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I made my way to the stone patio that led out to dead grass. The music wasn’t quite so loud out here, and there was a slight breeze in the night air.
Helen snuck up beside me and passed me a lit joint. “You need this. You look all uptight.”
I took it gladly. “That’s because I am. Thanks.”
“Me too.” Clicking her lighter, she lit her own joint between her red lips. “I still can’t believe I agreed to go camping with Theo.”
That made me smirk. I would have found it harder to believe if she hadn’t agreed, that was how far gone she was for her boy. “He has a way with you.”
“That he does. He sparkles those eyes at me, and I get stupid. I am not built for the outdoors unless it’s paved and I can ride my skateboard.”
Smoke drifted from my mouth. “You’ll have fun.”
“Luc will, at least. I’m looking forward to watching her experience it all. The downside of taking my little sister with us is I’ll have to stare at Theo every damn day and not be able to touch because the camper we’re staying in has absolutely no privacy. So, I’m going to be in natureandhorny.”
My mouth twitched. It was crazy to think I didn’tknowHelen a year ago. I’d walked by her a thousand times and had never given her a second thought. Now, I knew intimate, personal details of her life—details she shared with me openly. We’d been thrown together by fate…or the university housing randomizer, but that wasn’t what had drawn us closer.Thatwas something neither of us really spoke about but understood intimately. Bad, bad men.
“Make sure you bring your journal so you can write down all your big, beautiful, horny feelings,” I quipped.
Her eyes rolled skyward, but she was grinning. “Yeah, I’ll do that.” She glanced at the other groups around the patio. “You know, you’ve been lurking in the shadows all night. I could introduce you around.”
I choked out a cloud of smoke. “I don’t lurk, Helen.”
“Fine, you don’t lurk, even though you were definitely lurking. Do you want me to introduce you to people?”
My hackles rose for no real reason, except I wasn’t used to being the one who had to be introduced to people.Ihad always been the one people introduced themselves to.Ihad never lurked in shadows—yes, lurking, dammit.Myphone had always been blowing up with invitations to parties and yacht weekends and impromptu trips to Ibiza.
I’d stepped away from that, but it wasn’t easy going from being the center of it all to hanging on the edges. When things weren’t easy or I got uncomfortable, I lashed out.
I pointed to the joint. “Let me finish this before I meet Theo’s scrubby mechanic friends.”
Helen had known me forever—not that we’d been friends forever or anything. Far from it. But now that we were, she saw right through me and didn’t react to my snobbery outside of a soft huff. Her man may have been a part-time mechanic for campus maintenance, but he was so far from scrubby, it wasn’t even funny. She knew that too.
A throat cleared behind us. “Helen.”
We whirled around at the same time. My heart stuttered in my chest, just like it did every time Lachlan Kelly towered over me. And tower, he did. I wasn’t short by any means, but Lachlan had to be six and a half feet. Not just tall, but broad and dense. The span of his shoulders seemed to go on forever, eclipsing everything around him.
He was Helen’s friend. Helen and Theo’s, really. He was around a lot, and when he was, he actively ignored me. More than ignored me, he avoided looking at me. And when he was forced to interact with me, he did so in a way that conveyed how much it pained him. No one else seemed to see it. To them, he was Lock, affable, laid back, sweet, if not gruff and somewhat brooding. I saw that too, which was why his complete disregard for me drove me up the wall.
“Hey, dude.” Helen punched Lachlan’s tree trunk bicep, giving it a good thwap. He didn’t even flinch. “Did you just get here?”
“I did. Worked late. I had to scrub my hands extra hard before I came.”
Helen snickered. “Oh, you scrubby mechanic, you. Why don’t you have a drink in your hand?”
He raked his fingers through his shaggy brown hair. “Just got here. I’ll make my way inside, grab a bottle.” He nodded toward the beer bottle hanging between Helen’s fingers. “You good? Want me to get you something?”
“Nah, I’m good. El and I are sliding into relaxation mode out here.” Helen bumped her shoulder into mine. “Want?” She held up herJ.
His overgrown hair flopped back into his face. “Not my thing.”
Lachlan paused for a beat, the tendons in his thick neck flexing, then nodded again and tromped off in his heavy work boots. Not even a flicker of recognition had come my way.
Helen’s brow pinched. “That was strange. Did you go invisible for a minute?”
“That must be it.” I held my joint up to my lips. “Or Lachlan is a snob.”
She sputtered, smoke coming out with her laughter. “You think Lock is a snob? Are we talking about the same Lock who just walked away? The salt-of-the-earth, nice-guy mechanic? That Lock?”
