“Security is going to remove you if you don’t remove yourself.” I try to explain some sense into what I realize is a woman who probably won’t listen to reason or logic.
Amanda clutches the neckline of her very low-cut blouse, as if preparing for a second round of pleading. “Evan, please! I’ve readeverybook three times. I know your heart. Iamyour heart!”
I start to stand up, and that’s when her eyes double in size and she jumps up on the table, beginning to crawl toward me.Where is security?!I really don’t want to hit a woman.
“Oh no you don’t!” I hear a high-pitched yell from behind me.
Before I can even stand up, Lily, in her neon pink jumpsuit, is hurdling over the table, tackling the woman to the ground. I forgot my sister is here. She tends to be nowhere and everywhere at the same time.
“Lily!” Melanie screams. “Security is coming!”
“I am security!” Lily yells as she wrestles the woman until she’s sitting on her back and holding onto her wrists as if she’s a police officer and is making an arrest.
“I just want to touch him!” Amanda lets out a muffled scream.
Lily twists the woman’s arms harder. “You will not touch my brother!”
Thirty more seconds or so pass before security arrives, putting handcuffs on the woman since she’s still kicking and screeching.
“Do you have it from here, boys?” Lily asks them both with a grin as she readjusts her jumpsuit, which is disheveled from the wrestling.
One of the men nods his head, but the other’s gaze lingers a little too long on my little sister. He’s tall, dark-haired, tanned, and well, I would say he’s Lily’s type, but Lily only has one type: testosterone.
Lily notices. She steps toward him.“I’m free tonight if you are,” she says.
I roll my eyes as the man slips his phone over to my sister so she can quickly put her number in it.
I know trying to control Lily is a lost cause. I used to be able to. But then she turned sixteen and there had been a few tenseyears between us since I had become more like her parent than her brother.
Lily turns around, parading by me as she says, “You’re welcome."
Chapter 36
Rachel
Iknowexactlywhathe was doing—following along with my stupid description of how a first date kiss should go.
When his lips had met my cheek, a heat had engulfed me so thoroughly that I was positive he could taste the sizzling of my skin.
I should have let him kiss me. I should have turned my head and met his lips with mine. I should have jumped in his arms and kissed him so hard that I knocked him off balance, and we found ourselves against a wall, letting our bodies snuff out all air, and time, and space, and gravity.
But instead, I just slipped back into my room, where I still am this morning, lying on my unmade bed, craving his lips even though I’ve never even tasted them.
“Rachel, are you there?” It’s Mal.
I sigh, and without thinking too much about if it’s a good idea, I say, “I think I’m dating Evan Michaels. Well, I went on a date with him and told him about my perfect first date and the lingering kiss on the cheek. So, he did it, and it’s driving me crazy because I should have let him kiss me. It’s all I can think about!”
There’s a squeal so shrill vibrating through my ear that I must blink ten million times to make sure my nerves are still working.
“Rachel! How long has this been going on?” she asks.
“I mean, it’s newish,” I say, sitting up. “But what do I do?”
“Go kiss him,” she says matter-of-factly. “You’re thirty, Rachel. This isn’t some middle school spin-the-bottle situation. This is a kiss-that-man-so-hard-the-earth-tilts-on-its-axis, birds-start-singing, and a-slow-motion-montage-starts-playing-behind-you situation.”
“I just kiss him?” I ask, my pulse begins to quicken beneath my wrists.
“You just kiss him and make him forget how to breathe,” she confirms.
