“He was staring at you practically the entire night and looked at me like he wanted to rip my damn throat out.”
What?
Heat rushed over my body. “He wasn’t staring at me.”
“Ah, yeah, he was.”
I spun my pointer finger around the ends of my hair. “Reed can get protective sometimes. He’s sort of like family.”
“Like a big brother?”
I cringed. Thinking of the guy I’d been crushing on all these years as a brother was more than disturbing. “Can we not talk about Reed?”
He smiled and pulled me in closer. “We could talk about prom night.”
Ugh.
“The hotel rooms are booked. Everything’s set for the big night, condoms and all.” He wiggled his eyebrows. He meant to tease, but it crawled under my skin and sent a shiver down my spine. Sort of like that time I read about a guy who had a spider lay eggs in his ear. Okay, maybe not that bad, but pretty close…especially if sex with Derek would be anything like kissing him.
The front door opened, and Paige and her parents came out. I was saved.
“Listen, I’m gonna head home,” Derek said. “Got some Madden planned.”
“Okay, see you tomorrow.” I turned my head and planted a kiss on his cheek when he leaned in.
Derek got in his car, and I went to hug Auntie Jo and Uncle Matt goodnight.
Paige gritted her teeth. “I don’t know why you’re saying goodnight. You’re sleeping over.”
I scrunched my brows together in confusion. “I am?”
Her eyes widened into a don’t-you-dare-screw-me-over glare. “Yes, you are, remember?”
Oh. That meant Bryant was coming over, and they were going to have a make-out session while I found something better to do. It’s not that her parents didn’t know they were having sex. Her mom had gotten her on birth control. But her dad drew the line about doing anything like that in the house. So I was the decoy. They figured if I was in the room with them, then nothing R-rated was going on.
Her parents went to bed around nine, and that was when I’d go into the den and read until Bryant had to leave at ten-thirty. His parents were strict on the eleven o’clock curfew. They originally wanted it to be nine on school nights, but he made a deal that if he kept up his grades, he could have an eleven o’clock curfew. The sex must’ve been really good, because he made the honor roll every semester.
“Oh yeah.” I smacked my palm to my forehead. “I’ll be over in a bit. Just have to pack a bag.”
Paige looped her arm through mine. “I’ll come with you.”
As soon as we were in my room, Paige shut the door. “Okay, truth time.”
I grabbed a pair of jeans out of the drawer. “About what?”
“Are you still crushing on my brother?”
I stilled before shoving pants and a shirt into my backpack. “What makes you ask that?” Instead of looking in her direction, I rummaged to find a pair of boxer shorts and my The Killers T-shirt for bed. Reed had tossed it to me after the concert with a, “Don’t say I never gave you nothing.” It was faded from black to dark grey and the neck was so over-stretched that I had to cut my own hole. Although I cut too much and it always slid down my shoulder. Derek once said it was kind of hot, so I stopped wearing it in front of him.
“Oh, I don’t know.” Paige exaggerated her sarcasm. “Maybe the part where you were trying to make him jealous with Derek.”
“What does it matter? He’s not into me, so what’s the point of talking about it?”
“I don’t know about that. Reed’s been acting different around you this past year.”
I zipped up my bag and slung it over my shoulder. “If he is interested, then he has a weird way of showing it.”
“Reed has always been weird.”
But a good weird.
“So you never answered. Are you crushing on him?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Just be careful with him,” she warned. “You know how he is with girls, and I don’t ever want it to get awkward with us.”
“It’s not happening, so I wouldn’t worry about it.”
Although I really wished it would happen.
Reed
“You’re seriously letting them get hotel rooms for the night?”
My mother filled up her tea kettle for her usual bedtime chamomile. “Yes.”
I raked a hand through my hair. “A little irresponsible, don’t you think?”
She chuckled. “And what did you do on your prom night?”
“We’re not talking about me.”
“Stop being so misogynistic. They’re already having sex.”
I winced, not wanting to get into a conversation about my sister’s sex life. “Well, what about Tabitha? She’s not.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “First of all, Tabitha isn’t my daughter, and second, what the hell was up with you during dinner? You looked about ready to jump across the table and attack her boyfriend.”
“He’s a tool, and I think you giving them free rein like this is stirring a hornet’s nest.”
The image of him violating her mouth in the driveway scraped against my brain. How the hell did she put up with that? She couldn’t possibly enjoy it.
“I think you’re taking the overprotective brother thing a little too far with her.”
She was right. I was taking this too far, but not because I saw her as a little sister. I wasn’t even all that pissed off about the hotel rooms. Tabitha had a right to do what she wanted and sleep with whom she wanted…except that jerkoff. She could do so much better than him, and it made my head hurt to think of him poking and prodding her.
The front door opened, thankfully ending this conversation with my mother.
“I’m going to my room,” I muttered under my breath and headed down the hallway, but not before I heard Tabitha’s laughter echoing through. That damn girl spent more time at our house than her own.
I should have never come back here for spring break. I should’ve locked myself up in my apartment and did a week-long reading binge like I usually did.
“Come a Little Closer” by Cage the Elephant poured through my speaker. It wasn’t nearly as loud as I wanted it to be. I opened my laptop and Googled “moonbow.” The pictures were pretty incredible. The photography classes I’d taken would come in handy if I went through with that blog idea Tabitha had.
A soft knock rattled my door, and my stomach flipped. I closed my browser. “Come in.”
Tabitha walked across the threshold in boxers and a band T-shirt I’d given her once.
She still had that thing?
It looked like it had seen its fair share of wear and tear, and it was hot as hell on her. I turned down the music and opened my messages. “Need something?” I deleted a message from Michelle saying that she heard I was home and wanted to hook up.
“I forgot my Kindle and was wondering if I could borrow one of your books.”
I nodded toward my shelves full of worn paperbacks. “Be my guest, but you’ll probably be disappointed. I don’t do romance novels.”