He was about to say something when a car pulled up next the sidewalk where we were standing.
“Hey, you two. Need a lift? OMG. Beth, you’re all wet!”
I smiled instantly at my older sister, who was in her boyfriend’s car, leaning over his lap to call out to me through the window. Star was also perfectly dry having chosen to ride to school with her boyfriend in his brand-new Mercedes-Benz.
Solid choice.
“Come on, get in you two,” she insisted. “We don’t want to be late for the first day.”
“After you,” Fitz said, standing back to let me go first.
“I hope you trip and fall on a steel spike,” I muttered under my breath.
“What was that?” he asked as he practically shoved me over the back seat.
“Just something I picked up in Spanish.” I smiled again.
He was big and practically took up the whole back seat. I could do nothing but feel and smell him.
“Your wet jeans are touching me,” he said, clearly annoyed.
“Well, maybe don’t sit so close,” I fired back.
“I’m not sitting close. This is how much room I take up.”
“Okay, stop fighting,” Star said from her spot in the passenger seat. “That’s no way to start the year.”
She turned and looked at us. Specifically me.
“You’re a mess, Beth.”
“I love you too, Star.”
All I could think about was how little effort she put into her appearance this morning and yet, she was practically glowing. Long blonde hair that bounced around her shoulders.
Mine was a shade darker that mostly annoyed me when it touched my shoulders, so I kept it in a braid or ponytail. Now it was just plastered against my head.
She made a maxi dress look sexy and cool.
While I stuck to my normal uniform of dark jeans—professionally torn at the knees of course—Doc Martens and whatever designer top Mom had bought and shoved in my closet for me to wear.
We were utter opposites. While all eyes turned in her direction as if they couldn’t help themselves, I usually went unnoticed by everyone. That was fine with me.
Star wasn’t even her real name, but very early on she’d been dubbed thestar of the familyand somehow the name had just stuck.
“Yo, Bro. Yo, Beth,” Chas Bingly, my sister’s boyfriend welcomed us. “Beth, you ruin the leather back there and I’ll bounce you. For real. Why don’t you sit on Fitz’s lap instead?”
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” I snorted.
“Fine, I’m wet anyway,” Fitz said simultaneously and effortlessly pulled me into his lap. I had to duck my head so I didn’t hit the top of the car. “We’re good now.”
I tried not to feel his thighs under my butt, tried to figure out where to put my hands where I wouldn’t be touching him. When was the last time I’d sat on anyone’s freaking lap?
Answer: Never!
“Stop squirming,” he muttered.
“I can’t get comfortable,” I mumbled. “You’re hard everywhere.”
