“Lila got me clothes.”
“If I didn’t just hear that Braden’s disappeared and you’re the only person who knows where he is, I’d go and give those damn clothes back to her.” He props himself up on his elbow, his eyes locked to the top of my thighs where the hem of his shirt falls.
“You would?” I ask innocently, walking over to the bed.
“Fucking right I would.” He grabs my arm and pulls me toward him. I land half on him, half on the bed, and his hands creep beneath the shirt, his fingers tracing inside the line of my panties. “I would absolutely say you should sleep in my shirt, but there’s a slim chance of any sleep actually happening if you did.”
“I don’t think I would complain,” I say against his mouth, brushing lips with him.
He kisses me hard, and at a shift of his hips his erection pushes into my bare thigh through the covers. I run my fingers through his hair and break the kiss, grinning down at him.
“I need to go find Bray.”
“I know,” he replies softly. “It’s not fair on Maddie either now. Shit. We’ve made a mess of this, haven’t we?”
I sit up, running my fingertips down his arm to the palm of his hand. He catches my fingers with his, linking them together.
“Yeah. We have. There’s no point lying about it, but honestly, regardless of when we told him it would have happened. He still would have been angry and needed to cool off. We know we shouldn’t have kept us a secret and we should have told him a long time ago, but there’s nothing we can do about that now. It was wrong, and now I need to go and speak to him and make it right.”
“He’s a stubborn ass. How do you know he’ll talk to you?”
I smile, shrugging one shoulder. “Because if he wanted to talk to anyone else, he wouldn’t have gone to where only I would know where to look for him.”
~
“I wondered how long it would take you.”
The wind coming in off the bay whips my hair around my face, leaving me to battle it constantly. “Longer than it should have,” I respond, hopping up onto the rock next to Braden. I shove my hair from my face again.
He says nothing and shrugs his shoulders, looking out across the choppy water. His thumbs flick against each other, his feet tapping to an invisible beat. I know him well enough to know he’s thinking about what to say, so I keep quiet, waiting for him to make the first move.
“I understand why you did it,” he says after a moment of silence. “I mean, why you kept it secret. I don’t understand why you’d sleep with that ass.”
I glance at him and catch the twitching of his lips. “Umm … He’s hot?” I offer, trying not to grin. Turning his face away, Braden bites the inside of his cheek. I look down.
“Yeah, well, I guess if you have to be with some f**ker, it should be a f**ker I actually like.”
“You’ll never like anyone I date.” I rest my head on his shoulder, and he puts his arms round mine the way we used to whenever we chatted. Before we left for college. Before games started.
“True,” he agrees. “But I can’t completely hate Aston because I liked him before, so I’m f**ked. Although I gotta admit I never imagined you with him. I imagined you with some rich bastard driving a soft top car, spending your days racing down the interstates between L.A. and New York for fancy dinners.”
Laughter explodes from me, and I cover my mouth as Braden shakes next to me, laughing himself.
“Right – because I absolutely have the manners and patience for that, don’t I? Puh-lease, Bray, give me some credit.” I nudge his side, still giggling slightly. “And have you forgotten your mom’s charity do thing? We had to Google which fork to use because no one told us the proper etiquette. They all assumed two fourteen year olds knew that sort of thing.”
“And when we came here I had to Google dating,” he muses. “Damn. We drew some short straws, didn’t we?”
“I think it’s because you were always in trouble, so by default I was too.” I smile and sit up slightly. “I really am sorry, Bray. I never wanted to keep it from you. It was just supposed to be once and everything kind of snowballed, then before I knew it, it was too far to do anything. The longer I left it the harder it got to find the words to tell you. It makes me a total shit, and believe me when I say I feel like an utter bitch because I do. It’s hurt you so much.”
“I get it, Megs. Sorta. It makes me feel like shit you couldn’t tell me, but I’d probably have done the same if I was you. But I wouldn’t have gotten caught.” He grins.
“I wanted to get caught.” I shrug. “At least I think I did. If you caught us I wouldn’t have had to come out and explain it because you would have guessed.”
“You always were the wimp.”
“Hey!”
“Aston is a jackass, Megs, I know that. But he loves you. I didn’t think it was f**king possible, but he does.” He pauses for a moment. “Then again this is you. You could turn a g*y guy straight if you really wanted to.”
“Well … I bet I could give it a good go.”
“Good luck. Aston will kick his ass, g*y or not. If he’s anything like me he will.”
“When it comes to being an overprotective asswipe? Yep, pretty much exactly the same.”
Braden laughs slightly, then sighs. “I’m sorry, too, Meggy.”
“What for? I’m the one who lied.”
He turns his face toward mine, blue eyes meeting blue eyes. “Because I was so wrapped up in what I thought was best for you I forgot to stop and ask what you wanted. I was so f**kin’ set on keeping you away from any of the walking, talking dicks in the frat house I didn’t realize the best thing for you was right under my damn nose the whole time.”
“He never made it easy.” My voice softens slightly. “Part of the reason I never told you was because he might not say it but he needs you and Ry. He needs the banter and friendship you provide him. It gives him security. I meant what I said when I said you don’t know him like I do. It’s not for me to tell you – I won’t betray him that way – but the guy you know isn’t the one I know. You just have to trust me when I say he’s what’s best. You know the heart doesn’t lie, Bray, and my heart tells me he’s what’s best for me. My heart tells me he’s all I’m ever gonna need, no matter how hard it gets.”