Saint Sloan (Saint Sloan #1)(40)

She couldn’t pull away from him, though. No matter what, she needed him. She needed him to hold her and tell her the truth. Aaron never sugarcoated things with her. Honest to a fault at times, which was odd since he was supposed to be the bad-boy brother.

Aaron bent down so his eyes were level with hers. “We’ll figure this out, Sloan. I promise. We’ll take care of you.” He bent over and kissed her cheek.

For a few brief seconds, she felt like everything was going to be okay. The few seconds didn’t last long.





THE FUZZY FEELING SHE had grown accustomed to didn’t let up when Aaron and her mom left. Before they had, things had gotten a little less tense. Aaron had taken Ray aside, and they’d seemed to have a civil, if strained, conversation. Her mother had kept her occupied, talking about the store. Such a weird thing to think about when her life was spiraling out of control, literally falling from under her. But she’d listened to her mother talk. It actually had been nice to think about something else for five minutes. It would have been nice if it had lasted longer.

They had asked if she felt like staying the rest of the day. She’d lied and said she did. What was she going to do? Go home and mope the rest of the day? Besides, she’d miss too much if she skipped school. Too many tests tomorrow since there would be no school on Friday for the prom.

Prom.

Something she did not want to go to.

That wasn’t true. On one level, she wanted to go to prom. As a senior, it was one of those moments they say must be experienced. And she had the dress, so she was ready.

But she wasn’t ready for the predetermined weirdness between her and Ray. And she definitely wasn’t ready to find out what would happen at the end of the countdown.

After lunch, Ray piled both of their trays on his. Neither had eaten very much. She didn’t have much of an appetite here lately, and especially not after what Aaron had discovered. They walked into the school building together, but Sloan felt so far away.

A bed would be nice.

A nice nap to end the day.

“I don’t know why I’m so sleepy all the time.” She wiped the tiredness from her eyes. “I’m sick of it.”

“Could be stress,” Ray said without looking at her.

Could be. She’d heard that stress made a person tired, and she’d had her share of it. They put their trays up in the cafeteria. Sloan looked, but Mackenzie had already gone. She’d have to text her about the powwow going on at her house this evening. Mackenzie was her best friend and needed to know if everyone else did. Plus, maybe she got something out of Travis Blaylock’s cousin, Sarah. It seemed so strange for his cousin to just be there out of the blue. Sloan prayed Mackenzie had an answer that was better than what Aaron had gotten.

Ray walked Sloan to her locker. “Oh man!” he said and hit his palm against the locker next to hers. It wasn’t loud, but it definitely got her attention.

“What?”

“I forgot a pencil, and I need it for my next class. I think I left it in third period.”

She smiled despite herself. “Fine. Grab one out of my bag.”

Ray grinned from ear to ear. “You’re a life saver.” He grabbed her bag and kissed her cheek, right where Aaron had kissed her earlier.

That wasn’t weird at all, she thought sarcastically. She opened her locker and grabbed the books for her next class. She heard Ray at her feet shuffling through her bag: pushing the papers and headache medicine bottle out of the way to get a pencil. Funny, she didn’t think it would be that hard to find it.

“Got it,” he said, putting his hand in his pocket. “Thank you.”

“It’s a pencil, Ray. I didn’t give you gold.” She grinned.

“You have no idea.” He stood there for a second looking at her like he expected her to say something back. She hated to tell him, but she had nothing. Not really. “Um… so, I’ll see you at my house after school.”

“Yeah… yeah, I’ll be there.” He nodded several times more than necessary. “We’ll get to the bottom of this. There has to be an answer.”

“I just hope it’s not ‘Sloan’s crazy’.” She tried to make a joke out of it, but it fell flat.

Ray took her hand and squeezed it gently. “No matter what my brother says, I believe you. I know you would never stage this stalker, split personality or not. It’s not like you.”

Her heart fluttered, and she felt a smile tug her lips. “And you know me so well.”

“I do,” he said very seriously. “Better than anyone. I’ll see you after school.” He kissed her knuckles and walked away, leaving Sloan dumbfounded.

Both brothers had an effect on her. She couldn’t deny that. And she couldn’t deny that both had feelings for her. Strong feelings, and it wasn’t right to lead them both on. She needed to pick, and pick quickly before things got even more strained between them.

With Ray gone to his next class, Sloan shut her locker door and started down the hall to hers. At a minute until the bell, the hallways were starting to clear. She really needed to start getting to class sooner.

As she rounded the corner, her eye caught a glimpse of Boyd’s old locker. She remembered the first day of senior year, seeing him standing there. He’d dumped her a few days before. It still stung, still fresh. And Darcy had just coined the term “Saint Sloan”. It had been an eventful few weeks.