I clench my jaw.
“Why are you so pissed, Sorrow?” He gets in my face. “Why are you defending a jerk who wouldn’t know you existed had his parents not moved you in?” He edges back and smirks. “You’re making it too easy for him. He’s never had to fight for a girl in his life. Make him work for it, Sorrow. He sure as fuck doesn’t deserve a girl like you.”
“And you do?” I’m angry, and I don’t understand why other than I have to defend Trace. Why, though, am I defending him? Rush has made great points. He’s known Trace longer than I have. Trace does have a reputation for sleeping around. How can he be faithful to one girl? Can one girl be enough for him?
Jesus. Rush is right.
He must see it clearly on my face. Rush chuckles. “Do you want to catch a predator and have it eating out of your palm?”
I shake my head. Rush is no match for an apex predator like Trace. I’m no match for him either. Trace has been playing this game of his with girls’ hearts for forever.
“Why are you doing this?”
“I like you. I can’t have you. You have a lady boner for Trace. Trace needs to be put in his place and to get off his high horse of being God’s gift to women, and you’re going to help me knock him off.” He ticks off each reason on his fingers.
Bypassing the part about Rush liking me and that he can’t have me, I cross my arms, lean forward, and hiss, “I’m not doing it. I won’t hurt Trace.”
“But you’ll let him hurt you? Fall for him, and he’ll break your heart, Sorrow.”
“I’ll risk it.”
“Rather than falling for a decent guy like me?”
I want to sock the smirk from his face. “You’re not decent if you’re asking me to pretend to be with you so that you can hurt Trace. Whatever beef you have with him, settle it with him and don’t use me to do your dirty work.”
I must’ve hit a nerve. He clamps his jaw and avoids looking at me. Then it dawns on me. “You walked over to Phoebe after Trace threw the rock at you. Either you’re in love with her and she won’t give you the time of day, or you two were dating but she broke up with you for Trace. Trace would never cheat with a girl who’s taken.”
“You have that much faith in him?”
For some reason, I do. “Yes. So which is it?”
“She won’t give me the time of day.”
I shake my head. “You deserve better.” From what I heard from Leigh, Phoebe’s been around the block more than a few times. “Plus, she’s into college guys.” I take his hand in mine. He looks so sad and put out. “How about we compromise? You forget about Phoebe and let me pick the girl for you.”
“You don’t know anyone,” he mutters.
“There is someone, but you have to be extra careful and nice to her. Don’t mention what clothes she’s wearing or how bad she smells or that her hair is a mess.”
His eyes widen. “Who the fuck are you planning on setting me up with? Cruella?”
“Who played Cruella?” I want to make sure we’re talking about the Disney movie.
“Emma Stone.”
“Well,” I draw out, “she kinda looks like her.”
“You’re fucking with me for fucking with you, aren’t you?”
“I kid you not.” I’m stretching the truth to get Rush to meet her at least once.
When he talks with her, he’ll overlook her appearance and change his mind. Ember reminds me a lot of myself after I woke up in the hospital with news of my father’s death—sad and lost with the longing to curl into myself and never emerge. But my mother’s voice in the back of my head demanded I get up and face the world. I needed to do what she couldn’t, so I did.
“But if I do this for you and things work out between you two”—I’m not sure they will. Ember is more closed off than I was after the fire—“you have to let go of whatever hang-up you have for Trace and go on a double date with us. Pinky swear?”
I hold out my pinky. There’s skepticism on his face before he smiles. “I’m in.” We pinky swear, and I smile from ear to ear. I’ve made a new friend, and bonus, my new friend Ember will have another friend too.
12
