I couldn’t face my dad. I just couldn’t.
“Mackenzie?” he called again.
Parker and I both stopped breathing as my bedroom door opened. His worried blue eyes stared right back into mine. My heart was racing. My body quivering. And yet, it wasn’t because I thought we might get caught. Everything I’d been denying and trying to ignore was rushing to the surface.
I heard my bedroom door click shut again, then silence. My dad was gone, but neither one of us dared to move. The air between us crackled.
“Idowant to know,” I whispered.
“Know what?”
“Why you reacted the way you did after I got hit. Tell me it was the heat of the game. That fights happen. That you would have done it for any other teammate.”
“You want me to lie.”
His words struck my chest like a check against the boards.
“You know why I did it, Mackenzie. I did it because when I look at you, I can’t think clearly. I no longer care that you’re off-limits. That you despise me. That wanting you could send my entire future up in flames. You drive me crazy enough to forget all that. Crazy enough to forget the rules.”
My breaths were shallow. The air between us heated. And if he lowered his lips to mine, I felt certain that the clash of our skin would cause sparks to ignite. I knew I should deny it. That I should get the hell out of my closet and tell Parker to go home.
Instead, I reached up and grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling him toward me. “You drive me crazy too.”
His lips crashed into mine, and the second we met, it was like pure, raw energy shot straight through me. This was somuch more than just sparks. It was a detonation. I didn’t know how to think. How to breathe. All the hatred, the lust, the hidden desire flowed through us. And the more I wanted him, the more I hated him for making me feel this way.
But as quickly as it started, the kiss was over. The two of us broke apart and I pushed through the closet door, desperate for air. What had I been thinking, kissing Parker? Had I completely lost my mind? The problem was, as he followed me out, I wanted to do it again.
“That was…” I stopped, feeling lost.
“If you can’t find the words,” he said, “we can always try that again.”
“I was going to say, that was a mistake.” I shook my head. “A stupid, one-time thing. It won’t happen again.”
The corner of Parker’s mouth lifted like he saw that as a challenge.
“I just needed to get you out of my system,” I added. “Like you said.”
“And did it work?”
“Definitely.”
“Right,” he said, with a small nod. “Same. I can’t think of anything worse than kissing you again.”
But he was looking at me differently. Like that kiss hadn’t solved anything. Like it had only made the attraction between us stronger. It didn’t help that I was lying through my teeth, too.
“Good,” I replied. “You better get out of here before my dad comes back.”
“Yeah, I guess.” He went to the window, but turned back tome as he climbed out. “I’ll see you tomorrow. School cafeteria. Seven a.m.”
And then he was gone.
Had that really just happened?
I turned my attention to the box on my bed. Yet another thing I didn’t know how to handle. I wasn’t sure I was ready to confront my dad about my mom’s past. But I couldn’t exactly pack the box away and pretend I’d never seen it, either. My mom was more like me than I’d known, and tonight she’d come to life for me in a way I couldn’t ignore.
That was the problem with opening boxes that were meant to remain closed. Once you’d seen their contents, there was no going back.
Chapter 27Parker
