Good Girl Complex(Avalon Bay #1)(65)

Then he sighs again and rises from the bench. “Yeah, fine. Guess there’s no saving you from yourself. I’ll back off.”

I take what I can get from Evan and we call it squashed. Back at the party, I send him home in Alana’s car to make sure he gets there safe while I drive Mac to her dorm.

“I’m sorry about that,” I tell her when she hasn’t spoken in several minutes. She’s staring out the passenger window looking deep in thought, which gets me worried. “It had nothing to do with you. Evan’s got a lot of misplaced anger.”

“Brothers shouldn’t fight.”

I wait, uncertain if there’s more to that statement. My concern deepens when more doesn’t come.

“Talk to me, Mackenzie.” My voice comes out a bit husky.

“What if this is a bad idea?”

“It isn’t.”

“Seriously.” Out of the corner of my eye, I find her watching me. “I don’t want to be the reason you fall out with him. It’s good for no one. You can’t be happy because he’s upset, and I can’t be happy because you’re upset. We all lose.”

This is exactly why Evan needs to get over his bullshit and let us be. She’s not the person he imagines in his head, and if he understood her at all, he’d realize how unfair he’s been.

“Evan will get over it.”

“But what if he doesn’t? These things can fester.”

“Don’t worry about it, Mac. Seriously.” I don’t care if my brother wants to be a cranky little brat about it, as long as he’s on his best behavior around Mac and keeps his comments to himself. My whole life I’ve lived for the two of us. Evan and me. This one thing, though, I get to have for myself.

Clearly I’m not doing a good job at easing her unhappiness, because she lets out a miserable-sounding moan. “I don’t want to come between you and your twin, Cooper.”

I glance over. Sternly. “I’ve made my choice. I want us to be together. Evan can deal.”

Distress flickers through her eyes. “What does that even mean, being together? I know earlier we said we’re dating, and I thought I was cool with that—”

“You thought?” I growl.

“But then we went to the party and did you see how everyone was looking at us? No, looking at me—like I didn’t belong there at all. That one girl? Heidi? Completely froze me out with her gaze. And I overheard a couple chicks calling me a rich snob and saying my dress is ridiculous.”

“Why is your dress ridiculous?” From where I’m sitting, her short yellow dress looks ridiculously sexy.

“Because it’s Givenchy and I guess nobody wears a thousand-dollar dress to a house party?” Mac’s cheeks redden with embarrassment. “My mom’s assistant buys most of my clothes. In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t care about fashion. I live in jeans and T-shirts.” She sounds more and more anguished. “I only wore this stupid dress because it’s cute and summery and short enough that I knew it’d drive you crazy.”

I fight a laugh. I also force myself not to comment on the fact that the scrap of yellow fabric barely covering her delectable body cost a grand.

“But maybe it did come off like I was flaunting? I don’t know. I wasn’t trying to. All I know is that nobody wanted me there tonight.”

“I wanted you there.”

“You don’t count,” she grumbles.

I reach over the center console and grab her hand. Forcibly lacing our fingers together. “I’m the only one who counts,” I correct.

“They count too,” she argues. “You’ve got an entire group of friends, and you’ve all known each other forever. I have like two friends, one of whom is my roommate so she’s kind of forced to like me.”

The laugh slips out.

“I wish I had a huge friend group like yours. I’m jealous,” she says frankly. “And I really wanted everyone to like me tonight.”

I release her hand and steer the truck to the shoulder of the road. I put it in park and turn to her with a firm stare. “Babe. I like you. Okay? And my friends, they’ll come around and grow to like you too. I promise you that.”

She frowns. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“I mean it. Give it a little more time,” I say gruffly. “Don’t bail on me, on this, just because the reception tonight wasn’t the warmest, and some girls got all judgmental about your dress—which, just so you know, is the hottest thing ever and I want to rip that thousand-dollar fabric off your body with my teeth.”

Mac laughs, albeit weakly.

“Please.” I almost cringe at the pleading note I hear in my voice. “Don’t bail on me, princess.”

The shadows in the truck dance over her pretty face as she sits in silence for a moment. It feels like an eternity before she finally responds.

Green eyes gleaming from the headlights of a passing vehicle, she leans toward me and kisses me. Hard. With a lot of tongue. Then she pulls back breathlessly and whispers, “I won’t bail on you.”





CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX


MACKENZIE

Give it time, he said.

They’ll come around, he said.

Well, I’m calling bullshit on Cooper’s bullshit. Since the disaster at the party, I’ve been on a hearts-and-minds campaign, doing my damnedest to try to win over Cooper’s “gang.” Though he’d never admit it, I know he’s bothered by the fissures where his friends and I are concerned, and I don’t want to be the reason he drifts away from the people he cares about. They’ve been in his life a lot longer than I have. The way I see it, there’s no reason we can’t all get along.