Page 61 of Her Devils

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Lenley

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IHAVEN’T FOLLOWEDa skydiving team sincePapàwas competing, so it’s been over a decade since I spent the summer traveling all over the state.

“I had definitely forgotten what a circus this was,” I tell Sarah as I show my pass to the security staff manning the teams’ stations.

We’re welcomed in, and we head straight to the Cove Angels’ tour bus parked in one of the prime spots in direct view of the landing zone. It’s great to see the guys actually land, even though we can watch the entire dive on the feed streamed directly from the cameras on their helmets.

My best friend smiles. “Thank you for letting me tag along to every meet, even though I don’t work for the team.”

I smile back at her, stopping to give her a side hug. “Are you kidding? I totally owe you. You let me stay with you for weeks when Mom was following the team afterPapà...” My voice fades, a lump forming in my throat. I still struggle to watch anyone jump off an aircraft or even a BASE after what happened to mypapà, but I know how much he’d love the idea of me working for his team, so doing this is a way for me to feel closer to him, like he isn’t really and truly gone.

Sarah hugs me back. “Of course, babe! You’re my best friend. There are very few things I wouldn’t do for you, and it’s sweet of you to give me a chance to be around Trent.”

I shrug. “It’s a win-win situation anyway, babe, since having you here keeps Anna and Kiara away. They are scared of you, and if you weren’t here, I’m sure they’d spend half their time taunting me.”

She glares at the canopy with the Cove Angels’ merchandise, right outside the cordoned area of the team stations, where Darrius’s sister and Kiara are handing out promo packs to the public. “They are right to be scared of me. Those two are a match made in hell. I’ve never met two worse bitches, I swear, and they know I have no problem punching them in the face if I catch them mouthing off to you again.”

She’s referring to how Anna and Kiara treated me on Monday when I made the mistake of going to the office.

“Yeah, I should have known they would be on the offensive. Cove Angels’ HQ became enemy territory ever since Anna graduated and Kiara got a job thanks to her boyfriend.”

And speak of the devil, or should I say Angel in this case, Darrius walks past in his wingsuit, turning on his heel when he spots me.

Our eyes meet for a moment that probably lasts only a couple of seconds but seems to stretch into eternity for the intensity in my oldest friend’s brown eyes.

My first instinct is to walk away, but my feet are rooted to the spot as Darrius stops so close to me that our chests almost touch.

I don’t miss the way his eyes flit briefly above my head toward the canopy where his sister and girlfriend are working in direct view of us. “I’m about to go to the take-off area. We just had the fifteen-minute call, and I can’t be late. I just wanted to say...” His eyes search mine for my reaction as he links his pinkie with mine like he used to do to give me courage when we were kids and I was scared of something. “I wanted to say that this time I’m going to do better, Len.”

I don’t have the opportunity to ask him what he means, because he lowers his head to kiss me and walks away.

It happens so fast that if my skin wasn’t burning where his lips just touched, I’d think I imagined it.

Another hint that this really happened is Sarah’s reaction.

“What the actual fuck was that?” she whisper-yells, following Darrius’s trajectory to the taxiway where the Angels’ aircraft is waiting for our team.

“Fuck if I know,” I say honestly.

My best friend can smell bullshit from a mile away, especially when it comes to me. “Yeah, no. I’m not buying that. Why aren’t you freaking out that Darrius almost kissed you?”

His lips technically touched my cheek, but they were so close to the corner of my mouth that it would have taken the smallest movement from me to turn it into something way less innocent than a friendly kiss.

I look at Anna and Kiara, glad that there’s no way they’ll be able to hear me from here. “Because on Monday, after his sister and girlfriend gave me shit for sleeping with Jameson, Darrius came to my house to apologize about his behavior on Saturday.”

Sarah’s eyes narrow as she grabs my arm. “And?”

I tell her about the flowers and how the apology turned into a fit of jealousy the second Darrius learned that what Anna told him about Jameson and me was true.

“He kissed you?” she hisses. “Darrius kissed you, and you didn’t immediately call to tell me? What the fuck is wrong with you, Len?”

My attempt to placate her totally misses the mark. “I was going to, but first off, it wasn’t a real kiss. It lasted for like five seconds, and I ended it. I realized he was only kissing me because he was jealous and kissing me was his way to mark his territory or to breadcrumb me, like Kiara would say.”

Sarah doesn’t look sold on my version of the events. “Right. But still, even if it was five seconds, he fucking kissed you. Regardless of why he did it, you’ve been waiting for that idiot to kiss you since you were thirteen. You should have called me.”

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