“Course.”
“And maybe take me to get a tattoo?”
He looked pained. “Em—”
“If you won’t take me, I’ll have to go by myself, and I might choose a crappy place.” Which was so not true. She would research the hell out of it before she let anyone take a needle and ink to her body, but Mandy was right. It would be so much more fun if Ryan went with her.
Heat flickered in his eyes. “What is this all about?”
She tugged her bottom lip between her teeth. “Look, last night started as a dare, but it turned out to be really fun—other than that one part we’ll never speak of again.”
“A dare?”
“I was complaining to my friends about how I’m tired of being so boring—”
“Not a word I’d ever use to describe you, Em.” Something in his tone made her feel all warm and mushy.
“But I’ve always been the dependable one, right? I was the world’s most well-behaved teenager. It wasn’t a fun time for me.” Understatement of the century. She’d buried her whole family before she turned twenty. “But last night made me realize I’m ready for a change. So what do you say, will you help a girl out?”
He turned away. “I’m not that guy anymore. I can’t be responsible for corrupting you.”
Corrupting her?Was he serious? She kicked at a clump of weeds growing across the path. “God, Ryan. It’s not like I asked you for advice on how to become a stripper.”
He squeezed his eyes shut. “Please promise me that you won’t.”
“Who should I go to on that one then? There was that one girl in high school who everyone said—” She broke off when she caught sight of the look of horror on his face and doubled over in laughter.
He scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “You’re messing with me now.”
“What’s up with you today? You’re not usually this serious.” In fact, he wasn’t acting like himself at all, and if this was what it was going to be like between them now, all because she’d tried to kiss him last night…
“It’s not about last night,” he said as if he’d read her mind. “Let’s start with the rock climbing lessons and take it from there.”
“Deal.” She stuck her hand out.
He took it, his big, warm hand enveloping her small, chilly one, andwhoa, more sparks.
“So when do we start?” she asked, reluctantly tucking her hand into the pocket of her jacket.
“Another week or two, once the weather warms up.”
“I’m not cold.”
He stared at her for a moment then shook his head and started walking back toward the main building. “You’re trouble, Emma Rush.”
She fist-pumped the air. “Exactly what I was hoping for. See? You’re helping me out already.”
* * *
The Harley roared beneath him as Ryan hugged the mountain roads outside Haven. The wind whipped at his face and filled his lungs, cold and crisp. He could taste spring in the air, see it in the green buds on the trees along the roadside.
He’d been back in Haven almost a year now. Sometimes, it felt like he’d never left. So many things were the same, like these roads and the invigorating mountain air. Some things had changed, though.He’dchanged. He wanted to make something of himself at Off-the-Grid with Ethan and Mark, something permanent and worthwhile. And now, with Trent here, it seemed more important than ever. He wanted to be someone his little brother could look up to.
When the Lamars had first begun the process of adopting Trent, Ryan got suspended from school for vandalism and was looking at time in juvie. So once the adoption had gone through, they’d moved away with him, and Ryan never heard from them again.
He’d never known his dad so the one-two punch of losing his mom and then his brother had sent Ryan into a predictable downward spiral. He’d met Ethan and Mark in a group home, all of them wards of the state. The three of them had become thick as thieves, raising hell but also forming a bond, a brotherhood that had lasted into adulthood.
Those guys, and now Trent, were all Ryan had in this world.
