We’ve avoided each other since our argument on the docks. I’ve lain in bed for the past ten nights, tossing a baseball at the ceiling, listening to, “What are we?” echoing in my head.
“Yeah, sure,” she calls back. “I just have to swing by my house. Grab a suit.”
“What about skinny-dipping?” Aaron calls, and a muscle in my jaw jumps.
I see them talking a lot, but I don’t think he and Wren have hooked up. I don’t know for sure though. Maybe there are other guys besides Aaron. Maybe Wren isn’t as confused about us as I am.
I stride toward my truck, not waiting for Gus.
He checks with Wren, making sure she remembers where to go, thenjogs over to climb into the passenger seat.
“Why’d you do that?” I ask Gus as soon as the door is shut.
“Do what?”
I reverse out of the spot, sending a spray of gravel flying as I accelerate toward the street. “Invite her,” I grit out.
“Cammie? Abby? Macie?—”
“You know who.”
“Wren?”
I nod.
“Because you’re in love with her and you’re doing nothing about it.”
I nearly drive off the road, swerving the tires straight just before they cross the white line.
“Jesus!” Gus yelps.
I care about Wren a lot. I can admit that much to myself. She’s like no one else I’ve ever met, and there’s an intrigue to that. We have chemistry.
But I am absolutely, definitely, definitivelynotin love with her.
Right?
“I’m not,” I tell Gus.
He snorts, then says, “Okay,” in that obnoxious tone people use when they don’t believe you, but don’t bother saying so.
“I’mnot.”
“You punched Nichols.”
“He deserved it.”
“He always deserves it,” Gus agrees. “But you don’t always show off your right hook. You haven’t hit anyone in years … until Wren was involved.”
I unclench my jaw to say, “I lost my temper. It happens.”
“Fine. Then why did you get wasted on New Year’s Eve after she left?Why did she spend the night at your house back in May? You never bring girls home. I saw the look on your face when people were talking about her going upstairs with Aaron. You’ve barely said a word to the poor kid since then, and you treat all the other guys the same.”
“Poor kid? He’s nineteen. And he forgot to charge a customer for gas yesterday.”
“I’m not saying you want to be in love with her, okay? Maybe you’re so deep in denial that you actually believe you aren’t. But I’m telling you, as your best friend and as someone who’s spent time around you two, you are. And you’re going to lose her if you don’t accept it soon. We both know she’s got plenty of other options. She won’t wait forever.”
I scoff. “She’s not waiting now.”
