Which means she totally wants something. By the time I let her in the room last night, she was too tired to bring up Luca. But now she’s had a night of rest and is staring at me.
“You and Luca were holding hands and cuddling last night.”
“Alert the press and inform the elders.” I climb out of bed and grab my hairbrush.
“Come on, Ari, this is big. You two do this smittenly-looking-at-each-other stuff a lot, and I know you have feelings for him. You wouldn’t have added that dandelion fluff if he didn’t mean something to you. But actual physical contact is something else.”
I nervously nod along with my back to her.
Suddenly, she’s in my face. “Woah. Wait. You did more than hold hands, didn’t you?”
I bite my lip, dragging the brush through my hair to keep my hands busy, but she grabs it and tosses it over her shoulder. “Ariana!”
“Okay, okay. Fucking nosy, jeez. We kissed.” My face feels like it’s burning.
“Oh. My. God.”
“A few times…”
“OH. MY. GOD!”
Taking a deep breath, I admit, “And that night when we got drunk and went bowling, I had a panic attack, and he held me even after I cried and threw up on him.”
Lil’s face falls, and she throws her arms around me. “Oh, Ari, you didn’t tell me about that.”
I’m a douchebag for keeping that night a secret from her.
“Ah, that’s sweet,” she says when I finish telling her what happened after Luca helped her upstairs. “I wonder how long he stayed sitting here after you fell asleep.”
“I think it was a long time.” I smile softly, remembering him holding my hand as I drifted off to sleep. “Okay, break time from this convo because I need some fucking coffee before my body starts rebelling.”
She laughs, and we head to the kitchen. I’m standing on the counter digging my favorite mug out of the back of the cupboard when Luca walks in.
“What the hell are you doing?” He rushes to stand next to me and places his hands on my legs like he’s afraid I’ll fall. It’s a pretty legitimate fear where I’m concerned, really.
“Trying to find my asshole mug.”
“Your what?” His sexy eyebrow goes halfway up his forehead.
“Ah ha!” I drag it out and show him, wobbling a little. His hands tighten on my legs. “See? My asshole mug.” It’s a tall, handleless ceramic mug with chips all around the lip, and it says, ‘Some asshole bought me this cup. It’s me, I’m the asshole.’
He takes the cup and sets it off to the side, then helps me down.
“Did I see an eye roll?” I ask him.
“No, never.” He grins at me and doesn’t let me go right away.
Lil chuckles from where she sits at the breakfast bar, already drinking her coffee because she grabbed a random mug. “I thought you threw that thing away.”
“I tried. Couldn’t do it.”
Lil and I go back upstairs, and I fill her in while Luca works with Parker or Ford or… yeah, I don’t know, I don’t remember what he said. But I’m glad he seems to get along pretty well with the other guys. He could use a few friends. So could Parker, really. A friend who isn’t a soon-to-be-dead Tamagotchi.
After Lil’s all caught up, we convince Mom, Dad, Ford, and Luca to go bowling with us. Maybe we don’t convince them so much as we annoy them until they give in. Taking turns repeating, ‘Please,’ works every time. I turn on the sound system and fire up a playlist while Lil enters us all on one of the lanes.
“You bringing your A-game, Taurus?”
Uncle Ford pulls a bowling glove on his left hand with a grin. “I always bring my A-game, Airhead.” He’s ambidextrous, and I’ve heard him bust out an ‘I am not left-handed’ on more than one occasion, in and out of the shed. He’s like a cat fucking with a mouse sometimes.You’re so getting your ass kicked, Bronco.
