AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Okay.” He sinks into silence again.
“Oh, come on.” I stomp my foot. “Ask me what it is, or it’ll ruin my fun, dude.”
He smashes his lips together, his face red with silent laughter. “All right, stubborn girl, what deal did you make with my brother?”
And there he goes with thatstubborn girlbullshit again, but I decide to let it slide this time.
Grinning, I hoist myself onto the counter and let my legs dangle over the edge. “Well, he suggested that if I cut you some slack and got to know you a bit better that I won’t regret it.” I press my hand to my chest. “I, however, am a bit skeptical. No offense or anything, but we sort of clash.”
“Do we?” He gives me that really intense look that always makes me feel way out of my comfort zone, the one that makes me feel as if he knows all of my secrets.
But refusing to let that look ruin my fun, I keep on grinning. “Yeah, we really do.”
“Okay,” he agrees, but the way he says it feels like he’s only tolerating me. “So what happens if Rhyland is right and we do end up getting along?”
I shrug. “Then I get the awesome reward of not having to hand you your ass every time we’re around each other.”
“You say that like you don’t actually like handing me my ass.”
Shit, he has me there.
“Okay, maybe I do, but at least we can get along while I hand you your ass.”
A grin takes over his face, and I hate that I notice how stupidly pretty it is. “You know, you seem really obsessed with my ass.”
“Not your actual ass,” I clarify. “Just your assy attitude.”
“Is assy even a word?”
I give him a toothy smile. “It is in Hadley’s Awesome Dictionary of Made-up Fan-Freakin’-Tastical Words, which is the only dictionary to live by. If you’re smart anyway.”
He presses his lips together so forcefully the skin around his mouth turns white.
“What? No comeback for that?” I tease. “That must mean you completely agree with me and will be wanting a copy of my dictionary so you can memorize and worship it.”
He lowers his head as his shoulders start to shake. I think he might be laughing at me, but trying to hide it.
“So odd,” he mutters before lifting his head. His eyes are a bit watery, his face flushed with laughter.
“You were laughing at me,” I accuse. “That’s not cool, man.”
“I was a little bit,” he admits. “But only because you’re so damn amusing.”
“So I’m damn amusing and odd. Gee, thanks.”
“Those are both good things.” He reaches out to tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear.
That’s the second time he’s touched my hair this morning. I don’t know why he’s so fascinated with it, especially when I haven’t washed it in a couple of days. Maybe that’s why. Perhaps he has a fetish for dirty hair. Whatever. To each their own, I guess. Where the real problem lies is how my heart reacts every time his fingers brush across my dirty strands of hair. The idiot must be broken or something, getting all fluttery over pretty boy’s fingers tugging and playing with my greasy hair. It’s stupid. I’m stupid. And I shouldn’t be getting fluttery at all right now.
I lean back and put myself out of arm’s reach from him. “So, what’s the bad news?”
He blinks confusedly, probably from my abrupt subject change. “Um … Oh yeah, the bad news.” He steps back from me, massaging the back of his neck. “So, I talked to my old social worker and she said that more than likely, your sisters were taken to Sunnyvale County because of the dispute with your dad. And if that’s the case, they won’t be in the same school district.”
“Fuck.” I let my head fall back and it bangs against the cupboard behind me.
“Easy with your head,” he warns. “If you did get a concussion last night, the last thing you want to do is bang your head against stuff.”
“Yeah, probably.” I rub my forehead as my temples throb. “I just really want to see my sisters. They’re my whole world, and so my world is gone right now.”
