Would have helped a hell of a lot if she’d decided that before I’d dug an entire flower bed. When I’d arrived, this was where she said the flower bed needed to go. While I’d been digging up the yard and removing the rocks from the soil, she’d been using a trowel to make holes for the plants and flowers. So we’d wasted hours of work on something that she now deemed all wrong.
“You sure?” I asked before I dug up more of her lawn. Wasn’t so sure how happy Derek would be when he saw what I’d done to his grass but unlike my dad, Derek wasn’t concerned with having straight lines when he mowed it. I’d never noticed that before but today it had really bugged me when I saw his uneven lines like he didn’t really give a shit how it looked. I was tempted to take over the lawn mowing myself so Caroline would have straight lines to look at. It was the same with a lot of things at their house.
I’d already made a mental list of things I would fix. WD40 for the squeaky door hinges. The deck needed to be re-stained, and the paint on the railings was flaking. The Weber grill on the deck was rusted and I suspected he didn’t even keep it covered. I wasn’t a big fan of Derek’s and I didn’t think my parents were either but none of us would ever say a word. We all loved Caroline, and Derek was Lila’s stepdad. So even though he had shifty eyes and I didn’t trust him, I needed to keep my opinions to myself.
“I’m sure. That’s where it needs to go,” Lila said, referring to the place where the flower bed needed to be.
I took off my ball cap, ran my hand through my sweaty hair and put it on backward. Her lips curved into a smile that caught me off guard. It wasn’t the first time I’d noticed how pretty my best friend was or how green her eyes were in the sun or how full and kissable her lips looked. But there was something about her smile at this moment that made my chest tight. “What’s the smile for?”
“You,” she said softly, laughing a little, her eyes lowering to her dirty white Chucks. “Thanks for doing this. And thanks for putting up with me. I know…” She lifted her eyes to mine and took a deep breath. “I guess I’ve been kind of bitchy lately.”
I shrugged one shoulder, mesmerized by the way she tugged her lower lip between her straight white teeth. No more braces. No more skinny little girl in a yellow sundress. She was still small and petite, short enough that she had to tip up her chin to look me in the eye. I’d shot up to five-eleven while she was still five foot nothing. But she wasn’t a little kid anymore. Her wavy brown hair was in a messy bun and the strands of hair that had escaped it framed her perfect face. She never wore makeup like the other girls in our class did and I was happy about it. She didn’t need it.
Lila had five freckles on her nose. I knew because I’d counted. “It’s understandable. I’d be much worse.”
“What would you do? If you were me?”
“I’d plant a garden and make sure it was perfect.”
She looked at a spot over my shoulder and blinked back her tears. Lila didn’t cry. Ever. “What else would you do?”
I wasn’t sure exactly what she was asking but I tried to put myself in her shoes, and I gave it a minute’s thought before answering. “Guess I’d just try to be there for her by doing stuff I know she’d like. Stuff that’s important to her so that she knew I loved her.”
Lila reached up with her hand and touched my cheek. “You have dirt on your face,” she said by way of explanation, her eyes locked on mine as she rubbed her thumb across my cheekbone.
She moved closer, just a step but she was close enough that I could smell the scent of her shampoo. Spring rain and honeysuckle. Inhaling deeply, I filled my lungs with the scent of Lila. It made my head swim and the ground tilt underneath me.
I could kiss her. I could steal her first kiss right now. Just dip my head and claim her lips. Would they be soft? Would she taste like the Dr. Pepper she’d been drinking earlier? Would she kiss me back?
I wanted to be her first kiss. I wanted to be her first everything.
“Hey, hey, hey,” Reese said, rounding the side of the house with our other friend, Tyler in tow. Lila jumped back, snatching her hand away as if she’d been doing something illegal then walked away from me.
Normally, I would laugh but I was too busy watching her as she drew a chalk line in the grass for where she wanted the flower bed to go. From here, I had a perfect view of her ass in those little denim cut-offs she always wore.
Tyler gave me a slug on the shoulder, snapping me out of it. “Enjoying the view?”
“Shut up,” I growled, hoping she hadn’t heard him.
“So this is why you told us to come later,” Reese said, wagging his brows. They were a paler shade of red than his hair.
Now I regretted having called in reinforcements as they greeted Lila who acted like they were sent from heaven above.
“Thanks, you guys, I really appreciate it,” she gushed.
Tone it down, Lila. They haven’t even done anything helpful yet.
“Anytime.” Reese rubbed his hands together and looked over at me, ready to be put to work. “What do you need me to do?”
I tossed him a shovel. “Start digging.”
A few minutes later, Brody showed up with a wheelbarrow filled with bags of wood chips and mulch that I suspected he’d stolen from our shed. My dad was anal about his garden and kept an inventory of his tools and supplies but since it was for Caroline, I knew he wouldn’t mind. Right behind him was Ashleigh and Megan. The two blondes were carrying Tupperware containers and bags of junk food. Supposedly, they were Lila’s friends but I didn’t trust them. They weren’t true friends. They hung out with Lila to get closer to me, but if I told her that, she’d just get pissed and call me cocky.
“I made those cupcakes you like,” Ashleigh said, her smile aimed at me. She was wearing a short T-shirt dress that clung to every curve of her body. I couldn’t help but notice her tits because they were big and right there in my face. Every guy in our class ogled them and Reese and Tyler were practically salivating.
“Devil’s food,” Ashleigh said, referring to the cupcakes that she always brought to my baseball games.
Lila glanced over at me, her eyes narrowing to slits. “Figures you’d like devil’s food,” she muttered.
I laughed. Ashleigh looked from me to Lila, not sure what was so funny or if I was laughing at her expense. I wasn’t. I liked it that Lila got jealous. Not that she’d ever admit it.
“Mom’s here,” Jesse bellowed as he ran along the side of the house.
“You need to unload the plants and flowers,” Gideon said, stressing the ‘you’ and pulling a face at the mere thought of touching anything green. It was like Gideon was allergic to the outdoors. He hated nature. Hated living in a small town. Even claimed to hate Texas. In short, Gideon hated everything about his life and was constantly talking about getting away and living in a big city.
Mom said he was going through a ‘phase’ but as far as I could tell this phase had lasted the entire eleven years he’d been on the planet. Dude was cold. If he had any emotions, he never let them show.
His hair was darker than mine, almost black and his skin pale like it had never seen the sun. Dude looked like a Greek statue carved from marble. It was hard to tell if a beating heart lived under that cool exterior.