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Relationships shouldn’t be this hard.
“Are you dating Ree?” Pru asked.
“No.”
“Then why do you have her wrapped around you like a second skin?”
“It’s all part of the act. Surely you know what it means to have someone who wants to see everything and know everything. My parents, they’ve got eyes and ears everywhere. I’ve got no choice but to act the part in order to keep them off my back.” He shrugged. “So it’s what I do.”
“You really think they’re going to have someone watching you from inside the school?”
“Yep.”
“Isn’t that a little creepy?”
“You’ve met my parents. I didn’t say it wasn’t creepy. I know what my parents want.”
“But Ree’s not made of money either.”
“Exactly. For them, I’m just using Ree and they’re happy for that.”
“You know that’s weird, right? Why didn’t they accept it with me?”
“Because with you, I kept it a secret and we both know it was a hell of a lot more than some party fling. I … hid you from my parents. Not because I was embarrassed but because I didn’t want them to hurt you or ruin what we had. You are so important to me and have been for the longest time. I can’t stand to have you hurt.”
She couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“I thought … I don’t know what I thought.”
“I know what you thought and it’s not true. None of it. You think I want to give up what we had? Not after everything we went through.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry I made you feel that way.”
“Drake, you’ve got nothing to be sorry about. Not really.”
He laughed. “Please, don’t make this easy for me. We both know I can be a prick of the biggest kind.”
“Well, I don’t know about that, but yeah, okay. But I also haven’t made things easy for you.” She didn’t pull away from him when he took her hand or locked their fingers together.
“I haven’t been with Ree, not since that one time, and I never will.”
“We’ve talked about this, Drake. One day you’re going to get married.”
“I don’t want to and I’ve got a plan.”
“If it’s killing your parents, it’s not going to work.” There were a lot of things she was willing to do for him but going down as a murderer wasn’t one of them.
“You’re no fun.” He glanced over at her. “No, I’m not going to kill my parents. One of them is dead, anyway.”
“Huh? I didn’t read anything in the news about it. What do you mean one of them is dead anyway?”
He chuckled. “Do I have you confused?”
“A little, why?”
“Good.”
He was silent.
She kept waiting for him to spill whatever secrets he had.
He didn’t say a word.
“Drake, come on. Seriously? You’re not going to tell me anything?”
“Nope. You don’t need to know, at least not yet.”
“This is so unfair.”
“Life, my darling, is unfair.”
She scrunched up her nose. “You do know that was weird, right?”
“Yeah, on a scale of one to ten, that was right up there on the weird factor, I agree.”
She laughed. It was good to laugh with him and to have him holding her hand.
Leaning back against the headrest, she sighed. “Do you think Ree reported me?”
“If she knows what’s good for her, she’ll leave you alone.”
“You know, she used to be friends with me and Sean.”
He squeezed her hand a little tighter.
“Don’t worry. There’s nothing going on with Sean and me. We’re … I don’t know what we are.”
“You haven’t forgiven him?”
“No. I want to. I mean, I should. He’s my best friend.”
“He’s still the bastard that ruined our fun for us, Pru. You don’t have to forgive him for me.”
“I know, but he’s always been my best friend.”
“A best friend who wants more from you. Don’t forget that. You can pretend all you want, but it’s not going to work. He wants something from you, which is why he’s always around you.”
“It doesn’t have to be sex or even a relationship. Some guys aren’t wired to think with their dick.”
“You do know how stupid you sound right now, right?”
“Hey!”
“I’m a guy. I know what a guy is thinking and feeling and believe me, it’s not about hanging out in a chick’s room and doing homework. I’m surprised you haven’t caught Sean staring at you in the bathroom or something like that. The guy is a creep.”
“I’ve never caught him, so he clearly is the perfect gentleman.” Again, why was she defending Sean after everything he’d done? It wasn’t like she was on his side and yet, she was acting like she was. None of this made any sense. None at all.
“Are we done arguing about this?” Drake asked. “We will always disagree about that asshole. He’s not good enough for you. In fact, I’m not good enough for you.”
“Don’t say that,” she said. “Let’s not talk about Sean.”
