Go to a party.
Do something reckless.
Try an alcoholic beverage.
Make out with Logan Cole.
Lose my virginity.
Easy. Right?
Only time would tell.
Levi looked away, his jaw popping again. “You came to see Logan? You and half the town. Good luck getting an audience with him.”
I swallowed around a nervous lump in my throat. That was exactly what I was worried about. Logan and I were friends, but he had a long list of better friends that would want to hang out with him. He was nice to me, but only because he was nice to everybody. I had no idea how I would catch his attention tonight. I hadn’t even anticipated coming to this party at all. And I was too embarrassed to share my bucket list with Coco or my crazy plans for the night. So, I was doing something I almost never did. Showed up without a plan. I was just going to… wing it. “Maybe you could help me?”
Levi’s gaze found mine again and I could see the wheels in his head turning. He was working on a plan, something to keep me from my goal. But he should remember that I was valedictorian and he was only salutatorian. Which meant he was second place. And I was one step ahead of him.
Always.
Er, at least sometimes.
“Help you?” he asked, sounding as surprised as I felt asking him for help.
I shrugged, pretending like I didn’t care either way. “You know, make up for how you treated me for oh, the last eighteen years of my life.”
“Treated you?” He laughed. “You’re serious?”
I raised a single eyebrow. “Or you could just do it because you’re secretly a nice guy.” Honestly, I didn’t think he was secretly a nice guy, but he was the kind of guy that liked having his ego stroked.
“Bullshit, Ruby,” he said, calling me out. “You’re trying to manipulate me.”
I couldn’t help but smile. Somehow, despite our mutual hatred for each other, he knew me better than anyone else. “Is it working?”
He let out a shaky breath and I decided that no matter how he smelled, he must have been drinking. Because he sounded unsure. Nervous even. And Levi Cole was never either of those two things. Surprising me, he grabbed my hand and tugged me closer to him. “I’ll help you talk to my brother when he gets here if you have a drink with me first.”
It was my turn to parrot his demand back as a question. “A drink with you?”
He nodded. “It’s a win-win for you. You get to hang out with me and Logan. Every girl’s hottest fantasy.”
I rolled my eyes. “Is this a trick?”
He shook his head, stepping even closer. “Not a trick.”
My heart kicked in my chest, responding to the touch of his hand against mine and the sound of his voice so gentle and deep. God, it showed how deprived of attention I was. This man was my nemesis and yet he’d managed to light up my entire body with the tiniest touch and the smell of clean laundry.
“Okay. Let’s get a drink.” The wine coolers had spoken.
“Not here though,” he murmured. He led me through the house, grabbing two cold beers on the way.
We found an unoccupied room upstairs that led to a small balcony. This was his girlfriend’s house, of course he knew where he was going. But I wondered if I did. I’d hated Levi for as long as I could remember. My animosity for him was the armor that got me through the school day. He was part of the incentive to get me out of this town. We’d always been enemies, so why was I here with him? Why had I let him take my hand and lead me to this quiet room without a fight? Why even now, in his girlfriend’s house, was my heart beating in that way it always did around him?
Most importantly, why wasn’t I running? Levi always made me run. These inexplicable flutterings were the reason I was running to college, as fast as I could go. Instinctively, I knew, whatever Levi made me feel was dangerous. And I needed to stay as far away from him as possible.
That meant this room was dangerous. And I should leave. I should stick with my plan. I should remember my party goals and abandon Levi’s help.
And yet… the push and pull that had always existed between us felt different tonight. There was more pull for starters. And I didn’t want to push Levi away right now. I wanted to… I didn’t know what I wanted to do.
