“Leather dries,” he grinned.
Yes, but it wouldn’t dry fast enough so that he wouldn’t see the sizable sweat print my ass left behind. With nothing left to do, I sat down, cranking up the AC. With any luck, I would dry out enough to prevent the worst of it. Highly unlikely since my ass was pressed against the leather, meaning that would be the last place that dried, but a girl could hope.
“Drop me off first,” Josie said, smirking at me. “Then you can swing by Ellie’s place.”
“Sure. Where do you live?”
She gave him the address, but I was too busy staring at myself in horror in the mirror. My mascara was running down my face from the sweat pouring into my eyes. I quickly slammed the visor up, then turned away from Ryder and ran my fingers under my eyes, hoping to wipe away the worst of the black goop running down my face.
God, this was so embarrassing.
And he had to have seen it. There was no possible way on this earth that Ryder had helped me up and not noticed that I looked like a raccoon.
Then again, maybe he really hadn’t noticed. Maybe he was so disinterested in me that even a black mask around my eyes didn’t catch his attention.
I wasn’t sure which one was worse, and I was so busy trying to decipher what that meant that I hadn’t even noticed that Josie got out of the car or that we were now stopped in my driveway.
“This is the part where you get out,” Ryder said smoothly.
“Uh…right. Thanks for the ride.”
“Are you sure you can make it in there? Or do I need to carry you?”
The cocky grin on his face was devastatingly handsome. I wanted to smack him and kiss him at the same time. Except, kissing was bad. Very, very bad. Besides, he wouldn’t beinterested in kissing me. I wasn’t his type. He probably went for leggy brunettes who hadn’t eaten more than an apple a day.
And now I was just staring at him. Sitting in his car while he waited for me to get out. My mouth opened to say something smart, but I just kept thinking about every second that passed, and how every nanosecond was making it even worse. And I didn’t even know how many nanoseconds were in a second!
“Did…you need something else?” he asked, his eyebrows furrowing in question.
“I—”
That was the extent of the vocabulary I could formulate at the moment. It wasn’t that he was hot. It wasn’t that I was shy. I just realized what an idiot I was being, and for some reason, I was now frozen in place.
“Maybe you have heat exhaustion. I should call a doctor.”
“N—”
N. That was all that left my mouth.
“Are you having a seizure?”
I shook my head, my cheeks flushing bright red. God, this was so mortifying.
“Hey, are you okay? You’re all red and—I think I need to take you to the hospital.”
Since words weren’t forming, I grabbed the handle and shoved the door open, falling out onto the driveway. In seconds, I was at my front door, shoving it open. As soon as the door was closed, I sank to the ground in mortification.
“Good job, Ellie. Today’s lesson. Learn words.”
12
RYDER
I stood on my parents’doorstep, delaying the inevitable for as long as possible. But it was no use. They would know by now that I was here. The sensors at the front gate would have alerted them to my presence. And as much as I wanted to turn tail and run, I would have to see them again at some point.
I knocked on the door, then stood back and waited three point five seconds for my mother to swing the door open with a wide grin on her face.
“Ryder.” She pulled me into a hug, making it last longer than it had the first time. “I can’t believe you’re really home.”
