I throw my arm around her as we strut down the driveway to the street where our cars are. “Oh, Isa.” I sigh dramatically. “I say, you should justdohim.”
She jams her elbow into my ribs. “Stop. There’s already weird tension between him and Luca because of me, and it’s pissing me off. He acts like because he’s my twin and a man he has to protect me from everything.”
“You could just tell him you’re an adult and you’regonna do who you wanna do,” I tease, and Isabelle chuckles.
“It’s fine.” She frowns. “One day, I guess.”
I frown and hug her the best I can with our height difference, rubbing circles on her back. “I’m sorry, birthday girl. But hey, he kissed your head.”
“He did, didn’t he?” She giggles again and pulls back. “Feels very middle school right now.”
I shrug. “No shame in an adult crush.”
She arches a reprimanding brow. “Like your crush on Rowan?”
“Goodnight,” I mutter.
“Everyone let us know when you get home!” Christian shouts loudly and we all respond with a thumbs up before he closes the front door of his house.
“I thought they were already fucking,” Isa whispers.
I laugh with her. “So did I.”
“Goodnight, Nat,” Isa says, giving me one more quick hug.
“Goodnight, Isa.”
As soon as she releases me to get into her car, and everyone else is gone, I find myself alone in the dark, again.
CHAPTER 2
Rowan
Natalia has this thing about her—severalthings, actually—that just kind ofundome. I don’t know how else to explain it, she just undoes me.Unravels and melts me into putty.
It’s her long, curly and spiraling dark hair that she always tosses to the side. The way her golden brown skin glows, and the way her full lips stretch when she smiles and the apples of her cheeks get a bit rosy. She also has a dimple in her chin, just under the left corner of her lip.
And as I go toward my car at the end of Isabelle’s birthday party, I wait to look at her before getting in. I watch the way her head tips back when she laughs, the sound raspy and loud. That’s the other thing—she laughs so loudly and unabashedly, and I love it. She doesn’t care if people look at her like she’s annoying or obnoxious. When she laughs, she’s happy, and she doesn’t care if the world knows it.
Natalia hugs Isabelle goodbye on the sidewalk, smiling. She lingers for a moment after Isa is gone, staring down at herfeet and kicking at the pavement, some of the smile still there. Then she finally takes a breath and walks to her car, parked in front of mine, and it isn’t until she’s pulling the door open that her smile falls entirely, like it was never there.
There is no hint, no evidence, that she was ever smiling or happy tonight.Even after our childish debacle in the back, and after having to sing “Happy Birthday” to Isabelle on our own while our friends made fun of us.
Now, we’re the only ones left, and I see beneath the mask she puts on. I know her better than she thinks I do. I know her tells and her twitches, especially the ones that tell me if she’s lying or not.
“You’re staring, creep,” Natalia says, pulling me out of my head.
I blink and those hazel eyes melt me to nothing. “I’m trying to figure you out.”
“Well…” She inhales shakily. “Stop.”
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
Natalia’s body goes rigid and I notice it from here. “None of your business,” she mumbles.
“So somethingiswrong?” I shut my car door and take a few long strides toward her. She crosses her arms over her chest, setting her expression straight, and I’m at risk of tripping over myself because of how beautiful she is even when she’s grumpy.
Natalia leans back against her car, beside the door that is still open, and stares up at me through her long lashes. She doesn’t ever wear makeup—she’s always barefaced with perfectly natural eyelashes and even more perfectly defined eyebrows to match. Her freckles are scattered over her nose and the tops of her cheeks in a way that someone could take apen and trace from one to the next to form a constellation. And her lips…they’reperfect. Everything about her in my eyes is flawless.
