Kiss and Break Up (Magnolia Cove, #1)(23)

“Hi,” I said, trying not to laugh when he attempted to smile around his chewing.

“Your girl is mad,” Daphne said.

Byron frowned, glancing over to the cheerleaders’ table. He lifted a shoulder. “She’ll get over it.”

Daphne’s pursed lips said she thought otherwise.

That, combined with the way he didn’t dispute the words your girl, had the sandwich I’d just eaten threatening to make a reverse trip.

Byron finished chewing before saying, “Wade’s hosting another party this Friday night. A return to school, fuck senior year thing.”

Willa raised a brow. “What’s his problem with senior year?”

Byron looked at her as if she was crazy, then shook his head. “Hey, think you can ask Jack to bring some green?”

Willa’s hazel eyes darkened at the mention of her stepbrother. “Why don’t you ask him?”

“Because Dash isn’t exactly my biggest fan right now, which means neither is the rest of his stoner crew.”

The way he’d said stoner crew itched at my skin. Granted, they got high a lot, but I still didn’t agree with the name.

Daphne arched a brow but otherwise kept eating her fries.

Willa sighed. “Sure.”

With a slap on the table, Byron stood. “Sweet, thanks.” I thought he was just going to leave, and I was kind of hoping he did, seeing as I knew eyes were watching us, but then he grabbed my chin and bent over. “Think about coming to the party. I’ll call you tonight?”

I nodded, braced for a kiss and fearing it, but it never came.

I exhaled my relief, then took a long sip from my water bottle.

“He was totally about to kiss you,” Willa said with excited eyes.

Daphne smirked. “Yeah, if you hadn’t looked like a deer caught in headlights.”

Scowling, I stole a fry from her plate.

“So are we going to Wade’s again?” Willa tapped her nails on the table.

Daphne nodded, wrapping her red lips around her straw.

I glanced around the cafeteria but couldn’t see any sign of Dash or his friends. They were probably outside or sneaking a cigarette in one of the deserted classrooms.

I had English with him before lunch, and though he’d taken his usual seat next to me, like he did whenever we shared the same class, he hadn’t said a word.

Still, going to the party was another way to hang out with Byron. Convincing my mom to let me go was going to be tough, though. “Mom probably won’t let me go again. Not so soon.”

Willa and Daphne both groaned. “Tell her you’re staying at my place, duh.”

I glared at Daphne, at how easily she expected me to lie, but as the day dragged on, and I’d thought about it some more, all the reasons why I shouldn’t fell away.

Until I couldn’t see how the lie wouldn’t work.





Dash



Fucking cocky Prince Charming wannabe.

If it wouldn’t put me in an even worse position with Peggy, I would have introduced his balls to his stomach, and my fist would have made pancake batter out of his nose by now.

Church meowed, and I ran my fingers over his head when he plopped down next to me on the couch. I’d wanted to dunk myself straight in the pool when I’d arrived home, but after walking out there and hearing my mother’s moans, I’d stalked right back inside and slammed the door.

I’d been so distracted, held hostage by rage, I hadn’t even seen Emanuel’s old Chevy parked off to the side of our long drive.

A message came through on my phone, and I exited out of the game I was playing to read it.



Freckles: Come over?



The petty part of me—which let’s face it, was a lot of me—wanted to tell her to fuck off. But my desperation to have things return to normal won out, and I leaned forward to snatch my keys off the table.

Church protested as I got up and pocketed my phone right as Mother Dearest’s heels clacked over the floor. “How was your first day?”

“Not as good as yours.”

Her cheeks turned crimson, her mouth hanging open.

I made haste for the door before she could say anything else.

Peggy’s window was already open, a sign that maybe she was up for negotiations. My spirits lifted as my body did, and I rolled inside onto her bed. “Ready to grovel?”

Peggy set her homework down, already out of her school clothes and wearing one of her preferred super-long men’s T-shirts. Most of the shit she wore was from the thrift store, but I didn’t like the idea of her wearing some strange dude’s old clothes, so every Christmas, I bought her some new men’s XL T-shirts.

I tried to keep my eyes off her thighs as she took a seat on the bed. Tried. I got points for that, because fuck if I could. Why did it feel like it was the first time I’d seen them? Had they always had that tiny dip between them?

She quickly stuffed a pillow over her lap and attempted to fix the craptastic job she’d done of putting her hair into a messy bun. There wasn’t enough of it anymore, so ringlets sprang free, caressing the elegant slant of her neck and dusting the slim curves of her face.

“I owe you nothing. But I’m willing to put this aside on one condition.”

“One?” Shucking off my boots, I peered up into her face, getting comfy on my side of the bed.