Anyone But Rich (Anyone But..., #1)(16)

“What about her? She’s in the party and you’re here.”

I bristled a little. “I’m not—” I clamped my mouth shut. I was about to say I’m not interested in being his side chick. What I should’ve been saying was that I wasn’t interested in being his chick in any form or fashion. I had the pact to think of, and I knew Iris would probably jab me with something more sinister than her nightstick if I made a move on Cade. She could pretend to hate him all she wanted, but in her mind, he was still her first real love. I had let the party and the night get to my head enough, and it was time to come back to reality. “You know, I probably should be getting back to the party.”

He looked at the haul of desserts still in my lap. He slid his forefinger across my arm, gathering a small glob of whipped cream that he sucked from his fingertip. “Careful in there. With you looking like that, somebody might get the idea that you’re on the menu.”

“The kids’ menu, maybe.” I paused, replayed what I’d just said, and then frowned. “Wait. No.” I laughed at my own stupidity. “Okay, that sounded really wrong. I meant like I wasn’t—” I settled for sighing and pressing my fingers over my eyes.

Cade just chuckled. “I like that about you, Kira.”

“What? That I sometimes say things that make me sound like a closeted pedophile?”

“No. That you don’t always stop to calculate what you’ll say. It’s refreshing.”

“Oh.” Despite the thrumming warning in my brain telling me to step away from the King brother before I betrayed the pact, I blushed. “Well, thank you.”

“Hey,” a voice called from the top of the hill. “Nick said he saw you coming out here with Kira, and I—” He trailed off, and when I looked up, it felt like my eyes were playing tricks on me.

I saw Cade standing at the top of the hill. And I saw Cade sitting beside me.





Chapter 6





RICH


Kira was frowning between Cade and me. He still stood at the top of the hill with a confused look on his face. I was still beside Kira with my heart in my throat and the taste of whipped cream on my tongue. I’d watched the goose bumps roll across her skin when I touched her, and I knew she was feeling the same electrical buzz in the air that I felt.

“What the fuck were you two doing down here?” asked Cade. “Is this some kind of food porn thing? You should’ve got a kiddie pool, at least. That way the grass doesn’t get all mixed in with the food.” He started walking down the hill toward us, still shouting. “And next time, take off your clothes, you idiots. It’s all fun and games until the cleaner tells you he can’t get honey stains out of your tie. Trust me. I’ve been there.”

He leaned down and plucked a chocolate-covered cherry from my lap. He stuck it in his mouth and made a kind of garbled attempt at speech while looking between us and smiling. I knew he was trying to tie the stem in a knot with his tongue, and I also knew he was too oblivious to realize Kira looked like she was on the verge of slapping me or laughing her ass off—I still couldn’t tell which.

He pulled the cherry stem out of his mouth, but it was just chewed in two. “Shit,” he said. “I swear I’ve done it before—oh, hey, Kira. Everything good?”

“You’re Cade?” she said slowly, pointing to him.

His eyes darted once to the left and once to the right, and he nodded slowly with a widening smile. “Me Cade. You Kira?”

“And you’re?” she asked my feet.

“Rich,” I said. Reality hit me full force in the stomach. She’d gotten Cade and me confused. This whole time she thought she was talking to my goddamn brother. “You thought I was him?”

“Your hair,” she said, finally looking up at me again. “It’s all . . .”

“Oh.” I touched my head and smoothed it out. “This idiot decided he was still a child and gave me a noogie right before I ran into you earlier, and I forgot to straighten it out.”

She stood suddenly. “I’m sorry. I need to go.”

“Can I see you again?” I asked.

“No,” she said softly. “No,” she said again, firmly this time. “I’m not even convinced you didn’t just trick me on purpose.” Her expression darkened. I could see her making up her mind, and it wasn’t a good conclusion. “Congratulations. You got to make me look like an idiot one more time. I hope it was nostalgic for you.”

She stood and let all the desserts in her lap fall to the grass. In seconds, I was left alone on the hill with Cade.

“Yikes,” he said. “I’ve never seen you fail in person with a girl before. That was fun, man. We should do this more often. Kinda like a double date, but not exactly. Next time, I’d go with a little less of the clueless idiot approach and maybe try to project confidence. Just spitballing here, but what if you’d said, Yeah, I know you thought I was Cade the whole time. But I’m basically the discount version of my brother anyway, so what’s it going to be? Deal or no dick?”

I got up and brushed off what I could of the mess on my clothes. I felt and looked like an idiot. “Deal or no dick? Does that kind of shit actually work for you?”

Cade scraped some chocolate off my shirt and ate it. “Everything works for me. It’s not about what you say. It’s how you say it. You’re an idiot,” he said with a big, goofy smile and a pat on my shoulder. “See? Didn’t feel so bad when I said it like that, did it?”