“It’s true,” I say, unable to resist. “Gage’s night moves can rival any man on this planet—and even a few of the heavenly beings roaming among us.”
Did I just say that out loud? Oh, for frick’s sake, the first good night’s rest I have had in years, and my brain is still malfunctioning? I really do need to see Ezrina about a head transplant.
A collective gasp circles the vicinity.
“No way!” Now it’s Bree swatting me. “I can’t believe you and Mr. Tall, Dark, and Dimples did the dirty deed and you didn’t even tell me about it.”
“You mean Mr. Baseball Bat,” Lexy is quick to correct the moniker.
And neither of them is wrong.
Gage tips his head to the side.She didn’t tell me either.And just like that, I pull my hand free from his. Talk about an ungraceful telepathic dismount. Gage can’t read minds, it’s a Celestra party trick, but he sure knows I can tune into his thoughts whenever I’mtouching his flesh. And right now, I have a feeling I shouldn’t be privy to his perverted commentary.
“She’s lying.” Chloe is quick to clear the sexual air. “Gage is saving himself for me.” She shakes her hair back while glancing at the sky, and her confidence in this second lie is off the charts. Either that or she just shot up a prayer. Probably both.
“Please,” Kate scoffs, rolling her eyes. “Everyone knows Dudley is the real prize at West. No offense, Gage.”
“None taken,” he says with a dark laugh.
“Absolutely.” Nat nods emphatically as she casts her lusty vote for Marshall. “Those hands could tutor me in advanced calculus and anatomy. Especially anatomy.”
Michelle looks incensed and ready to kill. “Back off, bitches,” she hisses. “I’ve had my eye on him since he landed at West. I call dibs. Dudley ismine.”
I’d roll my eyes, but I know firsthand that Michelle’s obsession with Marshall is pathetic enough to make even Chloe’s Gage fixation look healthy. Kidding. Chloe would harvest my organs if she thought Gage would like her better with my kidneys.
“Over my dead body, Michelle Miller,” Lexy declares war with a smile, before refreshing her lipstick blindly and giving herself an inadvertent crimson mustache. “Dudley isn’t looking for little girls. He wants a woman.” She snaps her compact closed with finality. “That’s exactly why I was thinking about stopping off at his place right about now.”
“To see if you can find a real woman?” Chloe lifts a brow with the dig, and everyone on the beach laughs at that one. Well, everyone but Lexy.
Chloe’s cruelty knows no bounds. Even her closest friends are just ammunition for her next zinger. Glad to know I’m not special.
My phone buzzes again with the same message from you-know-who.
Ms. Messenger.
Thunder grumbles overhead like some ancient beast turning in its sleep, its discontent rolling across the sky in waves like a sonic menace. The clouds darken from gray to charcoal, as if the very elements are responding to Marshall’s summons.
I glance over at the bonfire where the flames are practically licking Drake’s shoes. Logan’s face glows in shades of orange and red as the firelight carves dramatic shadows into his features. Ellis sits enveloped in his own personal cloud, a pharmacological fog of his own creation that’s steadily expanding outward like a very hazy, very illegal nebula.
Logan glances my way, and I covertly wiggle my phone at him. I don’t remember Marshall texting me so much and so cryptically. Something is definitely up. Maybe he knows what’s going on? Maybe he doesn’t know, and he’s just being his delightfully obnoxious self? Maybe he wants to show me the future by way of his prophetic kisses. Little does he know, I can return the favor now.
“What’s up?” Gage asks, leaning forward and nodding to my phone.
Shoot. The wrong Oliver is asking questions.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” I say quickly, trying to shove my phone into my purse, but a hand snatches it up from behind.
“What’s this?” Chloe says, holding the phone close to her chest like a hard-won trophy. “Hiding a naughty note from the best lover on the planet?”
The rest of the bitch squad laughs, and I catch Gage looking both embarrassed and markedly ticked.
Chloe glances down at the screen and grunts. “It’s just Dudley.”
More thunderous laughs break out at the mention of his name, deafening and so precisely timed I’m starting to think it’s deliberate. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn my mother has added a laugh track to my life. Next, she’ll add commercial breaks.
“What?” Michelle riots, practically levitating with outrage. “Give that to me.” She yanks the phone out of Chloe’s hand and examines the screen herself. “He was obviously just using Messenger to get intouch with me,” she spits out the delusion so fast it sounds half-convincing. “I’ll put him out of his misery. I’m heading over there.”
She tosses the phone at me just as the heavens open up. Fat raindrops pelt down, striking the sand with enough force to leave tiny craters. Everyone jumps up at once, and all of a sudden, there’s a collective shout—“Party at Dudley’s!”
