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“See you tonight,” I said.
***
We’d been listening to the radio for ten minutes when Pierce slowed down and parked on the side of the road.
“What are you doing?”
“What does it look like I am going? We’re not moving from this spot until you tell me what’s wrong.”
The last thing I wanted to admit to him was that I had gotten so carried away last night with Chase. Like an idiot, I’d really thought that he wasn’t attracted to Cassidy. “Pierce, no offense, but I don’t wanna talk to you about it.”
His eyes blazed. “Does it have to do with Chase?”
I couldn’t lie to him, but for some reason that I couldn’t fathom, I didn’t want to get Chase into trouble either. Even though I had been at the house for a week, I knew that Cassidy was off limits to Chase. It wasn’t spoken in my presence, yet it was just…understood. Cassidy had touched Chase in a way that a lover would, similar to how I’d been with Gregory after we’d started having sex. I knew what it was like. Cassidy felt connected to him.
“It does, but don’t be mad with him. I misunderstood—”
“What could you have possibly misunderstood?”
“I-I thought that he was, you know”—I dropped my shoulders—“only talking to me. From how we… He didn’t act like he was messing up with other girls.” I let out with a heavy sigh.
Pierce gave a sharp shake of his head. “Chase isn’t messing with any chick.” I was going to tell them him that he couldn’t know that for a fact when it seemed like he spent most of his nights with Mona, or other girls. Maybe Chase didn’t act like Joel or Rylan, but he had his fun discreetly—and with Cassidy. What if she didn’t know that he had been flirting with me since he picked me up from Franklin Parks?
I looked at him disbelievingly. “It doesn’t matter anyway—”
“What makes you think Chase is playing you?”
“I was going to step out of my room to get some water when I…I looked up to see Chase and Cassidy having a moment,” I said carefully.
Pierce threw his head back and broke out into laughter, his face scalding red.
“Can we go now? I’d like to be a little early. It’s my second day. And I don’t wanna get on Mrs. Clark bad side. Or Uncle Anton’s.”
He stopped laughing. “Chase can’t stand Cassidy. He’s just hasn’t flat-out told me that—”
I raised a brow at him and cut him off. “Then he may not really dislike her.”
“They could’ve came out of the room at the same time. It’s the only plausible explanation I can conceive of, because he’s all about you. I understand what that’s like. And before he brought you here, the only things I’ve seen him go all in for was football and maintaining his grades.”
“You’re just saying that,” I said warmly. “I don’t wanna get in the middle of your friendship with him.”
His forehead creased with a deep frown. “Don’t worry about my friendship with Chase. I want you to be happy, but I am not gonna bullshit you to make that happen. I’d told Chase that since he’s aiming to…be your boyfriend, that he can’t play with your heart, or else.”
“God, Pierce, I didn’t want the both of you to have that conversation.”
“Noodles, it wasn’t hostile between us. Anyone you date is gonna have to talk to me. I am lookin’ out for you now.”
***
Chase
I stripped sheets off of the bed and the covers off of the pillows after I had finished packing all of my possessions. I put on new sheets and pillowcases when I felt a touch on my upper back. I spun on my heel, ready to bark at Cassidy. Wasn’t it enough that she made me look like scum in front of Beth and Mr. Pruitt?
Startled, Nancy took a step back, clutching her hands over her chest, and I regretted my move.
“I’ve called you and texted you. Your breakfast is cold!”
“Sorry, Nancy. I thought you were Cassidy.”
