“I agree.” Owen gives my hand a quick tug, and his eyes meet up with mine. “I don’t want to lose you.” There’s a sadness in him, a mourning as if somehow he’s already done just that. I recognize that deep level of grief just below the surface because it’s the same one Grant tries to hide from the world. It breaks me each and every time.
“Cheer up, would you?” I blink back tears of my own. “I’ll be happy to meet you for dinner. I’ll even let you buy.”
“Funny.” Owen blinks a smile. “And what about Piper? She’s dying to get to know you a little more. You seemed to get along better last year.”
“That’s because she wasn’t an official extension of your body last year.” It’s my turn to blink a smile. “But, yes, bring her. I sort of miss her. She’s totally cool, and beautiful, and, yes, you can tell her I said both of those things.”
“Good. And I agree with you on all points. She’s my family, and it’d mean everything for the two of you to accept her.”
“I love her.” Aubree is first with the affectionate declaration.
“Fine.” I don’t bother to extrapolate on my emotions.
“Speaking of family”—Aubree clears her throat—“Mom mentioned she and Dad were headed to the Bahamas for Thanksgiving.” Her entire person sags when she says it. Aubree has always been a holiday girl, and that’s exactly why Owen and I have made a point to drop in around each one. Aubree won’t allow us to see her on any actual holiday. In fact, she’s taken them off her visitation list, so we’d be restricted even if we tried. She doesn’t want us to sacrifice our holidays just because she ruined hers, but by all means, she loves it when we visit a day or two ahead or after.
“Thanksgiving sucks anyway.” I don’t really mean it. Growing up, I actually got high off the scent of turkey permeating the house. My mother cooked a fifteen-course meal all by her lonesome while Aubree and I were in charge of the pies. Owen and my dad would watch football, and everyone was as happy as a helium balloon. We floated to the ceiling with our adulation, but then Aubree opened up the window in a jealous rage, and now it’s as if we’ve blown to the four corners of the Earth, each our own separate ways. I can’t begin to imagine what the holidays are like for the family of the poor soul Aubree murdered.
“I know. Mom mentioned it to me last week.” Owen sounds just as dejected as she does. “Piper actually invited me to New York.” He looks to me. “And you’re coming.”
“I’m not going to New York.” My insides churn at the thought of spending a holiday all on my own. “Harper invited me to dinner. I’ll be fine. Besides, I want to stay in Hollow Brook.” Harper hasn’t invited me anywhere for Thanksgiving, but I knew if I used Lucky for a cover he could easily fact check with Jet. But I’d rather eat a turkey burger at the Black Bear than fly to New York to have dinner with Piper’s family. And can that girl ever stop pawing my brother? The way they drool over each other nonstop would kill my appetite before the bird ever got out of the oven.
Owen glances to Aubree and shrugs. A moment of strangled silence thumps by, and he nods over to her.
“Oh! I almost forgot.” Aubree bounces in her seat as she turns fully to me. “Owen and I have a little surprise for you.”
“A birthday surprise,” Owen interjects.
“Newsflash”—a quick laugh bumps through me—“my birthday isn’t for another two months. I’m a December baby, remember?”
“We remember.” Owen’s affect irons out to something between joy and sorrow. “But it’s a big one. You’ll be eighteen, and we wanted to do something special for you.”
Aubree lifts a finger. “And I want you to do something special for me.”
“Bake you a cake with a knife in it?”
Aubree glances over at the guard in the corner and gives a tiny wave before leaning in. “No, you numbnut.” She pierces me with her stare, her entire heart pouring out of those two orbs. “Enjoy every second of your life.” Her eyes glaze with moisture. Of all the times I’ve visited my sister, she hasn’t shed a single tear. I know the weight of those words affected her. It seems the longer she’s in here, the more the gravity of it all rains down on her. “Live for me, too.”
“Aubree.” Her words knife right out of me. “I’m not sure what to say. Of course, I will. I’ll make it a point to live each day to the fullest.”
“Don’t overdo it.” Aubree’s features melt with grief. “All I want is for you to appreciate all of the wonderful things going on around you—fall has always been my favorite season. Take a deep breath for me in the middle of campus. Take a walk over to The Row and soak in the sights. Steal a kiss from a cute boy.” She winks, quickly bouncing back to her old self. Just the thought of Grant’s mouth covering mine has me heating ten degrees.
“No stealing kisses.” Owen frowns at our sister with disapproval. He’s never been big on the idea I might actually grow up one day. The more time I spend with Owen, the more I feel like a pet rather than a human—a pet he deems cage-worthy.
“Okay, what gives? What’s the big surprise? You got a boy hiding under that orange uniform for me? Let me guess, you want me to date one of the guards for you?”
“Hell no, I’m doing that myself.” Aubree winks at a scraggly uniformed man in the corner. Gross. “Owen, tell her before she figures it out. She’s a smart one.” Her lips expand in my direction. Whatever it is, it’s something the two of them have cavorted over.
“All right, kid”—Owen pulls my hand in once again—“your sister and I are going in halves. We’re pitching in to get you some wheels.”
A slap of shock hits me. “Wheels? You mean a car? Something vehicular that might actually be street legal?”
“Yes”—Owen gives my fingers a tug—“it’ll be street legal. I promise.”
“What!” I squeal so loud three security guards storm our table. Once Aubree assures them everything is fine—not that they actually leave—I continue to hyperventilate. “But, but how? W-w-why?”
“I still have money stashed away in my checking account.” Aubree sits straight as a pin at the declaration. “I’ve finally clawed my way through all that red tape and made Owen a joint manager of my finances. I offered to pay for the whole thing, but your stubborn brother wouldn’t hear of it. I also voted for something brand spanking new.”
“And I vetoed that as well.” Owen is right back to frowning. “It’ll be a great first car. In fact, the reason we’re telling you about it now is because I want you to think about what you might want. This gives us a little time to hunt down the perfect deal. Come your birthday, I’d love to find you behind the wheel.”
“You’re actually going to let me drive the car, too?” It comes out just as incredulous as I meant for it to sound. Owen can’t stand the fact I use a bicycle as a mode of transportation, let alone the bus. “Let me guess. You’ll have a state-of-the-art homing device hidden inside.”
He belts out a laugh. “Only the best for my baby sister.”
We wrap up our visit, and I offer Aubree a heartfelt hug.
“Steal a kiss for me, would you?” she whispers as we pull away, and now it’s my turn to wink.
I might just do that.
In fact, stealing a kiss from Grant is the next thing on my list.
Actually, the very next thing on my list turns out to be an impromptu trip off-campus with my two new besties. Harper drives like there’s an entire fleet of police officers in hot pursuit, and judging by the way she’s straddling eighty, that very scenario just might be in our future.
“Would you slow down?” I shout from the backseat of her lumpy, dumpy old run-down Jeep. “I’d like to stay alive!” So I can properly steal that kiss from Grant when the time arrives, and if my calculations are right, they’ll arrive the very next time I see him. Who am I to let my big, incarcerated sister down? It’s not like she has anyone to steal kisses with in her free time. That greasy guard thumps through my mind, and I thump him right back out.
“Relax, girls.”
Harper takes her hands off the wheel long enough to flip the hair off her shoulder. It’s a nervous habit I’ve seen her do about a thousand times and preferably would love to live to see again. “We’re here.” She screeches into a parking spot, and the three of us jolt forward with a violent thrust.
“Wow.” Lucky pulls down the sunshade and checks her face in the mirror—“we arrived in one piece. Looks like I owe Ava ten bucks.” She winks back at me.
“You guys are terrible.” Harper catches her purse in the door as she tries to slam it.
We pile out and stare up at the party supply store with its overdressed window display featuring a clusterfuck of costumes, children’s birthday party supplies, and an odd array of naked mannequins that look as if they’ve been abandoned in the corner.
“Don’t worry, girls.” Harper clicks her red glittery nails together, her wide eyes already deep inside the store. “I’ve got Daddy’s credit card burning a hole in my Roberto Cavalli pocket. We’re about to trick ourselves out like the vixens we are deep down inside. My treat.”
The three of us let out a series of catcalls as if the sexiest man alive just materialized in our midst. Now it’s Grant thumping through my mind, but this time I don’t fight it. That boy is welcome to stay as long as he likes. For a second, I envision him stripping off his T-shirt, nice and slow, his thumbs hitching in his Levi’s.
“Earth to Ava?” Harper yanks me into the store with them, and just like that, the sexiest man alive evaporates right out of my mind. Who am I kidding? Grant stays. He’s set up shop and refuses to leave. He’s the ever-present thought each and every day, and a part of me knows this level of obsession is anything but healthy.
Owen and Piper seem to be obsessed with one another. Just how fine is the line between obsession and love anyway?
Lucky races us right down to the slutty-everything aisle, and both she and Harper dive in headfirst, rifling through the whorish collection.
Harper and that part-time boyfriend of hers snag in my thoughts, and every last part of me wants to grill her on the subject.
“Hey, Harp?” I pull up a clown costume and pretend to marvel at the rainbow stitching. “So, what’s going on with you and Justin? You know, do you love him?”
Lucky grunts when I say the L word and doesn’t even bother to look up from her spastic sorting. But Harper stops long enough to sneer my way.
“I do and don’t. We’re sort of complicated. It’s not like we don’t care about each other, but we both sort of agreed to take a break once we got to college. We’ve been together for over a year now.” She tosses the disco dancer costume aside and trades it in for a gypsy.
Breaking it off for college? God, they’re just like Grant and Darcy—at least that’s what I imagined. They heroically decided to break things off because neither one of them thought the distance thing could work. Although, if the shoe were on the other foot and it were Grant and I having to deal with a scholastic separation, I’d be devastated if he wanted to break up. “I think I’m ready, though. You know, to get serious again. I can’t stand the thought of all those girls crawling all over him.” The gypsy costume slips right out of her hands as she gets a faraway look in her eyes. “It’s like every day we’re apart makes me miss him a thousand times more. I’ve even thought of transferring.”
“No!” Lucky shouts from the bowels of the sales rack.
“I concur. You belong to us now.” I’m sorry I ever led her down this long distance path to heartbreak. I happen to know Justin is an entire coast away in California. Way too far to travel for the weekend. And honestly? The unsavory things she says about him make me glad he’s been sequestered by the continental divide.
“Anyway, love isn’t really something I’m familiar with. My mom was too busy jet-setting with her socialite friends, and my father had companies to destroy while adding to his empire.” Harper has mentioned a time or two that her father owns New York. I just thought she was being cute until Lucky informed me it was all but true.
“Love is an illusion.” Lucky gasps, partially emerging from the sales bin. “My brother thinks he’s in love.” She shakes her head as if she has pity for him. I happen to know that Daisy, the girl he’s professing his affection for, is darn easy to love. I wish Lucky would give her half a chance. I would die for Owen to be with someone like her. Piper is annoying and spastic and way too wild for my brother. I’ve seen her act flat-out bossy, and it pisses me off. Lucky doesn’t know how good she has it. “My brother can be a moron.” She looks to me. “And so can yours. Trust me, love went the way of antenna TVs and poodle skirts.” She pulls up a felt skirt with a white fuzzy pooch sewn near its hemline, and both Harper and I reject it, just the way she’s rejecting love.
“Love has to exist.” I pluck a sexy policewoman’s costume off the shelf in my size. “Dibs.” I rattle it their way for approval. “Love is what makes the world go ’round. Don’t you people read bumper stickers?”
Harper snatches back up that gypsy costume and presses it against her chest as if she’s giving it a hug. “It does make the world go around—in fairytales.”
“And that’s why I’m wearing this”—Lucky pulls forth an itty bitty fairy costume complete with wings and sparkly pink fishnets—“to see if I can find true love’s kiss.” She blinks those overdone lashes at us ten times fast. “All right, I’ll fess up. All I really want on Halloween night is a happy ending.” She points to her crotch, and the three of us break out into cackles that would make any coven of witches proud.
There’s no way I’d ever let Lucky give her virginity away like candy on Halloween. But I’ll be damned if I’m not gunning for true love’s kiss on that very night myself.
Or sooner.
Tuesday afternoon, Grant texts and invites me to a practice game, so of course, I arm myself with my two best friends, and we hit the gym as soon as that clock strikes four.
Lawson and Rush are there running up and down the court, getting all hot and sweaty, too, but I don’t dare take my eyes off the prize. As much as I’m aware that there are plenty of other shoes squeaking up the gym floor, the only squeaky shoes I happen to be concerned with have one hot boy attached to them. Grant is a specimen in his usual attire of Levi’s and a T-shirt, but stripped down in silky basketball shorts and his Mustang jersey, he’s a downright Adonis. And holy shit. He’s sporting a tattoo of a demented looking dragon on his right arm. All that time we’ve been doing the shoulder shuffle I had no idea there was a serpent lurking in there. The number twenty-one is etched on the back of his jersey, and instantly those become my favorite digits.
“Number twenty-one!” I belt it out so loud Grant glances up and gives a prideful nod. His eyes slip past me a moment, and he falters before getting back into the game.
“Would you be quiet?” Lucky bucks her arm into mine. “You’re throwing him off. Can’t you see the entire season is riding on his studly shoulders?”
“For your information, this a glorified practice game. The season doesn’t start for another week.” I’m all up on my college basketball now that my quasi-boyfriend is a serious contender to bring home the gold or whatever it is they vie for in this dribbling competition.
Hey! I just called Grant my boyfriend! Sort of. I glance around in the event the stray mind reader or two has seeped into our midst. Both Harper and Lucky seem equally absorbed in the mock game before us. The gym is nice and full considering there isn’t a whole lot at stake on the court.
A pretty blonde scoots into the row ahead of us, eyeing me as if I should know who she is before she plops in the spot just in front of Lucky. She’s probably a sorority sister—one of those older obnoxious sisters who’s a throwback to my own older obnoxious sister’s sorority days. Not that Aubree is obnoxious anymore, not really. Prison seems to have the ability to squeeze the obnoxious out of a person real quick. That wink she shared with the guard comes back to mind. But apparently, it doesn’t squeeze the sex drive out of a person, at least not Aubree.
The game goes on much longer than any practice should, but Grant’s team is winning, so that makes it just fine by me. Both Rush and Lawson are playing on the opposing team and can’t block my man no matter how fancy their footwork seems to be. I snap a few pictures of Grant in all his glory as those long tree trunks he calls legs run the length of the court. I take a few extra shots of his cut biceps as they strain and bulge each time he shoots the ball. I even get a clear shot of him in flight, in full extension just moments before the ball swirls the rim.
The buzzer finally sounds, and I jump to my feet, shouting and screaming the loudest. Bodies mingle onto the court, but Grant jogs in my direction with that ear-to-ear grin on his face.
“Way to teach those boys a lesson!” I belt out a laugh as Rush gives me the finger. “Don’t worry, baby,” I shout after him. “Once the season starts, you’ll have a real man on your team.”
Grant tips his head back with a laugh then stops short as I run down to meet him.
“You were a god among sweaty men on that court!” I go to high-five him, and my arms land around his neck instead. I’m so giddy to see him, to touch him after watching him dominate I think it’s time to unleash the power of that stolen kiss I promised my sister I’d land on this boy. Who the hell cares if it’s in a crowded gym full of onlookers? It’s melee in here. I doubt anyone will notice, let alone see.
My gut cinches with anticipation. “I wanted to high-five you, but I’d rather do this.” I hop up on my tiptoes and lunge my lips toward his. The last thing I see is the whites of his eyes as he gifts me his cheek with a quick turn of the head.
My heart thuds all the way to the soles of my feet as I pull back, rejected. My mouth opens to say something, but my arms fall loose as I stumble back a notch. That was no coincidental peck to his flesh. Grant couldn’t get away from me fast enough. His lips were the last place he was going to let me land a wet one.