Page 4 of Rocky Mountain Devil

And now that they’d reached the age where everyone was thinking hard about the opposite sex, it seemed pretty natural to talk aboutthat. Laurel wasn’t allowed to date, and until recently Rafe hadn’t done more than look, between chores at the ranch in his out-of-school hours and no way to slip into town to meet up with anyone. But now that his big brother Gabe was back, so many things had changed.

Not his friendship with Laurel, though. That was solid as ever.

Laurel pushed a piece of paper in front of him and pretended to point to something as she leaned in close. “So you kissed her? That’s it?”

Rafe thought back to the previous night. “We held hands in the movie theatre for a while.”

“Holding hands is good.”

“Yeah, but awkward. I’d bought us a supersized container of popcorn.”

“Awkwardanddisgusting. Go, you.”

She snickered as she pulled away, muffling the soft sound, but unable to stop her body from showing her amusement. She rocked hard enough her shoulders quivered. Rafe glanced at the room monitor, then back at Laurel who looked on the edge of a seizure, she was shaking so hard.

God, she drove him crazy.

His mom said he had to buckle down and not get in trouble as often this coming year. His dad grumbled and cussed, but not about Rafe. He just grumbled and cussed and drank too much at times becauseeverythingwas terrible, according to him, but at least ever since Gabe had come back, Ben hadn’t lost his temper with anyone.

Gabe said Ben had “issues”.

Whatever. Rafe thought his dad was a jerk, and he should grow up and act like a dad again.

Thinking about girls was far more interesting than analyzing the tension at home.

He poked Laurel in the side, and she shot upright, covering her mouth with a hand to stop from shrieking.

“What’s so funny?” he demanded.

She made a big fuss over straightening the things in front of them, and didn’t answer. Uh-oh. Avoidance, which meant she was trying not to have to lie. She was a truly shitty liar.

He rapped his knuckles on her head. “Earth to Laurel…what is your twisted sense of humour doing in there?”

“Mr. Coleman. Please keep your hands to yourself and leave your study partner alone.”

The aide directed a warning look at both of them, and Laurel had a coughing fit as Rafe smiled politely. “Yes, sir.”

They waited until the TA was on the far side of the room before leaning toward each other. “Yousureall you did was give her a kiss?” she asked.

“Duh. You’d think I’d know.” He pulled back, slightly worried now. “Why? What’d you hear?”

“Third base.”

“Hell, no,” Rafe shouted in surprise.

Their classmates, including the young lady he’d been playing tonsil hockey with the night before, twisted on the spot to watch as the aide bore down on them double-quick.

“Oops,” Laurel muttered, gathering their books into two piles. “Your fault, again.”

Rafe bit the inside of his cheek to stop from laughing out loud as the TA snapped up a hand and pointed toward the door. “I assume you two remember the route to the principal’s office?”

Laurel waited until they were out the door and on the stairwell landing before turning to him, and wearing her most innocent expression, sweetly asking, “Shall we go straight there, or take the more scenicroad to hell?”

She smiled from ear to ear then let her laughter loose. Rafe joined in, because the fact they had names for the trip to the office was beyond stupidly funny. He had to prop himself up with one hand on the wall to keep vertical as they both laughed until they were gasping, stomachs hurting, in spite of being in trouble.

Or maybe because of it—best friends who did everything together.

June, three years ago