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"You're snoring and I can't fucking sleep," I grumble.
"Sorry, Wild. I haven't been able to sleep in weeks. This is the first night I've fallen asleep comfortably."
Great, now I feel bad. His life is so fucked up he sleeps better on the carpet in my room than in his big mansion across town.
I blow out a tired breath. "Just keep it down, okay?"
"Okay."
I roll over and close my eyes, trying hard not to think about Ingrid. Not about her brown eyes or her soft hair. Not the way she slid out of her bikini at the creek and crawled on top of me, her pert nipples running along my chest. Not about how warm and wet she was. Not about the hours we laid on the rock, limbs tangled as we kissed.
If I had known it was going to be the last time I held her like that, I would have held on a little tighter.
My eyes open slowly, hoping everything that happened yesterday was a bad dream. But Cash is standing in the doorway, staring at me.
"Hey, Sleeping Beauty," he gives me a shit-eating grin. "You've been asleep for hours."
"You snore worse than my grandpa," I stretch my arms over my head.
"You gonna tell me why you have her nickname tattooed on your arm?" Cash gets straight to the point.
I freeze. Shit. I forgot about the tattoo. We never came up with a story. Or an excuse. I can't tell Cash the truth.
"I lost a bet," I clear my throat and sit up.
"What bet?" Cash crosses his arms over his chest.
"Pool," I offer quickly. "Turns out Blondie isn't terrible at it." She is, for the record. She sucks.
"You guys spend all summer together?"
Yep.
"We hung out a few times," I tell him. "Played pool once and we swam at the creek."
"I didn't think you two liked each other," he nonchalantly yawns.
"You abandoned us, Cash," I remind him. "She needed to talk to someone."
He runs a hand through his blond hair. "I screwed up, Wild. I never should have left her."
"Why did you?" Not sure I want to hear his answer, but I know I need to.
"My mom did something really bad," Cash admits. Oh, you mean frame Jason Winthrop? "Like, something illegal. If I didn't leave, she was going to cause a lot of problems for Ingrid."
"So, what? You thought by leaving you were protecting her?"
"I thought so," he frowns. "I see now that I wasn't. I've lived under my mom's control for so long, I didn't even realize she was manipulating me. Going to Europe was good for me. I could finally think without her breathing down my neck."
"If she didn't like you with Blondie," I lick my lips, "why didn't you just break up with her sooner?"
Cash scoffs. "You know why. I love Ingrid. I want to marry her. I... I can't see my life without her in it. Ingrid's the best thing that's ever happened to me. But I'm pretty sure she told me I'm the worst thing that's ever happened to her. She said she's had more fun this summer than she did the summers that we were together."
Funny, she told me the same thing.
I scratch the side of my face. "What are you going to do?"
"Win her back?" Cash blows out an unsteady breath. "If I can. Try to prove to her that I never meant to hurt her. That I was so exhausted from the endless nagging and negativity that I had to leave. Not her. Just everyone."
