Page 28

TWENTY-TWO

lorenzo

Ruby hates me tonight.

“I know, I know. I’m late,” I say when I finally find her leaning against the back-porch railing of Reeve’s place.

It’s his birthday and Ruby’s always a good sport about showing up for my friends, but she’s never totally comfortable in this scene.

She doesn’t get “meathead culture”—her words, not mine—she has no time for jersey chasers, and she thinks my friends’ girlfriends don’t like her.

With a few exceptions, she’s right. But only because unless she’s pouring all her effort into fitting in, Ruby radiates “fuck you” vibes. She can’t help it.

Her mouth is fixed in a straight line. “Way late.” True, but only because I was busy making a different girl hate me.

“I told you I’d pick you up. You could have waited at home.”

“If I waited much longer, it wouldn’t be Reeve’s birthday anymore.

” She stares ahead, refusing to make eye contact.

So I guess my plan to get our friendship back on neutral ground isn’t going to be easy.

Especially not when she’s wearing that little dress that shows off her tan lines so well I know exactly which bikini left them—the black one with the crisscross straps over the cleavage.

“I’ll make it up to you. I always do.”

Her eyes shift to me. No, wait, she’s looking past me, where Cash has just appeared in the door.

“Fucking finally, dude!” Cash says. “I was starting to worry you busted your other shoulder or some shit. Wait, is that actually a drink in your hand?” He hoots. “Grandpa Lor gettin’ wild.”

“It’s one beer,” I say irritably.

“So that makes ... two this summer?”

I give him a look, wishing he’d go away.

Cash’s gaze slides from me to Ruby and her crossed arms. “Everything okay out here?”

I look at Ruby, whose flat gaze is now on the wall of the house. “Everything’s fine.”

Cash hesitates. “Right. Well, get inside then, both of you. Reeve’s been looking for you, Lorenzo.”

When he goes inside, I try for a joke. “See? Cash is still wearing clothes, so I’m not that late.”

Ruby brushes past me into the house like I don’t even exist. I stare after her, bewildered. She must have had a really bad day at work.

Things don’t improve from there. Ruby’s been mad at me before, but usually I know exactly why, because she can’t stop telling me all the ways I fucked up. Tonight she’s ignoring me, not even looking at me, and as much as I hate hearing her bitch and moan, this is a hundred times worse.

Thirty minutes into the party, I’ve had enough.

I’m not going to spend the night searching her face for clues.

If she wants me to fix something, she’ll have to ask.

At least that’s what I tell myself. Then I spend the next thirty minutes trying not to look at her.

And when I can’t stand it anymore, I corner her on the back steps after seeing her head outside.

What can I say? I hate when people are mad at me.

“I came out here to be alone,” she says when the door closes behind me.

“And I came to this party to have a good time, but you’re kind of fucking that up for me,” I say to her back.

She says nothing.

I put my hand on her shoulder and make her face me. “What is your problem tonight?”

“I don’t know.”

I scoff. “Yeah, neither do I.”

She tries to turn her back on me again, but I don’t let her.

“If you’re mad because I was late, I’m sorry, but I already apologized. And, look, no one made you come here tonight. My friends?—”

“I don’t fucking care about you being late.”

“Then what? You’ve been acting like a bitch the entire night.” She closes her eyes, and a pained expression comes over her face. Immediately, I feel guilty. “Sorry, Ruby, I?—”

“I don’t want you to get back together with Allison.” She opens her eyes. They’ve lost the fire they’ve had all night.

I stare at her. “Come again?”

“I don’t want you to be with her because ...” She takes a deep breath. “Because I want you to be with me. I wasn’t drunk the night I crawled into your bed and kissed you. I knew exactly what I was doing, Lorenzo. And I’m not sorry.”

I don’t have a name for the feeling that rises inside me then.

I want to pull her close and hold her, because the way she’s looking at me and that voice of hers is reminding me that underneath all that hellfire and chaos, Ruby is pure sugar, the sweetest person I’ve ever met.

And the most vulnerable. And ever since I grew taller than her, all I’ve wanted to do is protect her.

But I don’t reach out to hold her, because I’m still processing what she’s saying.

“I’m sorry I’ve been a bitch all night. When you were late, I knew you were with her and I was imagining—I mean, I planned on telling you tonight and then—” She squeezes her eyes shut and lets out a heavy breath. “I’m sorry. I was mad at myself.”

“For—”

“For pushing you toward Allison. For letting it get this far.” She swallows.

“I tried to pretend I was okay with it like always because I know she’s the kind of girl you want to marry someday, but I was lying to you when I said I thought you should give it another chance with her.

And that’s one thing I never wanted to do to you.

And I know she worships you, Lorenzo, but so do I. ”

She looks up at me with bright, hopeful eyes, and suddenly I’m certain: I want this. “Ruby.” I reach for her hand, but she’s not done.

“I know you said this isn’t our time, but sometimes you’re wrong.” Her lips are pink and glossy, and they part as she sighs. “I think this time you’re wrong. Because you’re here and I’m here, and right now there’s nothing to keep us apart.”

I’m the worst with words when it actually matters. Everything I want to say to her spins in my brain like a tornado until the words are impossible to string together. So I kiss her.

When I press my mouth to hers, she seems surprised, but she comes to me so easily.

She doesn’t need any convincing as my lips move to part hers just a tiny bit; she’s already as soft as she’s ever been under my touch.

My tongue glides against hers, and as soon as I get a taste of her, I’m shot right back to that night on the dock when kissing her felt like the most perfect moment of my life.

When I pull back, her eyelashes flutter. “So you admit it?” she says softly. “You were wrong.” She brushes her lips against mine.

The taste of her mouth and the sensation of her hand on my chest are like a spell that makes everything but her disappear. “I was wrong. As wrong as I’ve ever been.”

She reaches up to kiss me again. Her fingers curl around the fabric of my shirt as I urge her lips apart with my tongue.

“I’ve got it!” someone hollers from behind me, and Ruby and I spring apart like cats. Reeve appears in the doorway and takes us in. My heart’s beating like it did the first time my parents caught me smoking.

“Hey,” I say, trying to play it cool. Meanwhile, Ruby’s wiping her lips with the back of her hand; real smooth.

“What’s up? There still a six-pack in that cooler?” Reeve nods at a busted-looking foam cooler in the corner.

I hop to it, glad to have a reason to turn my guilty face away, and crack open the cooler. “It’s yours.” I hand him the dripping cans of beer.

“Sweet,” he says. “Hey, you’re up next for beer pong. I’m taking your spot if you’re late.”

“I won’t be.”

I watch the door until he disappears and then turn back to Ruby, who’s grinning like she just stepped out of a getaway car.

“Think he knew?” She comes over and presses her body to mine like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

“With you wiping my kiss off your lips and your shirt half-buttoned like that? Nah, I’m sure he thought we were just out here trading stock tips.”

Ruby’s smile disappears, and she looks down at her chest—to discover she’s wearing a dress.

“Gotcha.”

She gives me a playful smack on the chest, then lets her hand linger. “Asshole. Like I’d wear a button-down.”

“Not that I care what he suspects. My friends think we’ve been sleeping together since middle school.”

“Really? Then why is your heart beating like you’re about to have a heart attack?”

I cover her hand where it’s pressed against my chest. “It was like that before he showed up.” I fight the urge to slide her hand down my abs to my eager dick.

Ruby holds my eyes for an instant, then smiles and drops her gaze. Shy Ruby isn’t something I ever thought I’d see. “You better get in there before Reeve takes your precious spot.” She pushes me gently away, but I grab her hand.

“Hey. I wasn’t going to get back together with Allison.”

“You were thinking about it.”

“No, I was thinking about why it was so hard to tell her I’ve been over her longer than we’ve been broken up.”

“What did you figure out?”

“Guess I was just holding on to an old idea about how things have to be, about the life I’m supposed to want and the life I actually want. I had to let that go.”

We’re approximately forty-five minutes into this thing—Ruby and Lorenzo, more than friends—and I understand why guys who fall for her fall hard and fast; she lights one match and instantly you’re on fire.

While I play beer pong, she floats around the crowded room and finds a couple of people to chat with, but she keeps hitting me with these looks, all subtle smile and dancing eyes.

Like she has an incredibly dirty secret.

Like everything about this party is boring her except me.

I keep glancing at Cash next to me at the table to see if he notices, but he’s oblivious. I’m the only one who sees it.

I shouldn’t be surprised. Back in school, her ability to communicate silently and without detection from teachers was masterful—mouthing words, passing notes, expressing a paragraph’s worth in a single look. I just didn’t expect her to use those skills for seduction.

Or it could just be me. I’m still a little stunned by what’s happened here tonight. When I woke up this morning, the last thing I imagined was finding myself in a relationship before the day was out. If that’s what this even is ... a relationship. Shit. What is this?

Across the room, Ruby’s hand is fingering her necklace, and the way her fingers are splayed has her pinkie dipping down into the hint of cleavage her dress offers.

I decide I’m not going to ask questions like that tonight.

No, I’m going to think about the possibilities.

All the things that were always off-limits.

Kissing. Touching. Tasting her bare skin. What’s mine to take now?

Near the end of the second round of beer pong, I take a dive.

Ruby’s driving me wild, the energy flowing from her like a magnet that scrambles every other signal in my brain and draws my eyes to her like no one else exists.

I’m kind of a legend at beer pong, so everyone watching gives me shit.

It should hurt a little, but it doesn’t. I’ve never cared less about losing.

Ruby’s chatting with Cash’s sister, Maisy, on the other side of the room.

When she glances over and sees me coming, she says something to Maisy, turns her back to me, and walks away.

She never glances back. She doesn’t need to.

She knows I’m following her. Through the kitchen, past a group of football players smoking weed, up the stairs.

No one gives us a second look. This is the beauty of our friendship.

My closest friends know we keep things strictly platonic, and everyone else assumes we’ve been sleeping together forever.

Either way, the two of us walking upstairs together isn’t noteworthy.

I find her sitting on the bed in Reeve’s room. Closing the door, I point at his bed. “I would do anything for another kiss, but I won’t touch that.”

She stands and puts her arms around my neck like she’s been waiting here for me all night. Ruby can make you believe whatever you want to believe about yourself.

I put one hand around her waist, and with the other I brush her loose hair back from her face. “So are we really doing this?”

“What?”

“Us.”

She curls her fingernails into my neck. “I think so.”

“Does that mean I can kiss you whenever I want?”

She smiles a shy kind of smile but holds my gaze. “I think we can do whatever feels right.”

I give her a slow, experimental kiss. When I slide both hands around her waist, her body feels totally natural in them, yet I still half expect to be slapped away like a naughty kid. “Do we tell people?”

She looks thoughtful. “I’m not sure what’s to tell yet.

” Her voice is soft, fully contained by the single inch of space between us.

“Plus, don’t you think this is the best secret we’ve ever had?

” She brushes her lips against mine and flicks her tongue out to taste me.

I catch her there, her bottom lip in my teeth, her body squeezed tight in my hands, and I push her down onto Reeve’s bed and climb on top of her.

Maybe I said I’d never touch his bed, but once again, I was wrong.

This is the best secret we’ve ever had , I think as my mouth explores her tongue and her ears and all the sweet, innocent parts of her that I’ve spent hours staring at and never thought I’d know the feel of under my own lips.

Even if we’re in my friend’s dark, cluttered bedroom and our clothes stay on and the gentle, PG-13 nature of it makes my dick strain painfully, the fact that everyone downstairs assumes we’re either fucking like we have a hundred times before or bickering like we have a thousand times before makes kissing my best friend by far the best secret we’ve ever had.