Page 44 of A Little Bit Reckless
SEVENTEEN
Bow
“Babe, are you sure everything is okay? You normally love going to taco night at the Ambroses.”
I glanced up at my mom. She was staring at me from the front seat of my dad’s Escalade, and my dad had also stopped the car. Apparently, we’d arrived at our destination in the time I’d been spacing off.
Crap.
I unstrapped myself. Dad was staring at me too, but he wasn’t saying anything.
I bit my lip. “I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?” Mom reached back and put her hand on my forehead. She was small like me, but she was blond and had way more confidence than I had. My dad was a big guy. He was literally like three of her, but he became a puppy dog when it came to my mom. She was confident and beautiful, wonderful. Mom’s head tilted. “You don’t feel warm.”
That was because I wasn’t sick. At least when it came to a cold or the flu or something.
Mom pulled her hand back. “We can take you back home if you’re not feeling up for tonight.”
Mom had been asking me about the state of my health since before we left the house. She was right. I normally loved taco night at the Ambroses. Jaxen and Cleo Ambrose were my parents’ best friends. My parents had a lot of good friends but my family saw a lot of the Ambroses due to Thatcher and Wells. Thatcher and Wells were really close, and Jaxen and Cleo Ambrose happened to be Wells’s parents.
Which was why my mother thought I was sick.
Wells never went to our family’s taco nights. Not since he and Thatcher went off to college, anyway. I guess the boys never felt like making the two-hour trek back to Maywood Heights, but I always came.
“I’m sure Jax and Cleo will understand,” my dad said. He frowned. “You don’t have to put on a brave face if you’re not feeling well.”
My dad was even more protective of me than Thatcher and his friends. Let’s just say that, if guys actually paid attention to me, they wouldn’t because of him. My dad could be very intimidating, but he was just as much of a puppy dog when it came to me. I was his little girl.
I shook my head. I wore a long braid and nice blouse for dinner tonight, and I played with the braid on my shoulder for a second before I realized how nervous that probably looked. I smiled. “I’m okay.”
Dad didn’t look like he believed me. Neither did Mom, but, in the end, Mom grabbed her dish of taco meat, and Dad grabbed the Crock-Pot of refried beans. Mom liked to make her own beans for taco night.
He’s not going to be here. You’ll be fine.
I would be fine because Wells Ambrose never came to taco nights with our parents.
Wells was here for taco night with our parents. I saw him after I toed off my heeled Mary Jane shoes and my sock-covered feet had taken me into the Ambroses’ lavish dining room. I had a bowl of premixed salad in my hands.
I nearly dropped the salad.
That would have sucked because I would have had salad all over my feet in front of Wells, who currently sat at his parents’ dining room table. It was a large, oak table with several place settings, and Wells stood the moment I entered the room. He wore a sweater and slacksand a tie,like he ever wore a sweater, slacks, and a tie. Wells never wore anything that wasn’t the epitome of comfort.
He even moussed his hair.
His platinum-blond locks were slicked back, exposing his dark roots. The dramatic clash in tones gave his formal look an edge that probably wasn’t intentional, but whatwashad to be the ice in his eyes the moment he saw me. A frosty set of emerald irises hit me, his eyes narrowing briefly before he smiled up at my parents. He shook my dad’s hand and hugged my mom. My parents were like second parents to him and his were the same to Thatcher and me.
Oh, God.
Wells’s eyes were on me as he shook my dad’s hand that evening, and they were also there when he’d let go to hug my mom. It was like he had something reserved for me, and whatever it was, it was dark.
It was bad.
It was as terrible as what he and Bru caught me doing the other night. I came out of my bedroom knowing what I’d see that night.
I had even hoped for it.
I hadn’t heard from Wells after what happened, but Bru texted me this morning.
