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Losers.
He’s so hard beneath my touch, so solid, so strong.
“Hey…” He moves closer again, his lips kicking up before he says, “Remember when you kissed—”
My eyes snap shut, and I’m so quick to lower my entire body, head and all, under the water just so he doesn’t see the evidence of my embarrassment staining my cheeks. It’s one thing to be somewhat attracted to Holden. It’s another for him toknow it. Oh, the games he could play.
Even through the sounds of the water rushing around me and my pulse pounding in my eardrums, I can hear his stupid chuckle. And, because I don’t feel like dying today and need this ridiculous thing calledoxygento survive, I come up for air and face reality.
And reality is a boy currently shaking droplets of water from his hair, causing it to fly in all directions. After scooping water in his hands, he runs them both through his hair, leaving lines of liquid gold in his wake. “You didn’t let me finish.” He laughs out, his hand finding my waist again. “You apologized right after. Why?” I must imagine the hurt that flickers across his features. “Do you regret it?”
I should push him away.
I should adjust the way the bottom of my dress rides up my torso.
I do neither.
Eyes wide, likethis should be obvious, I tell him, “Because you literally just got done telling me I wasn’t your type, and then I practically accosted you in—”
“Accosted?” He shakes his head, eyes dropping to my cleavage.
“Perv!” I release his shoulders so I can push him away, but he’s a solid wall. A statue. “Do you have the time?” I ask, changing the subject. “I need to work today, so…”
He drops his hand from my waist when he rears back, and I’m suddenly cold. Not just from the water but from his lack of touch. “What time do you have to leave?” he asks, adjusting the fancy watch on his wrist.
“The bus comes at three.”
He taps his watch a few times, then says, “I’ll give you a ride.”
“You don’t have to—” I start, but he cuts me off.
“You work too much.” He sighs, shifting closer. “Don’t you ever just want to be a kid?”
God, what I wouldn’t give… “I don’t know,” I tell him honestly. I’ve thought about what I’d reveal to him, should our conversations ever get deeper than they have, and I still haven’t come up with an answer. “I’ve never really been a kid.” It’s more than I expected to give him, and I hope it’s enough. For now, at least.
His head tilts to the side, eyes assessing. “What do you mean?”
My gaze drops to the little space between us. “You know what?” I say. “You’re right. Idowant to be a kid, at least until I have to go to work.” And because I don’t have the courage to face him, I move away, floating on my back toward the other end of the pool. He follows, of course, walking swiftly beside me. “Question,” he states, and I settle with my head against the wall, hands gripping the edge of the pool. Legs kicked out in front of me, I squint to fight off the sun beaming down on me. He asks, “How does the whole emancipation thing work?”
I peer over at him and give him a half-hearted shrug. “You just have to explain your situation—dying mom and no other family, in my case—and then you have to prove that you’re financially able to take care of yourself and not rely on government handouts.”
“That’s it?” he asks, and I nod. “And you can do that? I mean, prove you can support yourself?”
I nod again.
“So… you’ve saved up enough money from working at the diner…” He sounds skeptical. I would be, too.
“Not really,” I tell him. “But Zeke vouched for me, said I’d always have a job if I needed it.”
“You wash dishes, right?” he asks.
My eyebrows bunch as I glare at him, confused as to where the hell he’s going with this.
He’s still standing beside me, his gaze switching from my legs to my face, skipping all the parts in between. “Wouldn’t you make more money being a server? You’d at least get tips that way.”
I snort, drop my feet to the pool floor and hold my dress down beside my thighs. “Why are you so obsessed with my finances?”
He laughs once, moving an inch closer. “I’m not, Nora. It’s just that you work so many hours, and it doesn’t give you a lot of time to do anythingfun.”
