I nod, struggling not to fidget. I’m not so sure I can even blame my nerves on bugs in my hair anymore.
Jovi’s hands move gently over my head and through my hair, trailing down to carefully tug free the hair tie. He tosses the hot pink rubber band onto the counter with one hand while the other starts combing through what’s left of my braid, softly giving the strands a shake as he sets them free.
After taking the time to examine the length of my mane, he works his way back to my scalp. The way his fingertips rove over my skin feels so damn nice I almost sigh out loud.
I catch myself only to realize I’ve closed my eyes. As if this is some sort of spa treatment, not Jovi searching for crawly things in my hair.
Annoyed with myself, I don’t simply open my eyes, I full-on let them bug out. Another bad move. Because I’m inches from Jovi’s chest. Hisbarechest. “When did you get your nipples pierced?”
I feel a surprised tug at my hair as Jovi huffs a laugh. “Six years ago. You really do like to pretend I’m invisible, don’t you.”
My nose scrunches. “Just because I don’t make it a point to look at your nipples doesn’t mean I act like you’re invisible.”
His fingers glide through my hair one last time. “You’re good. No other spiders.”
I flip my head up with a gasp. “You weren’t supposed to tell me what it was.”
“Sorry.” But he doesn’t look sorry. He looks smug. “Wanna know what else you missed while pretending I don’t exist?”
“No.”
He grins. “Yeah, you do.”
He’s right. But only because I’m nosy. And now that he’s hinted at something, I need to know what it is. Not because I care. Because my sanity depends on it.
“No. I absolutely don’t.” The lie makes my jaw hurt.
“Forget her stubborn ass,” Holly chimes in sliding her hip along the counter until she’s standing right beside me and across from Jovi. “I’ll play. What did she miss?”
“I missed nothing,” I insist. “He’s taunting me, that’s all.”
Jovi shrugs. “If you say so.”
Fine, so I wasn’t aware of the second tattoo either. But I'm going to choose to believe I haven’t seen him shirtless and missed this obvious change to his appearance. The barbells in his nipples, those I definitely missed. And yes, I do make it a point to avoid looking at him from the neck down when he’s not wearing a shirt. I also avoid looking at his smug face. Hell, maybe I do prefer to pretend he’s invisible.
“It’s not like you know what’s going on under my clothes either,” I counter. A mistake, I realize when I see the flash in his eyes and the smirk curling his lip.
“I know that you’ve had the words‘I believe in fairy tales’tattooed on the left side of your ribcage since your eighteenth birthday. I know you have a burn shaped like an L on your lowerback over your right hip. That’s been there since you were twenty-three and that jackass you were dating wasn’t paying attention when he pulled a cookie sheet out of the oven and bumped into you. You were wearing a crop top. And in his panic, the idiot nearly dropped the sheet and then knocked into you a second time, making the mark bigger.”
He takes a step closer, his voice dropping lower. “And I know this time of year, you’re covered in freckles from your chest all the way down to your belly button.”
I gulp. The only thing that could possibly be louder is my pounding heart. “It’s a little weird that you know all that,” I whisper.
“It’s only weird because you think pretending the other is invisible is a mutual thing we do.” Then he has the audacity to wink at me and turn away as if the last two minutes never happened. “She was right,” he tells Holly, “I was just fucking with her.” He snatches the already wet dishrag from my hands and tosses it on the floor, using his foot to mop up the trail of water he left in his wake.
That’s when I see it. The scar running the length of his torso, now partially camouflaged by the tattoo. And I remember why I refuse to look at him. Because I was there the night he got it.
For all the dumb jokes we’ve told of that night, of that dumbass decision to skateboard on the roof, the underlying truth is anything but funny. He could have died that night. Heshouldhave died that night. And that damn scar reminds me every single time I see it.
So I don’t look.
“Are you okay?” Holly sidles up to me murmuring under her breath. “You look really pale for someone who should looked flushed from being all hot and bothered right now.”
“I’m fine.” I force a smile. “Chilly from being soaked.”
“You sure?” Holly frowns like she doesn’t believe me.
“Trust me,” I say as Jovi continues wiping up the floor pretending not to hear us. “And for the record, Jovi never gets me hot.” I start for the hall. I need a shower to wash all this ick away. The Jovi-ick and the mud still clinging to me. “When he’s around I’m just bothered.”
