Page 44 of Heartland

“Hey, little dinosaur. Why the long face?”

Rickie has appeared beside me. I don’t know how I missed him before. He’s wearing studded motorcycle boots, cut-up jeans and a bonkers red velvet jacket over his black T-shirt. “Hey. Nice jacket. But I think you’d clash with the purple velvet couch.”

“We can’t have it anyway.” He snickers, tilting his head towards Chastity. “Your girl is cheating on you.”

“Ouch, man. That’s a theme with me, I guess.”

“I’mkidding. But why would she do that? It makes no fucking sense. Is she still upset about finding that strange girl in your bed? Thatwaskind of ugly.”

“Nah.” Funny thing is, I’d already forgotten about that. And Chastity had seemed to shrug it off. “The problem is I got sloshed Saturday night, too. That’s when I did the real damage.”

“Uh-oh.” Rickie flinches. “What happened?”

I’ve spent the week trying not to replay it in my head. “I accidentally kissed her.”

“Accidentally?” Rickie’s eyes narrow. “How does that work, exactly?”

I have to admit it’s a good question. “First you get skunk-drunk. Then you let your ex-hookup trick you into thinking you’re getting a blowjob behind the bunkhouse.”

Rickie laughs. “I’ve got to see this orchard someday.”

“You have a standing invitation.” Rickie has never taken me up on my offer of a weekend in Tuxbury. He doesn’t like to sleep anywhere except for his own bed.

“Finish the story,” he prompts.

“Well…” The trouble is that I can’t really understand how it happened. I grabbed Chastity, pushed her up against the wall like she was any hookup. That part was a misunderstanding. It’s just that I didn’t stop there. The moment my hands landed on her body, I knew who she was. And then I kissed her anyway. Several times. I just didn’t want to stop. “There’s no good explanation,” I admit as the barista hands me my coffee. “Except to point out that I was drunk, sad, and looking for trouble.”

“How muchtroubledid you get into?” Rickie asks. There’s an irritating smile playing on his lips.

“It was just a few sloppy kisses,” I grumble. “Then I came to my senses.” Sort of. It literally took an explosion to wake me up from the madness.

Rickie’s gaze flits over to Chastity on the sofa. “But what did you doafterward?If she’s mad at you, I’d start there.”

“I apologized.”

“How?” he asks, retrieving his own cup of coffee from the counter.

“I don’t really remember,” I admit. “Haltingly. Like the bumbling fool that I am.”

He flinches. “And what did she say?”

“Nothing. She just sort of stared at me like I’d suddenly grown a really bad handlebar mustache. And then I yelled at the sky like a sad sack and wandered off.”

Rickie holds my eyes as he takes a sip of his coffee. “She’s either mad that you kissed her, or mad that you stopped. My money is on door number two.”

“What? No. Who’d want a slobbering-idiot kiss?”

“Well, I would.” His grin widens. “So long as it’s from therightslobbering idiot. Why did you stop, anyway? I practically get a contact high off your sexual tension.”

“That’s just the dope you’re smoking,” I mutter. The last thing Chastity needs is a visit from my overeager libido.

But I can’t help glancing over at her. She’s bent over her notebook, penciling in another equation on the page. Then she taps her eraser on the paper and shows it to her friend.

“There you go!” says the girl with the frizzy hair.

Chastity’s smile is so bright that for a second I forget how to breathe.

“Hmm.” Rickie says beside me. “Interesting.”