Never Tied Down (The Never Duet #2)(43)
He reached one hand up, caressing the side of my face, as he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss against my lips. It was the opposite of bossy, but still made my blood run hot. When he pulled away he was looking in my eyes.
“Maybe I’ll use my newfound powers of seduction to get you to open up to me about your panic attack.” His words were halfway playful, but I knew he meant them. I’d known he was going to want to talk about it, I was just hoping I would have a little break between nervous breakdown and discussion of said breakdown.
Before I had a chance to respond, Halah returned, clearing her throat.
“Sorry to interrupt,” she said with a smile.
“Liar,” Riot said, a beautiful grin appearing on his face.
“Shall we go take a look at the sea lions?” she asked.
“Sure thing,” he responded. Thus ensued a five-minute argument on whether or not Riot was going to let his sister buy her own meal, and it ended with Riot using his authoritative voice again. I almost slapped him when he winked at me. It was wrong, what just his voice could do to my body, but entirely sexy also.
“I came here for a field trip in the third grade,” Halah said as we slowly made our way down the pier to where the sea lions were all floating on docks. “Josh McMillian took my favorite bow out of my hair and threw it in the water.”
“Josh McMillian?” Riot asked. “He was such a douche bag. Kid never learned not to pick on girls. In high school I shoved him in a locker about a million times because he was always talking shit about you to his buddies.”
“Newsflash, Riot: not all guys were raised to treat women like queens.” Halah’s voice was firm, yet quiet. My instinct, that gut feeling you get when your best girlfriend is going through something major, kicked in and I wanted nothing more than to grab her, take her for a coffee, and convince her to confide in me.
“I can’t believe how many there are,” I said, stopping at the railing. There were hundreds of sea lions, all sitting atop their docks, barking at each other.
“There will be more in a few weeks. They come here for the winter, I guess. During the summer they go someplace else.” Riot draped his arm over my shoulders as he said the words and I couldn’t help but lean into him and snuggle. The wind was biting at me and the November chill on the bay was making it difficult to stay warm. Being pressed up against his body helped.
I stood there, fascinated by the animals, enjoying watching them sleep or fight, which they were all doing a lot of, but not much else. Suddenly, Halah’s voice rang out and she sounded panicked.
“I have to go. I’m sorry, you guys. It reeks here and I think I’m going to be sick.” She covered her nose and mouth and started jogging down the pier.
I gave Riot a confused look, and he looked equally worried, so we started after her. We followed her all the way to her car and when she reached it she stopped, leaned one hand against the trunk, and bent over, taking in deep breaths and forcing them out again.
“Are you okay?” I asked as we approached. I gently laid a hand on her back, softly moving it back and forth, giving Riot more worried looks.
“Hals, let us drive you home.”
“It’ll pass,” she said weakly. We stood and watched as she took in countless deep breaths and then pushed them all out, slowly and evenly. When she finally stood up and turned to us, her face was covered with a sheen of sweat and she looked slightly green.
“Are you sick?” Riot asked.
Halah ran the back of her hand over her forehead and said quietly, “I’ll be okay.”
“Let us drive you home,” he insisted.
“I’m fine, Riot. I’m just going to go back to the house and go to bed.” She took a step toward him and gave him a halfhearted hug, then gave me the same.
“Will you at least text me to let me know you got home all right?” I could tell by the strain in his voice that he was not okay with the current plan of just letting her go.
“Sure,” she agreed. She gave us a tiny wave as she drove away.
“I’m worried about her,” he said as he watched her car turn down a street and disappear.
I clasped his hand in mine. “She’ll be all right.” I didn’t know how long it would take for Riot to figure out what was wrong with her, but I had my suspicions. I looked up at him, trying to give him a smile. “Can we do one more thing before we head back to LA?”
“Anything,” he said sincerely, his fingers coming up to touch my chin lightly.
I led him back to the pier, and we walked slowly toward the one thing I knew Marcus would have loved the most: the carousel. “I just want to ride it once.” I felt a little silly asking my grown-up boyfriend to ride a carousel, but I knew if Marcus were there, he’d want to ride it as many times as I would let him. It would be nice, for once, to do something that reminded me of him and to smile while doing it. For months I’d been crying over his loss, but today, I felt as though I should let myself enjoy something he would have. Perhaps that would make me feel closer to him somehow.
“Baby,” Riot said softly, tilting my face to look up at him. “We can ride it as many times as you want. Whatever is going to make you happy, that’s what we’ll do.”
“Okay,” I whispered, smiling up at him, getting lost in his gorgeous brown eyes.