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“No thanks. I’ll stick with lemonade.”
“That’s what this is, Hot Rod.”
Lena pulled herself out of the pool and grabbed a towel. Ethan only let go of her hand long enough to grab his own.
Like I said, whipped. They’d probably even pee holding hands underneath the stalls if you let them. Maybe you can do that in France.
“What are we going to do tonight, kids?” Ridley looked at her cousin. “And don’t try to tell me book club is a real thing again.”
Lena rolled her eyes. “I didn’t make that up. Google it or something.”
“Google? Yeah, right. Stupid word. You probably made that up, too.” Ridley sniffed. She liked to pretend she was above Mortal technology.
Ethan laughed. “Let’s get out of here. I have to start my job at the library tomorrow.”
“Job?” Ridley sounded annoyed.
Lena smiled. “Ethan’s helping Liv and Marian in the stacks. Just until we leave in September. I told him I’d go hang out with him tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry,” Ridley said.
“Thank you?” Ethan looked amused.
“What about John Boy? Can’t he help read things?” Ridley never said anything positive about John Breed. She never said anything positive about anyone, come to think of it.
Why is that? Link thought, looking at her. It’s not like she needed any more self-esteem. The girl was an esteem factory.
“John’s busy with Uncle Macon.” Lena didn’t elaborate. “And he’s also gone after this summer, you know. John and Liv.”
Ridley looked doubly irritated.
“That leaves you and me, Sugarplum.” Link looked at her. “Wanna go see a movie in Summerville or somethin’? The monster truck rally’s up in Columbia. Road trip?”
“Just let me get my dip.” Ridley shot him a withering look. “I thought summer was supposed to be fun. Three days in and I’m already bored to death.”
“Aww, it’s not that bad.” Link sat up and looked at her, pulling the towel from his head.
“Are you talking about your hair? Because it is that bad.” She raised an eyebrow.
Link grinned. He knew how his hair was sticking up, and he didn’t care. If you love me, you love my hair.
The question was, did she love him?
“There’s a new club I want to hit. Suffer. It’s like Exile, only hotter.” Ridley had made up her mind. When she looked around the sticky plastic booth at the Dar-ee Keen, though, nobody else was biting.
Here we go, thought Link, already tired. “Everything’s hotter, Babe. It’s almost July.”
She wasn’t giving up. She pushed away her double-cherry-chocolate shake. “Come on, guys. Just this once. Let’s get out of this boring town and light it up, Caster-style.”
“Because our little trip to the South of France didn’t do it for you?” Ethan shoved the rest of his fries on top of his burger and into his mouth.
He still ate as though he was making up for lost time, Link thought sadly. Or because his best friend can’t eat anymore. It was the only thing Link missed about being a hundred percent Mortal.
That, and sleeping in. Or sleeping at all.
“France? That was today. This is tonight.” Ridley tried to make her logic sound reasonable, but Link wasn’t buying it any more than the rest of their friends.
Ethan shook his head. “I guess I don’t need to remind you how many times Link and I have nearly gotten our butts kicked at Exile. Caster-style.”
Ridley shrugged. “Two hybrid Incubuses, a Siren, and a Natural. You and the Trapper Keeper will be safe as babies in butt bags.”
Liv looked annoyed. “It’s Keeper.”
“And they’re called diapers.” Lena shook her head.
“Whatever.” Ridley fluttered her pink nails dismissively.
“I’ll go,” Link said with a sigh. “I’d go anywhere with you, Sugarplum. You know that. If I’d go to Saint No Way today, I’ll go to Suffer tonight. At least the name’s settin’ my expectations where they probably belong.”
“Aw, thanks, Shrinky Dink.” She kissed his cheek and he pulled her close, bringing his mouth to hers. They kissed across the booth table.
Ethan and Lena and Liv and John collectively groaned, like they always did. But Ridley and Link ignored them, like they always did. Then they just kept kissing, like it was a hundred degrees inside and out.
Like they would die as soon as this kiss was over, and neither one of them cared.
Like it was the end of time, and there was nobody else left in the whole world to keep them apart.
Third Degree Burns, Link thought. That’s what this is. Finally.
By the time Link came up for air, Ridley’s arms were wrapped around his neck, and her bright pink lipstick was wrapped around his face.
“That was seriously the most disgusting display of PDA anyone’s ever witnessed in the history of Gatlin County,” Ethan said, pushing his burger away.
“Possibly throughout all of history,” added Liv.
“Yeah. Gross,” John said. “Can I have those onion rings?”
Lena kept her eyes on the table.
But Link ignored them. He kept his forehead pressed against Ridley’s, whispering something into her face.
A secret. Something private.
Something he should have told her a long time ago.
“You what?” She yanked away from him as if he’d lit her pink streak on fire.
Link felt like she’d thrown a bucket of water in his face. “I love you, Rid. You gotta know that by now.”
“Here we go,” Ethan said, pushing his way out of the booth.
“See ya,” John said, grabbing the onion rings. Liv and Lena followed him out the door. They knew better than to say a word.
All four of them ran for it.
Link might as well have lobbed a grenade at Ridley, instead of three little words. He didn’t know what all the fuss was about. But she stood there staring at him like he’d whipped off his pants in the middle of the Dar-ee Keen.
You could drive a monster truck through her mouth, Link thought. That’s how far it’s hanging open.
“Don’t be stupid,” Rid finally said, without looking at him.
Link shoved his hand through his spiky hair. “So, yeah. That’s not what you’re supposed to say when a guy tells you he loves you.” He wiped pink lipstick off his face.
Rid rolled her eyes. “What am I supposed to say? I love you, too? Do you know how ridiculous that is?”
“No. But I get the feelin’ you’re about to spell it out for me.” Link looked grim. In the distance, Charlotte, the Dar-ee Keen’s only full-time waitress, held up a pitcher of refill soda. He shook his head.
Not now. Not when all hell is about to break loose.
“Do you know how many guys have said those words to me? And do you know how many times I’ve said them back?” Ridley was losing it.
“I’m going to go with ‘all of them’ and ‘zero,’ based on this whole conversation.” Link exhaled. Keep it calm. Talk her down. You know how to do this, bro.
“Ding, ding, ding.” She was furious, and anger brought out her nasty side.
“You don’t have to be nasty about it. I get it.”
“Do you?”
“Yeah. I get it. I’m not as stupid as you think I am.” Link flicked a piece of melting ice across the table.
“Really?”
He looked up. “You don’t love me. You don’t love anybody. You’re a Siren. I’ve heard it all before.”
“Then, why—”
“The thing is, Rid, that’s not what it feels like when you’re with me.” He had to be honest. He had nothing left to lose.
“Please,” she snapped.
Link kept going. “I gotta be honest with you. I kinda feel like you—”
“Don’t say it.” She held up her finger. A threat.
“You love me.” He smiled because he knew it was true, whether or not Rid would ever admit she felt that way. He
didn’t know why that didn’t seem to cut it anymore.
“I said not to say it.” Ridley was backing her way out of the booth.
