by Elle Thorpe
Banjo frowned. “Actually, no. Only players wear these ones. There’s no supporters’ T-shirts like it.”
“So…”
“So whoever killed your uncle is probably on the team,” Rafe concluded.
“Fuck.” Banjo swore. He took the list from Rafe and eyed it before handing it back to me. “But why?”
I shrugged. “That’s what I’ve been trying to work out. I have no idea. I have no idea about anything. Why would he kill my uncle but then stick around long enough to save me, knowing I might be able to identify him?”
“You didn’t see his face?”
I shook my head. “No, there was so much smoke, and I was really out of it. All I know is he was big. And fit enough to lift me from the floor. I was close to unconscious, so I would have been heavy and awkward. All I could focus on was the letters on his shirt.”
Banjo flopped down on the bed and squinted at the ceiling. “Okay, this is all too much when I’ve still got tequila in my blood. I vote we sleep on this and talk about it some more tomorrow.”
He snaked an arm around my waist and pulled me down between the two of them. I landed on my side, and Banjo immediately fitted himself to my back, while Rafe and I stared at each other.
I blinked in surprise. “You don’t hate me? I lied to you.”
“Everybody lies, princess. Some of us are just better at not getting caught.”
I glanced at Rafe sharply.
But before I could ponder it too deeply, he ran his hand up my thigh, below the hem of Banjo’s shirt, and grinned wickedly at me. “Lost your panties, huh?”
Suddenly, all thoughts of lies, fires, and having feelings for more than one boy flew right out of my head.
The next morning, I woke up in a tangle of arms and legs, pressed between two half-naked boys who’d both somehow lost their shirts and jeans during the night. Everything came rushing back. Messing around with the two of them. Kissing them. Letting them take my clothes off. More than once. Banjo’s shirt hadn’t lasted long once we were all in bed together. Hands had wandered. Tongues had made me squeal. And still, I’d gotten nothing more than a feel of their chests. They were treating me with kid gloves, refusing to go any further until I was sober. I was pretty sure I’d sworn never to drink again, because even this morning, after two mind-blowing orgasms the night before, I wanted more. Of both of them. I couldn’t choose one over the other, and so far, neither had even hinted at making me.
A buzzing noise caught my attention, and I untangled myself, finding Banjo’s shirt and my skirt and pulling them on. For the life of me, I couldn’t find my panties, but it didn’t matter. I needed to go home before school anyway. There was no way I was rocking up at Saint View this morning, reeking of sex with yesterday’s clothes on. Wouldn’t that have been the scandal. Not that any scandal could possibly be bigger than what had happened yesterday with my locker.
“What are you doing?” Banjo mumbled, blinking blearily at his watch. “It’s early. Come back to bed.”
I tiptoed over, not wanting to wake Rafe, and kissed Banjo lightly on the lips. “I’ve got to go home and get changed for school. I’ll see you there, okay?”
“Mmm, you better. I’ve got something to ask you.”
I smiled softly. He was so cute. So sweet. He’d taken such good care of me last night, and in the cold, sober light of the morning, I appreciated that. It would have been easy to get carried away. To go all the way with the two of them, and though I’d thought I wanted that, I realized this morning I hadn’t been ready for it. Not for both of them. The two of them together were fun, and hot and so damn sexy, but I wanted my first time to be special. I wanted real connection. Not just a good time.
“What do you want to ask me?” I smoothed his tousled hair back.
“I got a room for tonight. In Ridgeback, for after the game. Come watch me? Afterward, you can stay with me if you want.”
My heart fluttered. “Just you and me?” I whispered.
He strained up and kissed me. “Just the two of us.” He pulled my head down to deepen the kiss, and I was tempted to fall back into bed with him right now, school be damned.
But I couldn’t give Colt and Gillian that satisfaction.
“If she’s staying with you after the game, she rides there with me,” Rafe said without opening his eyes.
I glanced at Banjo. He shrugged and just kissed me again.
“See you at school.” Then he rolled over and was sound asleep before I even got to the doorway.
I tiptoed out, checking the hallway for signs of Augie, but it was clear, so I raced down the steps and let myself out the front door. I was relieved to see Augie’s car was nowhere in sight, and when I chanced a glance up at Colt’s bedroom window, it was empty. It was predawn, so that shouldn’t be all that surprising, but I breathed a sigh of relief. Had he noticed my car had been there all night? Surely he had?
“Doesn’t matter either way,” I said to myself, opening the driver’s-side door and tossing my things onto the passenger seat.
Rafe’s words about how everyone lied floated back into my head. It was true. I was lying to myself right now, trying to pretend I didn’t care whether Colt had noticed or not.
My cell buzzed from within my purse again, and I realized I still hadn’t checked the earlier messages that had woken me. I fished the phone out and hit the home button.
“Shit,” I whispered, scrolling through what felt like a hundred notifications. Most from Selina. I hadn’t told her where I was. I’d meant to send her a text last night, and I’d completely spaced out…via orgasm.
I somehow doubted Selina would accept that as a valid excuse.
Oh, well, I supposed that solved the problem of the party. I’d likely be grounded for my eighteenth instead. Ugh.
The other handful of messages were from Meredith. Given as I was already on my way to face Selina, I hit the little green call button by Meredith’s name.
“Where the hell have you been!” she yelled, her voice echoing through the speakers of my car.
I started the engine and pulled out of the driveway with one last look up at Colt’s bedroom window.
“Settle down,” I complained. “I’ve got a headache.” Or more accurately, a hangover.
“Selina was blowing up my phone last night. And not just mine. My parents’ phones, plus everybody from Providence and Edgely she could get a hold of. Nobody knew where you were. We all assumed you were dead in a gutter somewhere! I’ll bet Selina had the cops put out a missing person report.”
Already short-tempered from lack of sleep and a pounding headache, I had a short fuse. “And this is why we had an argument yesterday. Did anyone think to call any of my friends from Saint View? I don’t exactly have a lot of them, so it wouldn’t have taken any of you long to find me if you’d bothered.”
“Excuse me?” Meredith snapped back in the same tone I’d used with her.
I sighed. I deserved that. She’d been worried, and I’d been bitchy. “Sorry,” I said quietly. “You hit a nerve. I didn’t mean to be a bitch.”
Meredith blew out a breath. “Me neither. I was just worried. I did think to call Banjo, but I didn’t know his number or his last name. And I couldn’t remember your other friends’ names. My bad.”
I shook my head, steering through the streets of Saint View. It was quiet on the roads this morning. Nobody was out this early, and the sun was just rising over the beach-side road. I was tempted to stop and soak it in, but that would just be delaying the showdown I needed to have with Selina.
“No, it’s my fault. I haven’t made any effort to introduce you to them. The only reason you got to meet Banjo was by chance.”
“I’d like to meet them,” Meredith said, her voice quiet. “Not just because of how hot they sound, either. I miss you. I feel like they’ve been getting all your time lately.”
Guilt swirled my insides. “I know. I’m sorry. I’m going out of town tonight for a football game, but I heard about a par
ty at the beach tomorrow. Do you want to come?”
I changed lanes, taking the road out of Saint View and into Providence. The sun splashed early morning light over the houses that grew bigger with every passing mile.
“Can I bring some of the others? Everyone has been asking about you.”
I hesitated for the briefest of moments, but I didn’t want to upset Meredith by saying no, even though I wasn’t sure it was a good idea. Judging by the way Banjo had been with Owen, I was worried the party would end in disaster. But I did miss Meredith. And it would be a good test. If there were any problems between my old friends and my new ones, we could hash it all out now, before my birthday. That was just smart.
“Okay, sure. I’ll even pick you up. How about that?”
Meredith squealed happily, clapping her hands. “I need to go shopping. What does one wear to a Saint View party? Something with easy access?”
I choked on a laugh. “Planning on lowering your ridiculously high standards? You know no one in Saint View has a trust fund, right?”
“If the boys there are good enough for my best friend, then they’re good enough for me. Will the football team be there? Maybe we can cross some more names off the list?”
“Yeah, about that. There’s been some…developments. But I’ll tell you about it on the way to the party tomorrow, okay?”
“Can’t wait. Lace?”
“Yeah?”
“I miss you.”
I parked the car in the driveway. “Miss you, too. But we’ll rectify all that tomorrow, okay?”
“Deal. Tomorrow, we party Saint View style.”
Selina rushed out of the house and into the garage before I’d even managed to turn the engine off. She was a blur of messy hair, satin nightgown, and oddly smudged makeup. She yanked open my car door.
“I’m sorry,” I blurted out before she could start yelling. “Truly. I meant to call, but I was angry, and I lost track of time, and then I fell asleep and—”
“Lacey, get out of that car.”
I did. I closed the door behind me and leaned against it. Shit. She was mad. Super mad. I braced myself for the screaming.
She threw her arms around me and burst into tears. “Where have you been? I was so scared. I thought something had happened. That you’d been in a car accident, or worse.” She shifted back to arm’s length, shaking me slightly. “I was so worried! How could you do that? Right after we lost your uncle. You’re all I have, Lacey. You hear me?”
I trembled. Emotion welled up inside me. I hadn’t even thought about the fact she might have been truly worried. Or about the fact I was the only family she had. I was a troll. A horrible, ungrateful bitch. The truth of that wormed its way up my throat and lodged there, impossible to swallow. “I’m sorry,” I gasped. It was impossible to control the burning behind my eyes. Tears spilled over, running down my cheeks. I made no move to dash them away.
But Selina reached out and did it for me. Then pulled me to her, crushing me with surprisingly strong arms, for how petite she was. “I’m sorry, too. I was awful yesterday. I don’t know what came over me. Maybe it’s these new anti-anxiety meds I’m on?” She laughed a little. “Can we blame that? Or hormones?”
I smiled through my tears. “Sure.”
“What on earth are you wearing? Whose shirt is that?” Her nose wrinkled. Then her gaze landed on the emblem, and her eyes widened. “Is that a Saint View Football shirt?”
“Yes.”
“You were with a football player last night? Rafe?”
I nodded.
Selina rubbed at the back of her hand absently. “Okay.” She seemed to have difficultly forming the word. “Okay,” she said again, more firmly, as if she was convincing herself more than me. She pasted on a smile. “That’s okay.”
I didn’t want there to be any lies between us. “And Banjo.”
Her eyes snapped up to meet mine. Her mouth formed a tiny O. “You were with…two football players? From Saint View?” she choked out.
The look on her face would have been hilarious if I hadn’t also just really wanted her to accept I had friends at Saint View now. What our relationship was exactly, I didn’t have to divulge. Hell, I didn’t even know myself. But I wanted her to accept that neither Rafe, Banjo, Jagger, or anyone at Saint View were bad people, just because of their zip code.
“Two football players, from Saint View. Yes.”
She nodded slowly, and then to my surprise, she took my hand and led me inside. “That’s good,” she said eventually, leading me over to the breakfast bar. “Because I wanted to show you something. Wait here.”
I did as I was told while she ran upstairs and came back with a corkboard. She placed it down on the kitchen bench and said, “Ta-da,” waving her hands over it, looking as pleased as a toddler presenting a painting to her parents.
“What is this?” I peered at the board. There was a floor plan, tacked to the center, and around it, she’d printed photos of all sorts of random things. Costumes, flowers, candles, food. “It’s your birthday party,” she said proudly.
I shook my head. “Selina, no. I don’t want to argue about this again. I meant what I said yesterday. I don’t want a party.”
Selina grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “No, you said you didn’t want a party without your new friends at Saint View. See all those black pins on the dance floor?” She pointed to a cluster of pushpins, piercing the center of the floor plan. “That’s all your Providence and Edgely friends.”
“And the green ones?” I asked, lightly tapping my finger to the green pins interspersed between the black ones.
“Are your Saint View classmates. Everybody mingling. All happy as clams.”
She was missing the point entirely. “Sel, the Saint View kids aren’t going to come into Providence, dressed in suits and ballgowns. It’s too much.”
Selina held up a hand. “That’s why it will be a costume party! That will take money out of the equation. No one will be in designer dresses or suits.”
I tilted my head. “That’s not a bad idea.”
“And I booked out Mojitos Beach Bar.”
I glanced up in surprise. “The entire restaurant? That’s…”
Selina frowned. “Too much?”
I shook my head. “Actually, it’s kind of perfect. It’s in Saint View, but it’s a beautiful building, and the food is great. Nobody can deny that. Plus, they have that huge dance floor and space for a live band.”
“Right? That’s exactly what I thought. And it overlooks the beach.” She squeezed my hand again. “Sweetie, I really am sorry about yesterday. The minute you walked out, I realized you were right. And I started planning all this. I booked the restaurant. Emailed your friends. I just wanted to show you that I understood and listened to what you were saying—”
“Wait, what? You emailed my friends? Who? How?” My computer had a password on it, one Selina had never asked for, though I would have given it to her without complaint. Besides that, even I didn’t have the email addresses for more than a handful of people.
“Todd Simmons was very accommodating. He gave me his number during dinner the other week, and when I explained what I wanted to do, he emailed me over all the addresses for the senior class.” She clapped her hands together excitedly. “I already got some RSVPs back.”
“Selina, no,” I whispered. “Isn’t that against some sort of privacy laws? You didn’t seriously invite the entire senior class? That’s more than a hundred kids!” Most of whom I’d never even spoken to. This was not what I had in mind when I’d said I wanted to invite my friends. I’d meant Jagger, Rafe, and Banjo. That’s it. Not the entire freaking grade.
Selina flapped her hands around. She was beginning to remind me of a seal. “Plus all your old Providence friends. Their email addresses were easy enough to get from your uncle’s laptop. But you’ll need to invite the boys from Edgely…” Her voice faded into background chatter, while I panicked over a party I’d never really wanted. The ent
ire senior class, she’d said. Which meant Gillian.
And Colt.
Fuck.
27
Gillian
Marcie never had anything intelligent to say, even at the best of times, but today, her incessant chattering irritated me more than normal. I plastered on a fake smile and nodded occasionally, letting out a little laugh every now and then. But the entire time I had my eye on the school gates.
“Earth to Gillian? What’s up with you this morning?”
“Hey?” I answered, dragging my attention back to the group.
“What’s so interesting about the parking lot that you have to keep staring at it?”
I flicked my hair over my shoulder. “Just waiting for Colt.”
Marcie let out a longing sigh. “You two are complete couple goals. You’ll get prom queen and king for sure this year.”
The other girls all nodded enthusiastically.
“Glad I’ll have your vote.”
Like it mattered. Sure, I wanted to be prom queen. Didn’t everyone? But there were more pressing things on my mind this morning. And one of them had just pulled into the parking lot. “Gotta go, ladies. Colt’s here.”
I flounced away, strutting across the quad. Eyes turned as I went, just the way I liked it. Girls who wanted to be me. Guys who wanted to be with me. It was nothing new. And I was thoroughly bored of all of it. The only thing in my life I wasn’t bored with was him.
“Hey, baby,” I purred. I put my hands on his chest, and not for the first time, marveled at how cut he was. I knew exactly what he had beneath that shirt. Defined pecs. Mouthwatering abs. Biceps I could never drag my eye away from when he worked out in his backyard gym. He’d been a good-looking boy, following me around when we’d first started high school. But he’d grown into a man who drew the attention of women wherever he went. At first, it was just the odd woman, a waitress flirting with him while she took our order at a café. Or a random girl at school who had the balls to go up against me. But his response had been the same to each of them. Complete disinterest. For three years, Colt had worn blinkers around other girls. He only saw me.