathroom if you need to, and get changed in a stall. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one on the floor this weekend. I haven’t heard anyone else.”
He checked the hallway and the bathroom before quickly shuffling her inside. Then he stood watch outside while she changed and used the facilities. When she was finished, he hustled her back and quickly closed and locked the doors. He took in her appearance as she put her folded clothes into her backpack. His clothes were probably five sizes too big for her, but she looked hot in them.
She climbed into the bed and pulled the covers up.
“This is much better, thanks.”
Danny was rooted to the spot. There she was, in his room, snuggled under the covers in his clothes. And she was looking expectantly up at him, waiting for him to get into bed with her. He’d had many a sticky fantasy that had started out with just this scenario.
Snap out of it. She’s not looking for that. Remember, she called you tonight because she was scared—not horny.
When he realized that he’d been standing there for a bit and she was now looking at him strangely, he made his feet move and climbed into bed next to her. He rolled onto his side to face her, and she burrowed down before he shifted a little closer. When she didn’t scurry to the other side of the mattress, he moved closer still.
“Thank you for coming to get me tonight,” she said. “I really appreciate it. I don’t know if I overreacted or not, but I didn’t want to be alone, and all I knew was that if I asked you for help, you’d come.”
“Always.”
She blushed a bit at his words.
Danny couldn’t believe that she was actually here and that they were having pillow talk. “Why didn’t you want to go back to your room? Why did you want to stay here?”
“I don’t know. I just thought that if it was Cooper, maybe there was a chance he’d be back at my room hanging out with Ryan. I didn’t see where the guy went. He could have made it back to our room before me. And I feel safe with you. Not that I wouldn’t have trusted Ryan, but it’s, I don’t know, different with you.”
“Jacks, I’m going to kiss you now. Don’t freak out, okay? I’m not going to do anything else.”
He heard her breath hitch, and her body tensed up. Not exactly the reaction he was hoping for. Way to go, moron. She confides in you and you blurt out that you want to suck her face off.
“I’ve never been kissed before. What if I suck at it?”
A small smile flitted across his lips. What guy on the planet deserved this girl? Certainly, not him.
“That’s a complete impossibility. It’s you and me, Jacks. It won’t be anything but amazing.”
“I’m nervous.”
She was trembling in his arms now.
His hand on her lower back pulled her just a little closer. She was so, so sweet, and he was afraid to do anything wrong that might mar this perfect girl, but he just couldn’t wait anymore. This was their moment, and he knew that she understood that, too.
As he leaned closer, her eyes fluttered shut. He tried to give her plenty of time to push him away, but in his hazy brain, he wasn’t sure if he ended up giving her any time at all. It seemed like it took forever for his lips to finally touch hers, and when they did, heat shot right down to his toes and then spread from there, warming him from the inside out. While his experience with girls couldn’t be considered vast, he knew he’d never felt anything like this before. The connection between them was something special.
He brushed his lips over hers once, twice, and then he gently used his tongue to urge her mouth open. She yielded to his request but was hesitant to deepen the kiss. It took all his restraint not to start mauling her. Suddenly, he wanted to taste her everywhere. He wanted to go where no man had gone before and stake his claim. But he knew that if he did that, she’d bolt like a rabbit and he might never get her back.
She melted into him as she let him explore her mouth, and after a few minutes, she began to kiss him back. He was lost. How long they kissed for, he couldn’t sa
y. Not nearly long enough, he was sure. But when exhaustion finally claimed her, he kissed her on the forehead and pulled her close as her eyes drifted shut.
And he knew that the girl currently snuggled in his arms was the first person he had ever truly loved.
WHEN JACKIE ENTERED her room the next morning, Ryan was laying on the couch with his feet propped up on the table, flipping through television channels. When he saw her, he popped up and looked at her carefully.
She leaned against the door with a soft smile and sighed. “He kissed me.”
“What?” her brother demanded. “Where?”
“In his dorm room.”
Jackie pushed off the door and floated over to the couch. She flopped down with a contented sigh, then looked up at Ryan and laughed at how tense he was. Her wonderful news displeased him, and she could sense his inner battle about whether or not he wanted to express his disapproval.
“I meant, where on your body?” he growled.
“My lips!” she laughed as she watched him pacing like a caged tiger. “Where else would he kiss me?”
“I don’t want to think about it,” he snapped. “What else did he try? I’ll break his fucking legs. I swear to God I will.”
Jackie sat up and considered her brother. He was really worked up over this. It was strange that they had known each other as brother and sister for such a short time, but Ryan had been able to slide right into the role of protector and confidant. He’d become all the things she’d always read and heard brothers to be: overprotective, unreasonable, overwhelming, funny, sweet, caring, and sometimes smelly.
“Ry, I know you have a hard time believing this, but he really isn’t the guy you think he is. He didn’t even hint at trying anything else. In fact, before he kissed me, he even went so far as to assure me he wouldn’t try anything else. He respects me. He cares about me. I’m sorry you disapprove of him, but I think I’m falling in love with him. He’s going to be around for a while, so I really wish you’d try to get along with him.”
He let out a sigh and she saw his shoulders begin to sag. “That’s a lot to ask. This guy has been my nemesis for as long as I can remember, Jacks.”
“This is a new dynamic for us,” she replied. “We’re getting used to dealing with each other in this new relationship. I’m happy with how things are between you and me. I like that you look after me, but we’re still learning how to navigate each other. I respect your opinion, and I hope you respect mine. I’ve never had a boyfriend. I don’t remember ever really wanting one. I don’t think he’ll break my heart, Ry, but if he does, that’s between me and him.”
“Like hell it is.”
“I have a right to that experience, either way. I will say this: If the situation were ever reversed, I hope I’d go all mama tiger on you, too.”
She stood up and walked over to him.
He wrapped his arms around her and sighed deeply.
“You don’t have to worry,” she whispered. “This is the start of something amazing, Ryan. I can feel it.”
Eight
RYAN ROLLED HIS eyes and groaned when he opened the door to find Danny standing on the other side. Then he simply turned away and walked into the room, dropping down onto the couch.
“Well, hey there, good buddy,” Danny smiled, closing the door behind him.
Ryan knew that Danny was aware that he got to him. The feeling was mutual.
For the life of him, Ryan couldn’t figure out why Danny rubbed him the wrong way. They had never been friends, even though they had grown up together at Trent. Ryan had known Danny longer than he knew a lot of his friends. As a matter of fact, they’d started out at Trent from kindergarten together, along with Sophie and Brooke.
But they just didn’t seem to understand each other. Danny had a bad attitude, or so Ryan had always thought. He was always doing things to try to get kicked out of school. Ryan was convinced Danny could light the place on fire and still attend school there.
But Jackie saw something different in him. She looked past the piercings and the tattoos and the heavy metal band T-shirts and found someone appealing underneath it all. She said Danny was respectful, but until Jackie had shown up, Ryan had never seen much evidence of that. Danny was never out-and-out rude to anyone—except him—but Ryan wouldn’t have described him that way.
“Jackie, your boy toy is here!”
Ryan heard her gasp of indignation from the bedroom and smiled. Having a little sister was a lot of fun. He knew that Jackie and Danny weren’t having sex, but it didn’t stop him from pushing her buttons. She was so innocent, which Ryan thought of as a good thing, and he loved to heckle her about her boyfriend. And if it served as a reminder to Danny about what he wasn’t getting, well, that was a bonus, too.
“So, where are you taking her?” Ryan asked.
“It’s a secret,” Danny replied.
“The hell it is,” Ryan growled.
Danny held up his hands in peace. “I meant it’s a surprise to her. I don’t want her to know. I’m taking her somewhere she’s never been before.”
“And that place would be?”
Danny sighed and dropped his hands to his waist. “Ice skating, then we’ll grab something to eat. But don’t you tell her, dude.”
“There’s a rink around here?”
“It’s down by Grayson Falls at the ski resort.”
“That’s like an hour away,” Ryan frowned. “What are you going to do if something happens?”
“What the hell is going to happen?”
“The last time she left campus, the press was all over her,” Ryan reminded him. “If you’re an hour away and that happens, how are you going to get her out of there? She’s like first prize to paparazzi now because nobody can get near her. There’s literally a price on her head. Everyone wants to know what she thinks about her dad’s accident. They’re chasing a byline, man. They all want to get her story.”
“I think it’s pretty obvious that she was devastated by it, but what do I know? Anyway, I doubt reporters are staking out an ice rink an hour from the school she attends on the off chance she shows up. Besides, last time she left campus, she was with you, and you two were photographed together. Nobody knows me. Nobody cares about me. If they are at the gate and they see me leaving, they won’t see her. She can lay low, don’t worry. They know your car, not mine. She has to get out of these walls, dude. How is she ever going to figure out who she is if she’s always stuck away in an ivory tower? She traveled all around the country with her dad and didn’t see any of it. She has a right to experience these things now.”
“Her safety comes first,” Ryan argued.
“I think I’ve proven myself there, Willis. I’m not going to let anything happen to her.”
They fell into an awkward silence. Ryan wished Jackie would hurry the hell up. He knew that McKenzie would put himself in harm’s way to protect his sister. Hell, Ryan saw it every time Cooper stared at Jackie. He could also see that Danny would love to beat the shit out of Cooper, and it seemed as if the feeling was mutual.
He knew that Cooper made Jackie nervous, which was why he’d all but stopped letting Cooper hang out in their room, and when he did let him come over, Ryan always ensured that Jackie wasn’t around. It was creepy the way Cooper acted almost possessive of her when he had no cause to be. The two of them couldn’t even be considered friends since Jackie would always avoid Ryan’s group if Cooper was around, or leave when he showed up.
But Cooper hadn’t actually done anything but glower at Danny and occasionally grumble to Ryan about how Danny was brainwashing her against him. It was a little weird, but Ryan didn’t think it was all that threatening. Still, he tried to give Jackie her distance when he could.
And what if he was a little overprotective of his sister? So what? Ryan had never had responsibility over another person before. He wanted to help Jackie grow and experience new things, but he knew that she also needed time to heal, and she couldn’t do that if there were cam
eras constantly being shoved in her face.
Danny wasn’t the one left with the fallout from Jimmy Reilly’s death; Ryan was. He was the one that had to consult with lawyers and accountants and investment advisors. Sure, his dad helped, but Toby was just finishing his season, and the pressure was on for him to win. He wasn’t paying as close attention to the details of Jimmy Reilly’s estate as he needed to, which meant it fell to him to do it.
Ryan could admit to himself that he envied Danny’s position in Jackie’s life. He got to be the supportive friend, the one who took her ice skating and let her spread her wings. He wasn’t the one left with all the aftermath of Jimmy’s death.
Ryan was the one who lived with the empty shell that used to be Jackie Reilly. When his sister saw Danny, she lit up. She smiled. She was engaged. She wasn’t a haunted version of her former self like she was around their room. Of course, it could be argued that Jackie felt safe enough with Ryan that she let her walls down and let him see her pain. She obviously felt safe around Danny, as well, but it was a different kind of safe than she felt with her brother. Maybe being with Danny helped her forget what her new life was about. But Ryan couldn’t forget, and he knew that he never would.
“All right, I’m ready,” Jackie said as she finally emerged from her bedroom. “You said to dress warm and wear comfortable shoes, so I put on my ugly sneakers. That’s saying something about how much I like you, Danny. These things are heinous.”
“You know, for someone who says she wants to blend in with the wallpaper, you really are quite the fashion snob,” Danny joked.
“Don’t get me started,” Ryan grumbled. He was constantly having to walk all the way down to the mail center to pick up packages of new clothes she had ordered online that wouldn’t fit in their mailbox.
“You can be fashionable without being flashy,” Jackie pointed out.