Page 34 of Tulips and Lost Time

“Why not? You have no problem sitting next to the twins.”

“They’re my sisters.”

“And Britt?” she challenges. Firming her lips, she raises a single, demanding brow. “You hang out with her all the time.”

“She’s just…” Frustration sizzles in my blood. “She’s my friend’s sister. It’s always been this way.”

“And you’ve always been happy to spend time with me.” She lies back on the halfpipe, her feet still on the ground, and her back arching against the wood. Smiling, she stares up at the stars and exhales. “Something changed, Luca. And I think that thing is that you’re attracted to me.”

Fuckkkkk her. Fuck her age. Fuck her brother. And fuck the stars, too.

“I think I’m not nearly confident enough to have this conversation with you, eye to eye,” she snickers. “But I’ve been sitting on it since my birthday. Trying to talk to you. Trying to understand the change. But you’ve made it impossible. It’s like I turned eighteen and developed a rash you really don’t want to catch.”

“That’s not true, Bear.” I move closer, slowing when ten feet separate me and her. Seven feet. Six. Already, her sweet perfume wafts through my nostrils and stops in the base of my lungs. “I’ve been working. We aren’t teenagers anymore. School isn’t my life. I have to work, and those shifts aren’t always conducive to hanging out with my friends.”

She tilts her head and glares, fearlessly calling me out on my shit. “You hang out with Marcus every single day.”

“He’s my best friend. I like to get a beer with him sometimes. So what?”

“You leave your beer half consumed and walk home when I turn up to hang out.”

Damn. It’s not like she’s wrong.

I look down at my feet and bite my lips together before she manages to squeeze a smile from me. “I have to be on shift early the next morning. Drinking a whole beer and staying out late would be irresponsible.”

“Liar.” She drops her hand to the side and pats the splintered, wooden platform. “Sit with me. Study the stars for a minute. No one else will come out here tonight.”

“Bear—”

“No one will see you. I won’t tell anyone.” She exhales a heavy, contented sigh and grins. “I love to stare up at the stars. It’s my absolute favorite thing to do. And I’d really, really like to share that with you.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuckity, fuck.

Loyalties can sometimes blur when a man is being asked by the love of his life to spend time with her. Jesus, lines cease to exist when his heart shatters open and something unexpected dives in.

Someone unexpected.

And no matter how hard he fights against it, no matter how strongly he clings to what is right, what is fair, and what will, eventually, hurt like hell when Marcus smashes his face in for looking at his sister, there’s only so much one can do to stop the inevitable.

So I force down the nerves in my throat and wander the rest of the way to the halfpipe. I stare at a watchful, grinning Kari, and hold my jaw firmly. I don’t open my mouth to speak. I don’t smile. I don’t even roll my eyes when she makes a double chin and a silly face.

But I turn and press my calves to the base of the halfpipe, lowering my ass to the shitty, bowing wood and know, months of hard work, of being where she’s not, and yet, watching over her to keep her safe anyway, will all be for naught if she gets her way.

“I can think you’re pretty, Bear.” Hesitant, I glance to my right and rest my chin on my own shoulder. “I can think you’re smart and funny and amazing. And I can even grieve the fact you’re heading off to college in a few weeks, leaving us behind and starting a life that doesn’t include me in it. Doesn’t mean I can step across a line set down more than a decade ago.”

“And that line is… what? Don’t mess around with your friend’s sister?”

I nod, ever so gently and firm my lips. “Amongst others. Messing around with your friend’s sister is a big one. But there’s also the friendship you and I share.”

“A friendship you’ve abandoned for most of this year. You dumped me faster than Sassy St Slut dumps hair colors.”

“I have a history,” I groan. I study her slender neck. The million freckles smattering her cheeks that kind of look like stars in the nighttime sky. “I’m not exactly known around town as a dude who takes relationships seriously.”

“I believe the word they use is slut.” Her plump lips curl playfully. “You’re known as a dirty, filthy, nasty fun-time, Luca. It’s okay; we know what they say.”

“Well… yeah,” I sigh. “That’s what they say. Because I’m the guy who dates for fun and spends time with women because I enjoy them.”

Her eyes darken. Dangerously. Threatening.

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