Page 282 of The Havenport Collection

Gio

“ C ode red,” Rose said, pulling me away from the punch table. I immediately looked around for Sam. I had seen her rush to the ladies’ room a few minutes ago and sent Rose in there for backup. I didn’t see her boyfriend and date either. Fucking Steven.

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Steven is being a douche.” My fists clenched. I was going to calmly excuse myself, go find that motherfucker, and break his jaw. Great job, Gio. Solid plan.

Before I could locate him, Matteo was at my side.

“Whose ass are we kicking?” he asked, cracking his knuckles.

Matteo loved to fight—he was the bad boy to my rule follower and always knew when something was wrong.

Despite our differences, we had finely tuned twinstincts and always had each other’s backs.

I filled him in and he smiled. “This will be fun. I hate that dick. Thinks he’s better than everyone.”

Rose, Matteo, and I set off in search of Sam and found her in the parking lot crying as Steven got ready to leave with his friends. I walked up to her and put my arm around her.

“Oh good, your backup boyfriend is here,” Steven sneered. “He can dance with you because I’m going to get drunk and have fun with my friends.” He turned to leave, and Sam stepped forward, her tear-stained face illuminated by the fluorescent parking lot lights.

“Steven. Please stay. This is our prom. It’s special.”

He looked at her with disgust. “That’s so silly, Sam. Grow up. God, I’m so glad I’m going to college soon with girls who are actually mature.”

Sam gasped, and I made up my mind. I was definitely kicking his ass, and if the faces my twin was making were any indication, I would have help.

“That’s it, Steven,” Sam shouted, her face steely. “If you leave, it’s over. I worked too hard to save up for this dress and to plan this perfect night for us. And you can’t be bothered to dance and take a few lousy photos?”

Steven laughed and walked toward his car. “Whatever, Sam. That dress is ugly anyway.”

Sam burst into tears and ran into the school. Rage flowed through my veins. How could he talk to her like that? No one hurt my Sam and got away with it.

I started to walk toward the car, Matteo right behind me, until a small hand reached out and grabbed my shoulder.

“Stop,” Rose said. She was tiny but scared me a little bit sometimes. “Guys, enough. I’m going to help her fix her makeup and then we can all dance and have a good time.”

“But…” I trailed off. Steven was already in his friend’s car, making it impossible for me to make him bleed. My teen brain could only focus on the pain I wanted to cause him.

She shook her head. “She needs a friend, not a defender, Gio. Steven sucks and she knows it. No sense wasting a perfectly good prom on him.”

“And you?” She narrowed her eyes at Matteo, poking him in the chest. “If you get suspended again you will not graduate. Don’t even think about it.” She wasn’t wrong. Matteo had not had a banner year. And between his inconsistent grades, attendance, and behavior, he was hanging on by a thread.

I nodded. Damn Rose for being so reasonable and smart. She may have only been eighteen, but she was wise beyond her years. She was an elite athlete with Olympic dreams which I knew she would achieve. I was lucky to call her my friend.

And she was technically my prom date. Since neither of us had dates, we decided to go together.

I had a few girls ask me, but making small talk with someone I barely knew in hopes of some action later paled in comparison to a night with my true friends.

Even if it meant sharing a limo with Steven and watching him put his hands all over Sam.

I hated the guy. Not because his family was rich, and not because he was smart and took all AP classes, but because he was a raging asshole.

Entitled, bratty, and treated other people like dirt.

Including my best friend, Sam, who had been dating him on and off for the past two years.

He and his buddies were probably headed to the marina, where they would get drunk on his dad’s massive boat and act like idiots.

Poor Sam. I knew she’d worked overtime at the bakery to buy her dress. She had been excited about this night for weeks.

And how dare he insult her? Sam was beautiful, inside and out. When I saw her in her dress, my jaw dropped. It was two pieces and showed the smallest sliver of midriff. I found my eye drawn there all night, that tiny tease of skin calling to me to brush it with my fingers.

I shook my head. Sam needed me; it was time to switch into best friend mode.

I was shockingly good at it, having perfected it over the past few years. Most of the time, I was just a guy—walking hormones —but with Sam, I was something or someone better. I listened, and I talked. I wasn’t angry at the world for my mom leaving. I was smart and engaged and got good grades.

She elevated me. Helped me realize my potential.

And so, for her, I had the strength to ignore how pretty she was.

Ignore the yellow bikini that she sometimes wore to the beach in the summer, ignore how long her eyelashes were, or that sometimes I could see the lace of her bra through the thin fabric of her T-shirt.

For her, I was a gentleman.

“He sucks,” I repeated in the limo ride home.

Sam nodded. The four of us had danced for hours, taken lots of silly photos on Rose’s new digital camera, and made fools of ourselves. It had been a good night.

We had convinced the DJ to play Sam’s favorite song, “Just a Girl” by No Doubt, twice, and watching her jump around in glee made my night.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was hurting. “What really happened?” Rose asked softly.

“He said he didn’t care about prom. Didn’t want to dance with me or take photos. I’ve been looking forward to this for months.” She buried her face in her wrap shawl thingy.

I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to be a kind, supportive friend, but I also wanted to celebrate, because Steven did not come close to deserving a girl as amazing as Sam.

“I told him if he loved me, he would stay and give me a memorable prom.” She sobbed. “And he said he didn’t love me.”

I froze. I had no idea how to handle this situation. Everything I wanted to say would probably make her cry even more. I was not equipped to deal with this. I raised an eyebrow at Rose who nodded and put her arm around Sam.

“Do you love him?” Rose asked.

I held my breath, not wanting to know the answer. I would probably vomit if she said yes. She could do so much better. I wished she could see how special she was.

Sam shook her head. “No. I don’t think so.

I thought I might, or maybe that I could.

But the last few weeks I’ve just been noticing how selfish he is.

And how he puts me down all the time. Making mean comments about my body or my hair or my clothes.

Teasing me about being poor and having to work after school. ”

I clenched my fists and saw red. I didn’t know any of this. How dare he?

I looked at Matteo who cracked his knuckles. “Don’t worry, Sammy,” he said. “No one talks to you like that and gets to live.”

“Matteo,” Rose shouted. “You are not helping.”

I gave him a discreet thumbs-up. I thought he was helping. Bodily injury was clearly the appropriate response here. Sometimes I truly did not understand girls.

“Well, the good news is that you now know he’s garbage and can be rid of him!” She made an exaggerated waving gesture. “Bye, Steven, have a terrible life!”

Matteo leaned over and gave her a high five. “Yes! That pretty boy can eat shit. You are too good for him, Sam.”

Sam looked at me. Our eyes met for a moment, and something unspoken passed between us. My best friend hated to be pitied. So I decided to try and turn things around.

“He did us a favor. We had a blast. And spent it together.”

Rose and Matteo agreed.

“You know what we should do now?” I asked, an idea coming together in my head. “We could go to the beach and make a bonfire. Or we could head up to the tree house. Or we could go to Sal’s and grab some pizza.”

I looked at Rose who shook her head. “I’m out. I have to be up at five a.m. tomorrow for farm chores and training.”

“Matteo?” I looked at my twin, the one I knew had been invited to every after-party and probably had girls propositioning him all night long.

He looked at me and then Sam, then faked a large yawn. “I’m beat. You guys go together. Have fun.”

He shot Rose a look, and she gave us a thumbs-up. “Yeah. You guys hang out. I’ll ask the driver to drop Matteo off after me.”

The limo driver finally dropped Sam and me off at her house. Her grandparents had long since gone to sleep, but her mother was awake, excited to hear all the details about prom.

She was unsurprised that Steven had been such a disappointing date, but offered to pick us up a pizza if we wanted to watch a movie.

“Actually. I think we’re going to hang out in the tree house, if that’s okay,” Sam said sheepishly.

After changing out of her dress, Sam met me in the tree house, where I had already spread out our sleeping bags and the snacks her mom had given me.

I had lost my tux, and was wearing my undershirt and a pair of Sam’s Havenport Soccer sweats, which were indecently tight but much better than those awful tuxedo pants.

She climbed up, and I was struck by how pretty she looked in the moonlight.

She had changed into a sweatshirt, and her hair was out of its fancy bun thing and in her normal ponytail.

She still had glitter all over her face, but she looked so grown-up and pretty.

I could only imagine how all the guys would go crazy for her in college next year. That thought made my stomach ache.

We sat shoulder to shoulder against the back wall, eating goldfish crackers and staring at the stars.

“I’m sorry,” she said, leaning into my shoulder, “for ruining your prom.”

“You didn’t. We had a great time. And this,”—I put my arm around her, pulling her close—“is the perfect way to end senior year. Together with my best friend in my favorite place.”

“You are the sweetest.”

“Only to you.”

Her face was inches away from mine. I could see her thick dark lashes and her pretty pink lips. I could feel my heart pounding.

Was this happening? Should I kiss her?

Her fingers trailed up my arm, making it hard to control myself. I wanted to crush my mouth to hers, show her how much I cared about her. And give her all the love and support that Steven could not.

But then I made the mistake of looking into her eyes. The ones that had shed tears for another guy tonight. This was Sam. I couldn’t cross this line.

So I pulled back and tore my gaze away. I stared at the wall, studying the grain of the wood, waiting for my heart to stop pounding and for normalcy to return.

Sam spoke first. “I’m going to run to the bathroom and grab some extra blankets. Do you need anything?”

I shook my head. What I needed was to kiss her. To know what she tasted like. I needed to feel her in my arms, not in the friendly way we had been accustomed to, but in a possessive way that made her mine. But that was crazy. I couldn’t think about her that way. It wasn’t possible.

I was nineteen. I knew nothing about women or relationships. I had been dating for years and was pretty sure I was terrible at it. I liked girls—I liked them a lot—but I wasn’t really sure how to be a boyfriend. All those relationships ended.

And what I had with Sam was so much bigger and more important. No matter how much I dreamed about her, I would never go there. Because relationships didn’t work out. I learned that from my parents.

So I would be the best fucking friend in history. That way I could keep her.

Thankfully, when she returned, the strange moment had passed and things felt normal again.

We spent hours talking and laughing. Making plans for the future and trying to predict what college would be like.

Then, after two a.m., we climbed into our childhood sleeping bags and turned off the lantern.

We had been having sleepovers out here since third grade, and it felt right to finish out our high school experience up here.

I lay in my sleeping bag, listening to the rustling of leaves and watching Sam sleep.

I felt content, happy even. Hopefully Steven would go away for good, and we could have an amazing summer together before college.

Because that’s all I wanted—to spend time with Sam.

I didn’t care where, when, or how, I just wanted to be with her.

Listen to her chatter, answer her endless questions, and soak up her happy smiles.

It was enough for me. It had to be. Because I couldn’t lose this. I couldn’t lose her.