Page 12 of Spark

KENDRICK

I ’m the first person to step foot onto our private plane for the six-hour flight to Vancouver, so I plop myself down in one of the coveted rows with only two seats, hoping Ruby will grab the one next to mine.

It’s possible Ruby will avoid me like the plague out of guilt for the stunt she pulled this morning. But knowing her, I think it’s more likely she’ll confront what she did head on and beg for my forgiveness. Which I’ll give her. But not before making her squirm a tiny bit.

In her defense, it was only when Ruby drew the comparison between my ridiculous, fleeting crush on Laila back in the day and hers on Kai that I truly understood how dead as a doornail her feelings for my big brother must have become.

But even so, I’m going to make her grovel at least a little bit.

I’ve never once had the upper hand like this with Ruby.

Usually, she’s coming at me, rightfully so, for something stupid I said or did.

So now, I’m going to milk my present state of moral superiority.

But only for the duration of this six-hour flight.

Probably not even that long, if she starts pulling any of her highly effective mind-control strategies on me.

The girl is good. But, still, I’m determined not to fold too quickly.

Our tour manager, Caden, and his trusty assistant enter the plane as I’m getting settled into my seat. Not surprisingly, they head toward the back cabin together, probably to go over whatever details and logistics are coming up on our busy schedule.

After that, Kai shuffles on looking like a sleep-deprived, annoyed hot mess. And after him, there’s a trio of high-level staffers.

When my brother locks eyes with me, he motions to the empty seat next to me, and I shake my head.

Whatever, his expression says as he flops down into a seat several rows away.

When our eyes met in the van on the drive to the airport, I flipped him off with both hands, and Kai returned the gesture.

But apparently, he’s ready to make nice now.

Me, not so much. He doesn’t realize this, of course, but the lies he flippantly told me about Ruby quite possibly changed the trajectory of my life.

Maybe Ruby never would have been interested in me romantically, but I guess I’ll never know.

Why not? Because it’s too late now. Because we’re best friends and she’s never shown interest in me, anyway.

And oh yeah, mere hours ago, she literally told me she’ll never date another guy who started out as a friend.

But what if Kai had never told me those lies?

What if I came back home after dropping out of college, and I finally mustered the courage to spill my guts to Ruby, like I’d been planning?

What if I’d told her how I felt about her back then—how I’ve always felt?

But no. I returned and found out Ruby had been “desperately in love” with Kai since age sixteen.

That, in fact, she’d felt so strongly about him, she’d even begged him to fuck her on her twentieth birthday, which Kai had declined to do.

Ruby .

She’s boarded the plane now, and she’s heading down the aisle behind Titus, her pink hair piled on top of her head and her sexy tattoo on full display, thanks to the shoulder-baring tank top she’s sporting underneath a pair of oversized denim overalls.

Ruby usually sits next to me or Titus on longer flights like this one. So, it’s anyone’s guess if she’ll pick me or her brother this time. I’m hoping me, since she often says she prefers sleeping on my shoulder the most because Titus always falls asleep, too, and then he gets all wonky in his seat.

When Ruby’s dark gaze lands on me, she smiles cautiously, as if to say, Do you forgive me? When I don’t return her smile, her shoulders droop. She says something to Titus, which I think is something like “Let’s take that row there,” so, fuck it, I motion to her to come over to me, instead.

At my beckoning, Ruby’s beautiful face lights up. She says something else to Titus, and with her backpack slung over her shoulder, bounces down the aisle to me.

“Hey, bestie. Does that mean you’re okay with me sitting here with you?”

I shrug. “Suit yourself.” It’s as nonchalant a tone as I’ve ever used with Ruby. But since I’m hoping to get my first-ever grovel from her, I feel like I’ve got no other choice.

Ruby seems unfazed by my cold tone as she plops herself down next to me and begins pulling all her usual shit out of her big backpack. An iPad and charger. A packet of almonds. Some lip gloss and moisturizer. And so on.

“Are you still mad at me?” she asks, keeping her eyes on her task.

“Yes.”

She gasps and stops what she’s doing. “Still? ”

“It’s been an hour, Ruby.”

“I know. I can’t believe you’ve managed to stay mad at me for that long. Wow. That’s a long time to stay mad at someone as sweet and lovable as me, who’s also regretful and repentant about what she did.”

I try not to crack a smile. Goddamn Ruby. If this is the direction her grovel is going to go, I’m going to crumble like a cookie in record speed.

“Are you furious with me? Or just mad?”

“Furious is too strong a word.”

“Mad, then? That’s still a really strong emotion, if you think about.”

Fuck. She’s batting her lashes, and I can feel the corners of my mouth itching to trend upward. “I’d say I’m more annoyed than anything, at this point.”

“Progress!”

“But I’m very, very annoyed with you, Ruby. As precariously close to being mad as a person can get.”

“And rightly so. I behaved like a monster by bringing up your crush to save myself. I can’t believe I did that. What was I thinking?”

“God only knows.”

She stops what she’s doing and fixes her dark, soulful eyes on mine.

“Seriously, KC. I’m deeply sorry for what I did.

I’m a horrible friend. When I felt like I was drowning in stormy seas, I used my very best friend in the world as a flotation device.

Because that’s me. Selfish and despicable to my core.

” She shakes her head. “In my panic not to drown, I didn’t think twice to climb aboard your big, broad, strong back and?—”

“Flattery will get you nowhere.”

“It’s not flattery. Your back is strong.

And so I climbed it, and—” She pounds her closed fist violently into her open palm and grimaces dramatically.

“Then I shoved your sweet, innocent, saintly face underwater, to save myself, causing you to go down, down, down, all the way to Davey Jones’s locker. ”

I don’t want to do it, but I can’t help chuckling at her little passion play.

Ruby flashes me an adorably apologetic look. “Will you ever be able to forgive me, my darling bestie, or will my monstrous behavior shatter our friendship forever?”

“It’s been sixty minutes, Ruby. And I never get to be mad at you.”

“I thought you were only annoyed.” She pinches my forearm.

“Think about it, my darling. Wouldn’t it be so much more fun if we joined forces against Kai as our common enemy?

Why waste another valuable minute longer than necessary being annoyed with me, when Public Enemy Number One is sitting right up there, and we could talk shit about him the whole flight together, if only you’d forgive and forget and accept my heartfelt apology now. ”

“What shit-talking would we do, even if I forgave you now? We both know you’re going to fall asleep right after they feed us.”

“No, this one time, I’d force myself to stay awake the whole flight and shit-talk Kai all the way to Vancouver, if I knew that was the price of your forgiveness.”

“My forgiveness doesn’t have a price tag. I just need some time to process. What you did was shitty, Ruby.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

She juts out her lower lip and hangs her head, and I swear, every cell in my body yearns to take her in my arms and kiss her pouty mouth.

“If I were you,” Ruby says, “I’d tell me to get the fuck out of my airspace and go sit with Titus because you can’t stand to even look at me.”

I snort. “That tactic isn’t gonna work on me, babe.”

Ruby bats her eyelashes. “What tactic? ”

“Making your mea culpa so over the top, I feel compelled to reassure you that what you did wasn’t that bad.”

Ruby snickers. “You know all my best tricks.”

“And I’m ready for all of them. You can sit here next to me, if you want. In fact, that’s what I want, as part of your penance. But just so you know, I’m not going to forgive you for a while.”

Ruby’s eyes go wide. “For how long?”

“I guess you’ll have to wait and see.”

“Will you still be mad at me after we get to Vancouver?”

“Maybe.”

“Kendrick!”

“At least till we land. The rest is a wait-and-see kind of thing.”

“Kendrick Cook! Vancouver is six hours from now. I won’t survive anything beyond that.” She bats my shoulder. “You’re entitled to be annoyed with me, but don’t be cruel .”

Goddamn her. How does she do this? I’m smiling from ear to ear, against my will. “Well, maybe next time you’ll think twice before throwing me under a double-decker bus to save your own embarrassed ass.”

“I will. I promise.” She pinches my shoulder. “Will you still be my pillow for the flight, even if you’re annoyed with me?”

“Nope.”

Ruby gasps. “Cruel.”

“There have to be consequences for your bad behavior, Miss Connolly, or you’ll never correct it in the future.”

“The punishment has to fit the crime, though. Not being my pillow is the equivalent of sentencing me to death for a misdemeanor.”

“You really think what you did was a misdemeanor?”

“We were all there when you saw Laila at Reed’s party and called dibs, Kendrick. It’s not like it was some kind of state secret you were interested in her. ”