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Hell. Isaiah had never won awards for being observant. My stunt with Luke must have pissed her off. I wandered up to the driver’s side to translate for my dumb-ass best friend. “He wants you to pop the hood. ”
Echo held a photo album in her lap, with her fingers touching an image. She had that lost look again. The same one she’d worn last semester when she walked into class seconds before the bell rang, pretending no one else existed. Only now I realized that she wasn’t pretending. In this moment, Echo lived in her own little world.
She’d said she had an appointment, but mentioned nothing else. Did something go wrong? I crouched next to her, lowering my voice so only she could hear my concern. “Echo. ”
Awakening from her dreamworld, she took a deep breath. “Yeah. The hood. ”
She slid her hand under the console and pulled the lever. Isaiah’s eyes sparkled when the latch released with a pop and the door to his magical world opened. “Beth, you’ve got to see this. ”
“Your car obsession is unnatural. ” She acted like she didn’t care, but Beth pushed off the bench toward Isaiah. “How on earth do you get girls to screw you?”
“Come on, you know the words big block V-8 make your panties wet. ”
“Oh, baby,” Beth said dryly. “Take me now. ”
Echo checked out my eyes. “Are you sure you guys aren’t high?”
Several sarcastic comments entered my mind, but I reminded myself—one shot. “This is your house and I wouldn’t disrespect you like that. ”
The right side of her mouth turned up. “Thanks. ” She closed the album. “You ready to delve into the world of physics?”
I glanced around the garage. “Where?”
“I typically study in here. ”
“You’re kidding. ” The serious look in her green eyes told me she wasn’t, as did her backpack sitting on the passenger side. “You know, most people use tables and chairs. ”
Echo shrugged, taking her physics book out of her pack and then placing the pack on the floor next to me. She lowered her voice. “Most people don’t have scars running up their arms or go to ‘strongly encouraged by Child Protective Services’ therapy once a week either. Are we studying or not?”
I opened the door to the passenger side and took a seat. Taped to the dashboard was a picture of Echo with her arms wrapped around a taller guy with brown hair. Appeared Beth had left out a boyfriend in her history of Echo lesson. Imagine that—a stoner who forgot something. “Who’s that?”
A soft smile touched her lips, but not her eyes. Those eyes held so much pain that I felt a knife slash through my gut. “That’s my brother, Aires. It’s our last picture together. ” Her hand absently stroked the album in her lap.
Isaiah and Beth were bantering back and forth, giving our conversation some privacy. “You’re lucky. Everything that meant a thing to me burnt up in the fire. Everything but my brothers. I don’t have a single picture of my parents. Sometimes I’m terrified I’m going to forget what they looked like. ” And the sound of their voices. My father’s deep laughter and my mom’s hearty giggles. The fragrance of my mom’s perfume when she got ready for work. The smell of my dad’s aftershave. The sound of them cheering from the stands when I made a shot. God, I missed them.
I had no idea I’d traveled into my own universe until Echo’s cold fingers squeezed mine. “Want to do normal?”
And my heart clenched in pain and joy at the same time. I missed my parents beyond words and this beautiful nymph understood. “I’m all over normal. ” I opened my physics book.
THE SLAMMING OF THE HOOD startled me and Echo. We’d spent two hours reviewing for our physics test. If I didn’t pass the son of a bitch tomorrow, I’d never pass a test.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say Isaiah was on the best trip of his life with that crazy smile on his face. “I know how to get her going. ”
Echo brightened to the level of supernova. “Really?” She dropped her physics book and hopped out of the car.
I fought the urge to stand behind Echo and wrap my arms around her as she bounced in front of Isaiah in delight. For a second, it appeared Isaiah would join in the happy dance. “Just a few parts, minor really. I’ll find them at the junkyard. It’ll take me some time and probably cost up to two hundred. ”
Echo’s eyes widened and my heart sank. She didn’t have the money. How much could she make tutoring a loser like me? I had the money. I saved every dime to move into my own place after graduation and rescue my brothers. I could loan it to her and we could increase our tutoring sessions until she made enough to pay me back. “Echo …”
She threw herself at Isaiah, tackling him in a hug. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Do you need the money now or later? I’ve got cash, if that’s okay. ”
Isaiah paled and stared at me with his arms held out to his sides. “I swear to God, I’m not touching her, man. ”
“Yeah, but she’s touching you. ” The dark shadows in Beth’s eyes prompted me to take action.
Oblivious to the black-haired threat behind her, Echo released Isaiah, glowing as if Jesus had appeared and turned water into wine. A pang of jealousy nagged at my gut. To keep Beth from tearing Echo to pieces, I stepped between the two. “Told you I could help. ” Shitty of me to attempt to take the credit, but I couldn’t help it. I wanted to be her champion.
Her cheeks filled with color and her eyes lit like sparklers. “Noah. ” She gasped, out of breath. “We did it. We’re going to fix his car. Oh, God, Noah …” She threw her arms around my neck and pressed her head into my shoulder.
Everything within me stilled. I wrapped my arms around her warmth and softness, closing my eyes to savor the peace Echo’s presence brought to me. Life would almost be enjoyable if I could feel this way all the time. I nuzzled the top of her hair with my chin, sending Isaiah a glance of gratitude. He nodded once and shifted his footing as he caught a glimpse of Beth.
She had a hand on her throat, disbelief draining her face of color. “Isaiah, I …” She took two steps backward before turning and bolting.
“Beth!” Isaiah raced after her. The door to the garage slammed shut behind him.
Using my arms as chains, I kept Echo locked against me when she pulled her head off my shoulder. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
My messed-up friends are ruining my moment. “Isaiah’s into Beth and doesn’t want to admit it and Beth doesn’t want to be into anyone. At least not the guy she considers her best friend. But your hugging him got her riled up. ”
“Oh. ” She unlocked her hands from my neck and pushed her body against my arms, but I wasn’t ready to let her go—not yet. “Noah?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m kind of done hugging you. ”
Reluctantly, I let go. One shot. One fucking shot. What the hell do I do now? What the hell do I want? Echo. To feel her body wrapped around mine, to smell her enticing scent, to let her deliver me to that place where I would forget everything but her.
She packed her books in her bag, speaking the words on my mind. “What’s going on between us?”
I don’t know. I rubbed my hand over my face before glancing at Echo. A hint of her cleavage peeked from her shirt. Damn, she was sexy as hell. I wanted her, badly. Would one night be enough, even if she gave it to me? Echo already felt like a heavy drug. The kind I avoided on purpose—crack, heroin, meth. The ones that screwed with your mind, crept into your blood and left you powerless, helpless. If she gave her body to me, would I be able to let go or would I be sucked into that black veil, hooks embedded into my skin, sentenced to death by the emotion I reserved for my brothers—love? “I want you. ”
Echo zipped up her pack and threw it at the door to the house. It smacked the wood with a bang and slid to the floor. “Do you? Really? Because these scars are sexy. ”
How did she see herself? “I don’t give a fuck about your scars. ”
She stalked toward me, hips swaying s
ide to side, eyes hardened with anger. Echo pushed her body against mine, parts of her fitting perfectly into parts of me. I swore under my breath, fighting for control over my body.
“How are you going to react when we’re this close and you take off my shirt? Are you still going to want me when you see red and white lines? Are you going to flinch each time you accidentally touch my arms and feel the raised skin? How about when I touch you?”
She pulled away from me, leaving my body cold after experiencing her warmth. “Or will you forbid that? Will you tell me how to dress or what I’m allowed to take off?”
Her anger only fed mine. “For the last time, I don’t give a fuck about your scars. ”
“Liar,” she spat. “Because the only way anyone will ever be okay with me is if they love me. Really love me enough to not care that I’m damaged. You don’t love people. You have sex with them. So how could you want to be with me?”
She’d summed me up perfectly. I didn’t love people—only my brothers. Echo deserved more. Better than me. One shot. Take it or go home. Kiss her and risk an attachment or leave her and watch some other guy enjoy what could have been mine.
Echo
When I graduated from high school I planned on painting a plaque for Mrs. Collins: Therapy Stinks. Pink and white with polka dots to match the curtains on the windows.
“Sorry I had to reschedule your session and take you out of business technology. The conference in Cincinnati was fabulous! Are you ready for the Valentine’s Dance tomorrow? When I was a teenager, we had dances on Fridays instead of a Saturday like you. ” Mrs. Collins hunted through the growing stacks of papers and folders on her desk for my file. How could she misplace the thing? Thanks to her copious note taking, my three-inch file had grown to four.
She placed a folder off to the side and the name caught my eye—Noah Hutchins. We hadn’t talked in a week and a half. Okay—not totally true. Last week, he’d taken thirty seconds before calculus to download his latest plan of attack. He planned on disrupting my therapy session to ask Mrs. Collins for some type of form. He hoped she’d leave the office and I could gain access to our files. It didn’t happen. Noah stormed out of her office ten minutes before the end of his session and never returned.
I wanted to talk to him on Monday when he, Beth and Isaiah came over for the next tutoring/car repair session, but he kept our conversation exclusively on calculus. When we finished studying, he cut up with Beth and Isaiah, purposely keeping me out of their loop.
Not that I blamed Noah for avoiding me. I’d said some pretty horrible things to him in my garage. Things I had no idea how to take back. Besides, how would I even begin to explain why I’d been in such a foul mood?
Earlier that day, I’d learned that Ashley carried a boy in her precious little baby bump. Ashley had lain on the table, staring at the black-and-white swishing screen, and said, “Oh, Echo. You’ll have a brother again. ” Again. Like I lost a puppy and she cooked me up another. I wasn’t interested in a replacement.