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“Understood.”
After getting her phone charging and mine set up so the alarm goes off, I head over and sit beside her, leaving a respectable amount of space between us, and see she’s quickly putting on the hoodie. It swallows her up as I knew it would, but fuck if I don’t love the fact that I know my numbers are across her back.
I lean forward to grab the remote and my drink to see the ginger ale has been replaced with Powerade.
I glance at her, and she holds out her hand. “Drink that and take these.”
“You worried about how I’m gonna feel in the morning?”
She shrugs. “One of us has to.”
After shooting back the Motrin and drinking half the blue drink down, I turn to her. “I don’t get drunk.”
“Lies.”
“Fine. Inormallydon’t drink. I very, very rarely get drunk. Tonight was just—”
“Koa and Nalani broke up, and you two knuckleheads—neither of which drink often—decided tonight was the night to nosedive off the wagon.”
“Perfect summary.”
She taps the side of her head. “Contrary to what one of my group project partners thinks, I’m really pretty smart.”
“I know you’re intelligent.”And beautiful. So fucking beautiful.
She quirks a brow. “But my grammar drives you insane.”
“Just trying to be helpful.” I stretch my arm out on the back of the couch and take one of the waves of her hair between my fingers. I have to stifle a groan at how silky it feels. “Tell me about your date.”
She rolls her eyes. “You don’t want to know—”
“I do. Give me two good things and one that sucked.”
The surprise in her eyes is adorable.
“Why two and one?” she asks.
“Two good helps soften the suck.”
She shakes her head and sucks her bow-shaped lips into a line.
“It’s how the Riveras got through a shit time. Every night at dinner, we went around the table. High, low, high when Mom was home. Two ups and a suck when she was at work and Grant or I were leading the charge.”
“Your dad’s death?” she asks quietly.
I hold up two fingers. “My brother, Ford, died in the same accident and the suck? Quincy’s hearing loss.”
“I’m so sorry. Can I ask”—she pauses—“when?”
I run my hand over my face. “Summer before I started. Hardest thing I ever did was leave them, but Mom insisted. Quincy was wrecked, and we needed to …” I stop and force a laugh. “No one needs to know that shit.”
“Your people care about you. If you need to talk to—”
“What I need is a rewind button. First time alone-ish with you, and I trauma dump. That’s not how I saw this going down. Come on; give me two ups and a suck.”
She holds up a thumb. “Got to get dressed up and do my hair.” Her smiles falls into a frown.
“You sure that’s an up?” I chuckle.
