Page 95 of Pretty Little Lies

“I just—Ineedyou to be on the lookout. You have to lock the doors. I want that phone call every night.”

“Promise,” she immediately offers. “Did someone…” I watch the hestitation her in features before she pushes through. “Did someone hurt you…before?”

My arm wraps around her waist, and I pull her to me, a broken sob wanting to break free from my throat, but I hold on, demanding it stay put. “Long story, baby. One that I’m not sure you ever want to hear.”

“I’d hear anything you have to say,” she mutters. “Nothing will change the way I think about you.”

She’s says that now…

Yet, I’m not willing to risk losing her. I’m too selfish of a motherfucker to do that.

Bay rises on her tiptoes and kisses my cheek, allowing it to linger there for a moment before coming to my lips.

It’s the most serene and utterly magnificent thing to be kissed by Bay Astor. Her knowing how to comfort me in a way that only she can pull me from the inner turmoil in my head.

I dare not take it any further, knowing that if I do, it’ll lead to something else. And I don’t want memories of what I’ve done to my sister and Bay in the same thought process.

Reluctantly, I pull away, still feeling the touch of her warm lips against mine. “Let’s go get that ice cream.”

Bay stares up at me, with curiosity and the need to know what’s living in my head. “Okay.”

Her fingers find mine, lacing them through the nooks of my digits, and she gives me a little tug toward my car. “I think you deserve a kiss goodnight after this.”

A grin tugs at my lips. “I’ll take it.”

Wrapping my arms around her shoulders, we get the fuck out of the creepy woods and into my car. And she holds my hand the whole way there and on the way back to her house, where I get that kiss that sends a hundred fantasies of us through my head.

THIRTY

bay

In all transparency,I told Levi about Reeve’s birthday party so it’d keep me on his radar. And he’s still having a hard time accepting the fact that I’m a vital part in keeping South Shore safe from any future movements from Emilio and the Forsaken Crew.

In Wharf Bay, which is supposed to be undivided territory for all of us, I’m standing on an insanely decorated beach with Japanese lanterns hung overhead, a giant bonfire in the middle of white canopy tents, a DJ setup off the side, and a million and one people in bathing suits and colorful string bikinis.

While I’m dressed in shorts and flip-flops because of the sand.

Grabbing a beer from one of the many coolers lined up along several tables of food, I study the crowd and look for the birthday boy. I should get on his ass aboutnottelling me the dress code, but it should’ve been obvious since it was at a beach.

Finding Reeve isn’t hard. All I had to do was follow the group of girls with barely anything on surrounding him. His quick and easy smile graces his face as a girl touches his arm, flirting and trying to gain his attention from someone else who’s speaking to him. It also gives me time to examine his hard chest scatteredwith black tattoos over tanned skin that I can’t make out from back here. A white bathing suit hugs his waist, displaying a muscular stomach and bulging arms. His sandy blond hair is carelessly styled, I swear it’s like he just woke up and came to this party but it just always looks so damn good on him.

He stands out like a bright beacon, not because he’s part of the Forsaken Crew—you wouldn’t know by him just standing there with his shirt off and a beer in his hand—but because of his vibe that draws you in. That calm aura like the ocean behind him that centers me to him, even though the water scares the absolute crap out of me.

Just like him.

It’s the easiest thing to get lost in Reeve’s hazel eyes and take his words for bible. Nothing about him screamsbullshitand lies.

Which makes staying out of my feelings during the course of this co-op operation.

Cracking open my beer, I take a giant gulp and demand the small twinge of jealousy to stop coursing through my veins and the fact that I’m sinking into a black hole.

This is his world.

I had every intention of telling Reeve to just let me go, but that’s never going to happen. He won’t listen anyway, and he might be my in. I could tell him all day to consider the fact and the history between South Shore and The Landings because fights break out all the time between the two towns.

Just three days ago, a group of guys were fighting in the hallway at my school, and I recognized some being from my own neighborhood. Oceanview College is becoming a breeding ground for set-ups, drug deals, and initiations, not education. And it seems like in every other class, it’s someone starting shit.

Hence, why this whole occupational therapy bullshit isn’t going to work. I can’t even get through a lecture or anassignment without security being called in, and I’m just wasting time being here when my family could be somewhere else.

---