“Are you okay?” I ask, trying to control my voice because what I really want to do is scream at her and ask what the hell she was thinking. She’s wearing white sneakers with her skirt, but she wobbled getting into the car, so clearly she’s more than tipsy.
Not looking at me, she says, “Yeah, thanks for picking me up,” as we hita red light.
“Look at me,” I order her.Good Girlalmost slips out at how fast she listens to me.No!I need to stop having these thoughts with her around.
Once I’ve taken in her face, I see that she’s drank more than I thought. A lot more than I thought. “How much have you had to drink?”
“Not much.”
“Give me a number.”
“A beer and three shots . . . I think.”
Jesus. What has gotten into her? Ronan and I have tried offering her a beer here and there when she’s with us but always pulls a face at the first sip.
And that’s when I lose it.
“What the fuck were you thinking? Since when do you drink? Who the hell were you with?” At my tone, her lower lip starts to shake as she turns her head, but not before I see a few big tears trail down her cheek.
Fuck. Taking a deep breath, I say, “Come on, Rosie,” using her childhood nickname because I know it always softens her up to me when I’ve messed up. “Tell me what happened. You know I could never actually be mad at you.”
“It’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing if you called me on the verge of crying at one thirty in the morning asking me to come pick you up, drunk, when I know you don’t drink or party. You know you can tell me anything. I promise I won’t tell Ronan. It’ll go in the vault.”
Peeking at her, I can see she’s contemplating what to tell me. She’s still curled up on herself but at least she’s stoppedcrying. Seeing her cry always sends me into panic mode, even more so than when my own little sister cries.
She doesn’t say anything even as we pull into the parking lot of my apartment building, which just makes my worry grow. What the hell happened at that party?
“Don’t move,” I say, getting out of the car and taking off my sweater as I make my way to the passenger side. I open her door and see that she’s already unbuckled her seatbelt.
“Here, put this on,” I tell her as I pass her my sweatshirt. Without question, she slips it on, thankfully covering the ridiculous amount of cleavage she has on display. “Let’s go.” I grab her hand and lead her to my apartment. Once inside, I sit her on the couch before grabbing a water bottle and some Tylenol, and quickly slapping a peanut butter and jelly sandwich together.
“Drink half of that, take these, and tell me what the fuck had you calling me crying at one in the morning, while you’re eating that.”
Doing as I say, and after taking a few bites of the sandwich, she finally says, “Nothing happened, Liam. I wasn’t invited to any of the graduation parties in June, so when I was invited to this one, I didn’t even think twice before going. Figured I couldn’t go to university without ever having been to at least one party.” She releases a cute snort. “I went, had a few drinks, and then just didn’t want to be there anymore.” She finishes as she goes back to eating her sandwich.
Not completely believing that nothing happened, I sit next to her on the couch and throw my arm around her to pull her in close to my side, where she fits perfectly.
“Are you sure, Rosie?” I ask in a soft voice I reserve just for her.
“I promise, Liam. I don’t know why I was crying. I guess I just thought that I’d have fun for once. Do something outside my comfort zone, you know? But if anything, I just felt weird and awkward. Plus, no one was really talking to me so I called you.”
She leans in tighter to me once she’s finished her sandwich and I automatically tighten my arm around her.
“I’m happy you called me. You know I’ll always come pick you up no matter what,” I tell her, pulling back a bit so I can look into her eyes to make sure she really is okay. How no one in her class has seen how sweet and loyal this girl is, is beyond me. “You’ll find your stride, Rosie. You’ll see university is a lot bigger and you’ll find your spot, your people. You’ll find the people who see you for the smart, funny, gorgeous girl you are, I promise. And if not, you’ll always have me, okay?”
A look I’d never seen crosses her face after that, but I don’t have time to figure out what it means before her lips are against mine and her fingers are threading themselves into the hair at the nape of my neck. The minute her lips touch mine, I know it’s wrong. I know I should pull away, but I’m a total goner when her tongue shyly sneaks out to take a tentative swipe against my lower lip. Unable to stop myself, I let my tongue chase hers, letting her taste invade my senses. My hand travels to the side of her neck, fireworks erupt behind my eyelids, and I swear my brain short circuits for a few seconds before I’m brought back down to reality.
My tongue is in my best friend’s little sister’s mouth.
I abruptly pull away and stand up, running a hand through my hair. Unable to stop myself, I say the first thing that crosses my mind. “What the fuck was that?” I hear the anger in my voice, but I can’t help it. I am pissed at myself. I took advantage of a drunk and lonely eighteen year old. Not just any eighteen year old, but one I’ve known her entire life.
Without missing a beat, and in a tone I’ve never heard coming from her—getting me harder than I’ve ever been—she says,“What the fuck was that? That was your tongue down my throat and your fingers knotted in my hair, so don’t you look at me like that.”
Looking at her, really looking at her for the first time, I’m taken aback by how she looks. She’s always been beautiful, but now, standing in front of me with her swollen lips, red cheeks, and a fire in her eyes I’ve never seen before, I can’t help the words that are about to leave my mouth. So, I do what I do best. I’m a dick to the one girl I promised to never be mean to—to never hurt.
“What the hell was I supposed to do? You just threw yourself at me. Look, I know you’ve had a little childhood crush on me, but that was pushing it, Sloane. You can’t just go around kissing people like that. You’re my best friend’s little sister. I look out for you like I do Summer and Hannah, but that’s it. That was a mistake—the biggest mistake that is never happening again. Got it?”
