“His name is Bonham,” I finally told her, then I waited for her reaction.
“That’s an odd name.” Her eyebrows were down and I could almost see her roll his name over in her head again and again. “I’ve only ever heard it once. Not that I’m the authority on people’s names.” Delaney walked toward the kitchen then stopped and turned back to me. Her eyes moved back and forth quickly, the way they did when someone was thinking really hard. “What’s his last name?”
Damn it. That meant she knew who Pushing Daisies were. I sighed and decided now was better since our parents weren’t home to hear any potential freak out. “Thompson.”
Yup. Her eyes slowly grew wider and her mouth fell open. “Bonham Thompson?” she confirmed. I nodded. “Bonham Thompson of Pushing Daisies. Please tell me you’re going to lose your virginity to Bonham Thompson from Pushing Daisies.”
“Stop it.” I rushed over to her. “I don’t know, OK? But that’s who came to my aid in the bookstore or rather who I forced to come to my aid in the bookstore. And who I’m going to hang out with tonight.”
“What’s he like? Their music is awesome and they’re touring with Courting Chaos, which is one of my favorite bands,” she said excitedly. I’d forgotten that little detail. “Leave it to my sister to accidentally stumble across Bonham Thompson from Pushing Daisies.”
“Listen.” I grabbed her wrists to stop them from flailing about as they were. “If you ever meet him and that is looking really unlikely right now because you’re acting like a fangirl, you can’t act like this. You’re embarrassing yourself and I swear to all that is holy if you mention my virginity, I will end you.”
Delaney laughed as she threw her arms around me to bring me into her arms. “I would never. It’s just… You’re so clueless about that kind of music, you can’t understand what a big deal this would be to most other people.”
After I pulled back, I told her, “I do understand now, but I like it the way it is now. I only found out he was in Pushing Daisies after dinner last night. He took me to the bookstore and insisted on buying me my entire stack.”
“Holy shit. He must know you really well already.”
The sound of a car pulling into the driveway averted my focus. I ran over to the front window to check and it was Bonham here to pick me up.
“I have to go,” I told her.
“Yeah, me too.” She followed me to the door.
“What are you doing?” I asked before I opened it.
“Leaving.”
“You can leave after me.”
She snorted and shook her head. “No. I can’t. I’m leaving now. I promise I won’t freak out, but you’re my sister and you’re going out with a rock star. I want to meet him super quick.”
She wasn’t going to let it go and if I didn’t hurry, he’d come to the door. I’d already told him my parents were out tonight so he could pull into the driveway and not get interrogated.
“Fine, but, Delaney, I wasn’t joking earlier.” Then I dragged my finger across my neck so she’d know what she was looking at if she did anything weird.
While she giggled, she told me, “Just go.”
I went out of the house first, with her close behind, and made it to his Jeep right at the same time he’d climbed out.
“Hey, Bonham,” I greeted when we got close enough. He moved in, slid a hand into my hair and kissed me quickly. “This is my sister, Delaney. She’s leaving now too and will do so without speaking, right?”
A smile slid across his beautiful face as he reached a hand out to my sister. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too.” She sounded relatively normal as their hands separated. That was good. “What are you two up to tonight?”
“Just hanging out with my family.”
Delaney covertly squeezed the back of my arm.
“Ow.” I yanked it away. “You’re going to leave a bruise.”
“Well, I’m going to go. Have fun,” she added in her singsong voice.
While Bonham climbed back inside and I went around the Jeep to get in, my sister stopped me, squeezing both of my wrists. It was all excitement, but she was going to make me look like I was into BDSM or something with all of these marks. She was disturbingly strong.
“He looks at you like you’re the only person in the world,” she whispered as if he’d hear her while he was already inside the car. “That’s a good thing, Jurnie.”
“You’re such a freak,” I whispered back, then I scurried away from her, but hearing that made my heart flutter. Once inside, as he was backing down the driveway, I told him, “Sorry about that. My sister is a big fan of Pushing Daisies and I just told her who I was going out with tonight because she insisted and she’s a freak. Please don’t hold it against me.”
“I definitely won’t. Why’s she a freak?”
“She’s all too invested in me losing my virginity.”
At least I had no worries about Delaney outing me to our parents for dating Bonham. No. She was my ride or die and she wanted me to out in the world like this.
10
Bonham
The car jerked to the right before I could control my reaction. Had Jurnie really just said that? Her sister was invested in her losing her virginity? That meant Jurnie was a virgin. When I thought about it, it made sense. She’d commented before about having not ever needed the birth control her mother had put her on or something like that. But fuck… she was twenty-one. How could she still be a fucking virgin?
“Sorry.” Her face tinged pink as she put a lock of hair behind her ear. I thought that was a nervous habit because I’d seen her do it before. That and playing with the hem of her shirt or skirt, or those little embroidered flowers.
Today she was wearing white shorts, the length of which I thoroughly appreciated because they showed off a lot of leg. Now, Jurnie didn’t have a lot of leg to show off, but what she did have looked soft and smooth and I could imagine running my hands up—nope. Mind out of the gutter.
“Just for clarification… what did you say?” The fact that I was driving meant that I couldn’t look over at her. Couldn’t watch her answer that question. But I did move my hand to her knee, where my fingers could draw small, soothing circles on the inside. “Just want to make sure I heard you correctly.”
Jurnie groaned then sighed. “My sister was asking about you and she wanted to know if since we were going out again, we were going to have sex, and I told her I didn’t know. She’s always been invested in me losing my virginity because she feels guilty that the hammer was lowered on me when I didn’t do anything.”
“The… hammer?” None of this was making much sense yet and my brain wouldn’t stop thinking about the fact that hot-as-hell Jurnie was a virgin. It was like a neon light flashing in my brain over and over.
“The rules,” she told me. “The way my parents lorded over me after Delaney got pregnant. They brought down the hammer when I wasn’t even doing anything.”