Country Kisses (3:AM Kisses Book #8)(33)

“We’re close. Piper and I went to the same boarding school. We hung out on weekends whenever we could.”

“I get it.” Rex tosses me a pool stick. “I went to boarding school myself. It’s just not the same as growing up in a house full of siblings and parents.”

“Parents?” I tease. “What are those? I was hatched from a pod.”

We share a laugh and start in on the game.

“So, where are all the girls?” I nod to Owen.

He frowns a moment as he steadies his gaze to the table. “Movies. Chick flick.”

“Sounds like you dodged a bullet.” I’d die to see a chick flick with Cassidy. Aside from class and my bedroom, that girl is harder to spot than Bigfoot.

“They should be here soon.” He steps up to take his turn.

I glance at the other two. “So, your girlfriends are with Piper, too?”

Jett holds out his hands. “No girlfriend here. I’m still taking numbers.”

Rex takes a jab at his ribs with the stick in his hand. “You’re still taking STDs. I’m taking numbers.”

“I would have guessed you were all equally chained down. Owen’s pretty much done. You know what they say—once one of you is practically hitched, the others fall like dominos.” I give a shit-eating grin as Owen comes over and knocks his fist into my arm.

“I told you he was a good guy. Full of bullshit, but a good guy.” He mock shoots me. “So, who’s yanking your chain? Piper says you had an ex show up unexpectedly. Are you gunning to take her down again?”

“No way, dude.” I don’t hesitate with the answer. “I’m looking to make a clean getaway if at all possible, and, judging by the fact she dropped by uninvited at my place tonight, that doesn’t seem possible.”

“Shit.” Jet barks out a laugh, and that tattoo of a dragon on his neck does a little dance.

That one night—the only night I took Cassidy right there in the living room, in the entire house with the lights on, I saw that she had a few tattoos as well, but I was too busy, we were too busy to slow down. I’d love to slow down with her in every way. I want to see her tattoos, have her tell me their meaning. I want to know what she knows. Hear her stories. And if she’s ever ready to share it, I want to know what happened to that beautiful face of hers. It breaks my heart every time she ducks to the left. I get it. She’s spent a lifetime trying to hide those scars, ashamed of those scars. I want to tell her it’s okay. She’s beautiful just the way she is. She doesn’t have to hide them from me ever again.

“Dude.” Rex pinches his eyes closed. “You need a restraining order. That’s some serious boundary issues she’s breaking.”

Owen knocks a ball in the corner with such force the other balls clap like thunder around it. “Piper says she’s nuts.”

“She’s not nuts.” God, Sammy’s not nuts, is she? “We had a bad break up. I came home from practice and found her in bed with my best friend.” Dave flashes through my mind. Every time I think of him now, I still see his startled face, his body thrusting into hers, unable to stop. “Anyway. Both of those relationships ended at that moment. She knows it’s over—that it’s been over for years. I told her last weekend at most we could be friends.”

Jet ticks his head back an inch. “You really think you can be friends with this chick?”

“Yes.” I cringe a moment because everything in me isn’t so sure. “I can be friendly with this girl, but I’m not really feeling up to dinner, coffee, standing in line next to her at the bookstore.”

“But she was in your house.” Rex shakes his head. “You’ve got a problem, dude. She knows where you go to school.”

“Where you shit.” Jet raises his beer at me. “You’ve got one hell of a clinger.”

A clinger. Sadly, that’s what Sammy has devolved to in my life, a clinger. It would have been unfathomable in the beginning. We were so in love, or so I thought. We were in heat mostly. But, deep down, I always suspected there was more out there. Sammy was nice enough, but for whatever reason, she didn’t get all my pistons firing at once, and that’s exactly what Cassidy does to me, gets me way too fired up to ever be safe for my beating heart. I never thought I’d fall in love again, and, now that I have, it’s that much more than it ever was before. Heck, it nullifies something cheap that I once labeled as love. Of course, I didn’t believe in it after Sammy and I broke up. And now, I know why—we never had it to begin with.

“Anyway”—Owen steps up beside me, still staring at the pool table—“Piper will be glad to hear you’re not going back. It’s her biggest nightmare.”

“Nope, nothing to worry about here. In fact, I’m seeing someone else and happy about it, too.”

“Piper was sure it was her.” Owen breaks his gaze long enough to glance over, amused. “So, who is the lucky girl? You still keeping it close to the vest?”

My mouth opens, then closes. “Yup. Still keeping it close to the vest.” Cassidy said keep it low-key, and if I’m anything, I am a man of my word.

“What’s the matter?” Rex gives a shit-eating grin of his own. “You afraid Jet and I will try to snag her away if we find out who she is?”