Page 35 of Roses, Pearls, and Hot Summer Nights
Wow.Did I just say that?Before I could guilt myself for being so honest, his slow smile rewarded me for my bravery before his growly voice answered, “Thank you, Alatheia.”
I took a deep breath, wondering if he could feel every single word I spoke on his skin … the way I seemed to feel his. “And now I’m thinking I might have made a huge mistake. You’re eventually going to make all of this blow up in my face, aren’t you?”
He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, his touch lingering. “I won’t. I’ll keep your secrets. I only play games when I have no choice. I have no desire to play games with you. You aren’t looking to hurt my family or destroy us. I’ll admit, my initial response was defensive, but strangers always make me nervous.” He leaned even closer, until I could practically feel his breath hot against my skin. “There’s a truth. How’s that? My first one. Strangers make me nervous.”
I leaned back, my own breathing unsteady. Somewhere nearby, a bird sang, but my heart thumped too fast and my skin flushed with heat. I closed my eyes for a second before I decided what truth to give him in return. Finally, I blurted, “I’m bad with people. I understood them when I lived with my mom, I think. I had friends then, and the few adults I knew liked me a lot, or that’s how I remember it. Once I moved to the city, though, I learned rich people are a different breed of human. One I can’t make sense of, no matter where in the world they pick for my city.”
He nodded, his gaze locked on mine steadily. “I think I would feel like a fish out of water if I had to go live in your old life suddenly, too. I … I do have to lie sometimes. I don’t like to lie, but I’ll do it to protect people I love.”
Well, aren’t you interesting?“How can I tell if you are lying to me?”
“You wouldn’t know, because I’m good at it. We all are, truthfully. My whole family, we’re a bunch of big old liars. Still, I’ll admit neither I nor any of my brothers want to lie to you. That’s part B of my truth, actually.”
I rubbed my eyes. “Unless you’re lying about that,” I pointed out.
“I’m not.” He reached for my hand, his thumb brushing against my knuckles again and sizzling my flesh to life. “But I get that I just gave you lots of reasons to doubt me, especially since you don’t trust anyone easily.”
You knew he noticed almost everything.Still, it unnerved me for him to strip me so bare. “Okay, so my turn for a truth. Um, I don’t know anything about my family, not really. I know that my mom and dad took off, but I don’t know why. My father died then we moved again. Eventually, after my mother died, I ended up placed with her family. I look at my life as kind of having eras—a time before, with her, and the time after. No onein my after knows anything about my before. Whatever they do know about my mom and dad’s lives, they don’t choose to share it with me. Due to that, I just … have a bunch of memories with no way to decode what any of it means or why it was.”
Maybe I said too much?Before I second-guessed myself too badly, I decided I didn’t share anything he couldn’t learn by looking me up online. None of what he would find there would be about the true me, either, since nothing online connected me toPoor Relation.
Orthe Big Lie.That isn’t online either.
“I wouldn’t trust anything your aunt said anyway. She’s not a good person. If your mom took off to get away from her, she probably had a good reason.” He looked away. “I can always tell. It’s part of what my mom calls my hyper-vigilance. Was it my observation you called it? Anyway, I knew she wasn’t just drunk last night. I would bet she is a mean bitch sober, too.”
He wasn’t wrong, so I couldn’t defend her. Still, I knew from personal experience—it could be much worse than my current aunt. I didn’t intend to share that particular story in our game of truth, though, so I said, “Your truth, your turn.”
He scrubbed a hand through his hair as if to shake loose a random fact. “I fucking hate water polo. I love the water, but I hate the game.”
A laugh gurgled out of me on my next exhalation. He chose such safe ground, a clear redirection from the unsafe territory I picked. “Then why do you play?”
“Because that is what wedo. We excel at sports. Barrett golfs like a pro. He also rowed. Julian and I are water polo champions.”
I smiled, arching a brow. “And Phoenix?”
Again, he offered me the one shouldered shrug. “He’s not into sports. Phoenix is a whole different soul. He is quite talented on his skateboard, if we’re discussing athletics, thoughI’m not sure where he’ll putthaton his college resume.” He leaned back, arching a brow at me. “Your turn.”
“How many more minutes do I have?” It felt like we’d been talking forever.
He held up four fingers. “That many left.”
“Damn.” I bit my lip, searching for a safe topic. “Um, I really love cartoons, particularly old ones, if I can find them.”
His smile was huge. “Me too.”
I smiled back at him, weirdly happy to have something so normal in common with him.If nothing else, we can watch cartoonstogether. “My brothers aren’t the only ones interested in art in this city. One likes jazz and one likes to read, but I like art, so the next time we go out, let’s go look at some. Do you like art?”
He had no idea how much I liked art. Before I came to Manhattan, it had practically consumed me—along with the goals I’d set for creating my own. I swallowed, my mouth suddenly going dry, because we risked territory that hit too personal. “I do.”
“Great.” He held up three fingers.I only have to survive three more minutes.
I sighed. I didn’t know if I could come up with any more truths. Maybe I wasn’t very interesting? “My favorite class is English, or at least it is most of the time. Honestly, it depends on the teacher, and their views on life, I guess. Overall, I find the teachers more stressful than my classmates. I never expect my fellow students to like me.”Not since San Francisco. “But I can’t understand why the teachers don’t. I do my work. I don’t cause trouble, and they’re paid to be there.”
“I can never make sense of them either.” He shook his head but patted my knee sympathetically. “They’ll be nice to you in school this year, you’ll see.”
I groaned, rolling my eyes again. “I’m not going to school with you.”
He nodded as if he didn’t disagree but said, “Give us a minute on that.”
