Page 26 of Never Kiss and Tell

“Ew. Stay away from that one. He likes when girls pee on him.” She pauses, her hand over her mouth and her eyes wide. “I said too much. Sorry. But still, stay away from him. I mean, unless you like that sort of thing.”

I laugh, but my eyes catch on a smoldering, hateful stare from across the room and that smile instantly fades. The bar is packed, and Charles stands talking to Charlie, who’s watching me like I just declared war on baby sea turtles. I have the audacity to gulp.

Again, I should really work on thinking before I open my mouth.

Charlie

I cannot escape.

Blue eyes, blonde hair, perfect fucking smile, sexy fucking laugh . . . Bailey was everywhere I went before. Now, she’s at work, too.

She follows Marybeth around, doing whatever she’s told and otherwise avoiding me all night. Not that I mind. After she basically ratted me out to AndiandDad, I had to use all my willpower to walk out of the office rather than show her what I was really thinking of last night.

I shake my head, willing the same sick, perverted images out of my head and focus on the customers at the bar. It’s been a busy night, with tourists coming into the city left and right. Brett, the other bartender, is working, but we barely talk to each other over the buzz around us. There’s just no time.

I finally manage to sneak out back after nine to smoke a cigarette. There are stars in the sky, for once, but you can barely see them through the haze of the city. I pull out my phone,checking through my messages and see one from Mario.

Mario: Sure you don’t want back in? Getting a big shipment from down south next week. You know what that means.

Big payout. I know exactly what that means. While the offer is tempting, I don’t see myself returning to that life.

Charlie: No man. I’m good. Thanks for the offer, though.

Mario’s father, Santino Vazquez, runs one of the biggest drug peddling operations in the city. I was lucky enough to fall ass backward into a friendship with Mario when Mom was sick. I never told anyone how I got the money to take care of her hospital bills and no one asked, either. I knew Dad had some idea something was going on, but he didn’t push it past one sentence that’s haunted me since.

You can’t keep her here, Charlie.

A shiver coasts up my spine as I reach in my pack of cigarettes, realizing I left my lighter in the office.

“Fuck,” I curse under my breath.

The door swings open and Bailey walks out, her eyes find me instantly and narrow. Without a word, she turns on her heel to go back inside.

“Do you have a light?” I ask, desperate to smoke the one cigarette I have left in my pack. She stops, eyeing me like she’s debating whether or not she wants to bother with me.

Finally, she lowers to the top of the picnic table across from me and holds out a lighter. I take it, watching her pull out a cigarette from her own pack.

“Those will kill you, you know?” I say, handing the lighterback to her.

She rolls her eyes as she lights the end.

“One in four years, I don’t think that will hurt anything will it?” She coughs and I stifle a laugh. “What are you doing out here in the dark on your own? Waiting to scare some passing children?”

I draw long and hard on the end of my cigarette. Like Bailey, I quit smoking after Mom’s funeral, but picked the habit back up in the last couple of days. What can I say? There’s just something about little blonde-haired, blue-eyed girls that irks me.

“Come out here to spy on me some more?” I taunt, gesturing to where she’s sitting on top of the picnic table. I sit beside her, careful not to get too close and it’s a fucking mistake. I can smell her perfume. I’ve never been a man that cared what a woman sprayed on herself, but there’s something about whatever Bailey wears that I can’t ignore. It’s infuriating.

“Maybe you should have gagged your victim if you didn’t want me to hear through those paper-thin walls.”

I smirk. “Would I have to gag you, princess? Or are you one of those that just lays there and doesn’t say a word?”

“See, I knew you were thinking of me thewholetime.”

“Not the whole time, no.”

Her eyes flash and her lips part, surprise coloring her cheeks. She shakes her head at my smirk and looks away from me.

“You know,” Bailey states, matter of fact, “I think that if you weren’t such an asshole all the time, we could actually be friends, Charlie.”

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