“He has a girlfriend.”
“He does?” Her lips curl up.
“Uh, yeah? The blonde bimbo across the street from me?”
Luce laughs out loud. “Oh, you mean Miss-Reese-I-Want-You-Now?” She raises an eyebrow. “She wishes she was his girlfriend. You should have seen his sorry ass when I mentioned your name earlier at the garage. He looked as lost as a puppy without his freshly neutered balls.”
“Freshly neutered balls?” I snort.
“Not the point.” She sighs. “He wants you.”
“He can keep wantin’.” I look out of the window. “Last summer, Luce, remember? If it were ever more...” I shake my head. “It doesn’t bear thinkin’ about.”
“Hey, I bet you ain’t got a boyfriend up in New York. You’re home for the summer, have a bit of fun.”
“I’m not havin’ fun with Reese, especially since he has … Well, whatever she is across the street.” I look back at her. “Who is she, anyway?”
Luce mock gags on her food. “Her Royal Highness, Bitch Princess Hana of Harlan Grove?”
One side of my mouth curls up in amusement. “That bad, huh?”
She rolls her eyes. “You have no idea, girl. I’m tellin’ you; she moved here just after school started again. She started at HG High, moved straight in with the ‘it’ crowd thanks to Daddy’s dollar, then tried to bag herself the hottest guy in fifty miles within six months.”
“She sounds like a real darlin’.” I bite my thumbnail. “Where’d she move from?”
“South Carolina.”
“Why’d they move here?”
“Somethin’ about her Daddy doin’ business in Houston but her Momma refused to live in the City. He lives there during the week, then is home at weekends. Hana’s a spoiled brat if I ever met one. The girl ain’t got a nice bone in her skinny little body.”
“Nice.” I muse. “Makes you wonder what Reese sees in her?”
“Oh, honey, I don’t think he ever saw anything in her except a distraction.” Luce snaps her fingers. “It was like that. She batted her eyelashes, and he went running... But now it makes sense. The guy is hung up on you, and instead of chasin’ you to New York like he shoulda when you didn’t come back for Christmas, he went to her.”
“She’s eighteen, then?” I frown, the idea of Reese being with someone else grating on me.
“Nope. Seventeen. She’ll spend her eighteenth in Europe this summer.”
“So, they…”
“As much as she’d want everyone to believe it, Reese won’t touch her. Not even he is that stupid.” Luce raises her eyebrows. “He told her no sex till she was eighteen. I bet he’s dyin’.”
“His problem though, right?” I shrug. “It’s what you get when you go after a girl still in High School.”
“I told him he shoulda gone to New York after Christmas, but he didn’t listen.”
“Why would he?” I twirl my hair between my fingers, lying through my teeth. “So we had sex once, Luce, and it was just one summer… We were never in love; we were never even really together.”
She turns her face toward me with that “oh, really?” look on her face. Her eyebrow arched; her lips curled in a half smirk and disbelief shining in her eyes.
“Kia, darlin’, he was waitin’ for you to come back at Christmas to talk to you. The guy would have tried a long distance relationship, ‘cause it’s you. He never wanted you to leave in the first place. He pined like a bitch for you!”
“I’m callin’ bullshit.”
“Call whatever the f**k you want, girl, but that boy has got one girl on his mind, and it ain’t his would-be-girlfriend. If you think you’re gonna get through this summer without him tryin’ to get you to talk to him, then you’re gonna have to think again.”
“He can ask, Luce. I left Alabama for a reason. You know that.”
“But does he?”
“Of course he does.” I sigh. “Everyone knows I wanna be more than my Mom is. It’s the only reason I left. I wanna be everything she isn’t.”
“Okay.” She grabs some candy and sinks into the sofa. “If that’s what you’re goin’ with, then I’ll believe you. For now. But Reese Pembleton is more under your skin than even you know, Kia James, and sooner or later, the both of you are gonna explode. My bet is on sooner.”
I shake my head, and turn my attention to the movie. Is she right? Did I leave because of him?
Ugh. Just another reason to add to why I hate this town.
~
Rock’s parties are legendary in Harlan Grove. The open field owned by Adam’s grandpa is given to him for his use every weekend. His grandpa has been known as ‘Rock’ since his college days when he used to fight bare knuckle, and even though he’s in a retirement home now, they’re still “his” parties. Just because he’s the coolest grandpa, ever.
I glance at Luce as I make the short drive to the makeshift parking lot we use. From there, it’s a short walk through the woods to the field. As long as we clean up after ourselves the cops stay out of our way. They’re not dumb, they know we drink and whatever, but we don’t disturb anyone so they’re happy to leave us to it.
That and Luce’s dad is the Sheriff. Such is life in a small town.
“Stop glancing at me,” the girl in question huffs.
“I don’t wanna be here, Luce.” I admit. “I’d rather be home.”
“She ain’t gonna be in, Kia. You’d rather be in an empty house that see everyone?”
“Everyone involves Reese, so yeah,” I mutter.
“I heard that.” She smirks.
I sigh and park. Clearly, though, I’m more concerned about actually seeing Reese, because I’ve parked right next to his damn truck. Shit. Luce gets out the car before I can put it in reverse and park somewhere else. I sigh again and follow her.
Stones crunch under my boots as we cross the lot and disappear undercover of the trees. I can already hear the music pumping. Adam has an insane love of British music, and for once it’s a song I’m familiar with – Rita Ora, R.I.P.
I’m not the Kia that left here a year ago. If I can remember that, I can cope with this dang party.
It’s already crazy busy here, and I know Reese will be here, but I don’t expect him to be the first person I see when I stop next to a tree. It’s like I’m tuned into him and whenever he’s around; I just know. It’s almost like an automatic reaction. My eyes crash into his, and he stands, making his way over to me.