Page 64 of Wrapped in Red

“I hate the kids at my school. Well, most of them.”

“You must have at least one friend.”

Leo wrinkled his nose. “Not really.” The sadness in his sky-blue eyes broke my heart.

“I could be your friend.” What was I doing? Noel hated me, and I was telling his kid brother that I would be his friend? This wasn’t going to end well.

Leo’s eyes lit up like the sun. “Really? Are you sure? You’re like so pretty, and I’m sure you’re way cooler than I am. I mean, duh, you’re here with Carson and...” He stopped. “I don’t even know your name.”

“Ezra.” I held out my hand and was surprised when he shook it.

He stared at my nails and gave me a shy smile. “You’re way better at the polish thing, too. Red is far out. I did black.”

“Black is good. I could help you with that, too,” I told him.

Leo shrugged. “If you want. I mean, I don’t know if NASCAR drivers wear makeup or nail polish.”

Drivers? Wait a minute, when he said the kids made fun of him, was he talking about Noel? Oh no, no, no. “Are you going to be a NASCAR driver like your brother?”

“Yep.” He popped the p happily. “I’m racing ARCA now, but once I turn eighteen, I can race in Xfinity. I know I could race trucks, but I’ve already had inquiries about it, so I’ll probably skip that all together.”

I wondered where their parents were in all of this. Not going there right now.

“Here.” I plopped down on the floor. “Join me.” I patted the carpet by my side and was surprised when he did. I slipped my phone from my pocket. “I have some great YouTube videos that I started following when I wanted to learn makeup tips.”

“Really?” He leaned his head on my shoulder like we were old friends. He was really sweet for a teenage boy.

I nodded. “I can text them to you if you want.”

“That would be really awesome,” Leo murmured. “Uh, I have another question.” He lifted his head to look at me with round eyes as he chewed on his lip.

“Let’s go, Leo.” Noel’s voice caused me to jump, and the scowl on his face had me biting back a nasty remark. Like, who the hell do you think you are telling your brother he can’t wear makeup or nail polish? But maybe it wasn’t him. It could be the kids at school, like he said.

“Noel, I just need—”

“Now,” Noel snapped.

Leo scrambled to his feet to follow behind his brother.

I nearly tripped over myself to try to stop Noel. “Wait.” He turned to look at me with exhaustion written all over his face. “Can I talk to you?”

“It’s not a good time, Ezra.” Noel dragged a hand through his dark hair, his multi-colored eyes mixed with exhaustion.

I nodded. “Right, sure, but Leo seems like a good kid.” I heard the sound of CC’s laughter fill the air. “Do you think that maybe I could take him out sometime? Like shopping or whatever?”

I watched Noel’s forehead wrinkled. “You want to take my kid brother out shopping?”

“He had questions.”

“I’m more than aware of his questions.”

“Right, but can you answer them? Do you wear makeup or dress like I do? Do you like nail polish or skirts or any of those things? Noel”—I took a step toward him —“he told me the kids at school made fun of him for wearing nail polish. Did Leo tell you about that?” I dropped my chin as I leaned closer.

Surprise etched out over Noel’s features. “He never mentioned that. I just, I just thought it was because he was trying to figure himself out, you know, like we did when we were teenagers.” He let out a long sigh. “Don’t you hate me?”

“That’s impossible. I don’t even know you.”

His eyes sparkled with laughter, but he held it back, and I took in his pale blue and green eyes. How unique that was.