Sweet (True Believers #2)(23)
Author: Erin McCarthy

What happened to that kid? I wondered. When did I get cynical?

But then again, maybe I hadn’t, because here I was, hanging that peace sign on the wall of a house that was Easton’s safe haven.

“This is mine, you know,” I told him. “I bought this at an art festival for twenty bucks when I was thirteen. I’m letting you borrow it, gallery style. Some day I might want to take it back.”

“Mark where you want it hung,” he said. “My arms are killing me.”

Exasperated, I took a pencil and made a mark at the top where I wanted it hung. I was sorry I’d told him anything personal. “Fine. Here.”

“Jesus, thank you,” he sighed. He set it on the floor and reached for his drill. “You have good taste, you know. It looks awesome in here, I’m not going to lie.”

“What was that?” I asked, cupping my hand to my ear, pleased with the compliment. “I didn’t hear you over the sound of the drill and your large ego.”

He efficiently drilled a screw into the wall and hung the peace sign. “I said, you have good taste. See, I can admit it. No one would guess this is the same kitchen.”

“Thank you.” I was preening. I could feel it. I couldn’t help it. I was craving his appreciation. How completely pathetic was that?

He turned and hit the button on the drill in my direction.

I shrieked. Which of course made him grin and step even closer to me.

“Stop it,” I said, unnerved by the sound and that spiraling tip pointing at me. I could lose an eye or something.

“What?” He shoved it toward my face. “What’s the matter?”

I darted away, laughing, and tripped over the garbage can. I fell against the wall and the peace sign fell. Riley caught it and hung it back up.

“Way to go, Jess. You almost killed peace.”

Before I could retort something nasty, there was a knock on the back door. Riley went and opened it, and I saw Robin was standing there, wearing short shorts and a sparkly blue tank top. I had texted her and she was there to deliver the art piece.

“Hey,” Riley said, in a voice of surprise and intrigue. “Can I help you?”

I realized that he had never met Robin. I also realized that Robin was an exotic brunette. Which made me realize that asking her to come over was a very stupid and idiotic idea.

To her credit she didn’t drool over Riley’s chest the way he was drooling over hers. She just said, “Hi, I’m Robin. Is Jessica here?”

“It’s for you,” he said over my shoulder. But without moving out of the way, he held out his hand. “I’m Riley. It’s really nice to meet you.”

Gross. I nudged him out of the way. “Hey, Robin. Come in. Riley, move your ass.”

Robin skirted him, looking curiously at me, the canvas in her hands. “I can’t stay, but here it is.”

I took the canvas and turned it around. It said YUM YUM, spelled out in candy wrappers on a gray background. It was perfect.

“I decided just paint was boring.” She gave a shrug. “It may be too cute for a house of guys, but I couldn’t resist.”

“It’s awesome,” I told her. “It goes perfectly next to the peace sign because they’re using similar mediums in similar colors. Don’t you think so, Riley?”

“Sure.” He nodded. “Though I can’t guarantee Jayden won’t pull those wrappers off hoping there is still a speck of chocolate in them.”

I scoffed. “He wouldn’t do that.”

“You haven’t seen him around sugar. He inhales it like an anteater.”

While I played around with placement on the wall, Riley put his old coffee in the microwave and heated it up. “Thanks for making that, Robin,” he said. “That was really nice. And Jess and I are just going to get some lunch.”

We were?

“Do you want to come with us?”

No. Say no, I tried to mentally project to Robin. I probably would have a classic college girl meltdown if the first guy I’d been genuinely attracted to in three years hit on one of my best friends.

Fortunately, I had told Robin in my beer buzz the night before that I liked Riley. And she knew the girl code. She shook her head. “Oh, no thanks. I have to work today and I have a ton of stuff to do before that.”

Yay, Robin. I owed her a beer for that. Hell, a case of beer. “Oh, that sucks.” I paused for a beat. “But thanks, you’re awesome. I’ll text you later.” So get the F out.

She grinned at me. “You’re welcome.” She reached over and gave me a hug, which was weird, because I didn’t do hugs and she knew that. But it was a ploy to whisper in my ear. “Holy hotness. Total vag explosion.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Are you two going to make out?” Riley asked, sounding hopeful.

I looked around for something to throw at him but came up short. The room was too clean to be risking breaking anything, anyway.

“Let me walk you out,” Riley said to Robin when she moved toward the door. “I don’t want any of the neighbors getting any ideas.”

Funny how he didn’t seem to have a problem with me coming and going on my own. But there wasn’t anything I could say that wouldn’t sound insane and I couldn’t exactly follow them either. So I just stayed in the kitchen and felt bitchy. The room looked amazing, like a hundred and ten percent improvement with the new cabinet knobs and all the other touches, and yet I was discontent. Maybe my mother was right—I was never grateful.

He was gone a long time. “Do you really want lunch?” I asked when he finally came back in, smelling like smoke. “Or was that just a way to try and get Robin to hang out longer?”

“Yes, I want lunch. I’m starving. The whiskey burned a hole in my gut and I need to fill it.” He started down the hallway to his bedroom. “Your friend is cute.”

“I know,” I yelled bitterly from the doorway of the kitchen. “And she’s single,” I added, just because I was a masochist and I wanted to see his reaction to that information. And maybe because if he was going to hit on her, I just wanted to get it over with.

“That’s a shame, I guess. Unless she wants to be single, then that’s good.” He reemerged from his room, wearing an AC/DC shirt.

“I have no idea what she wants,” I said, trying for dignified but sounding more like I had a stick up my ass.

“Are you okay?” he asked, sounding dubious. “I think you must be hungry, too. You sound like Jayden when he’s forgotten to eat.”