Page 91 of Better Than the Movies
I got out, slammed the door, and ran through the rain until I reached our covered porch. Only… I couldn’t not say anything else to Wes, right? I couldn’t let the night’s last words be from Stuart Bennett.
I watched as their car left my driveway and pulled into theirs next door, and as soon as I saw Wes get out in the garage, I set down the stuff in my hand and charged out into the rain. Once I got to the corner of his yard, I stopped and yelled, “Wes!”
The rain pounded down on me, but I yelled his name again as I tried to get his attention.
He looked over, but it was raining too hard for me to see his face. The rain flattened my soaking hair against my face, but I shouted, “Thanks for everything!”
I ran back to the porch, pushed back my dripping hair, and got out my key.
“Libby!”
I smiled and turned around, and there was Wes, standing in the pouring rain in my front yard. I tilted my head and said, “What?”
“You said ‘everything’!” His clothes were drenched as he shouted, “Does that mean you’re thanking me for the kiss, too?”
I laughed and picked up Helena’s food. “I should’ve known you’d ruin it!”
“Nuh-uh, Buxbaum.” He dug his hands into his wet hair and made it all stand straight up as he grinned at me through thestorm. “That was too perfect for anything to ruin. G’night.”
Nuh-uh.I sighed and felt warm inside, even as my wet body shivered. “G’night, Bennett.”
“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.” I closed the door behind me and rested my dripping forehead on the cool of the white wood. What was that and what did it mean? “Holycrap.”
“That good, huh?”
I turned around, and Helena was sitting on the chair beside the fireplace with Mr. Fitzpervert asleep on her lap, a book still in her hand and a smirk on her face. I wanted to be mad or embarrassed, but I couldn’t stop smiling. I pushed at my wet hair and said, “You have no idea.”
“Come in the kitchen before we wake up your dad.” She got up, making Fitz grunt out a crankymrrfas he jumped down to the floor. Helena dropped the book and gestured to me while walking toward the kitchen. Once we got there, she grabbed her food before whipping a towel at me and saying, “Now start talking.”
I giggled—I couldn’t help it—and rubbed the towel over my head. “I, um, I had a really great time with Wes tonight.”
“Yeah…?” She opened the to-go container and stuck it in the microwave. “And…?”
“And.” I kept rubbing my hair, replaying his mouth on mine. The sound of his breathing, the smell of his cologne, the feel of his hands holding my face—
“Hey. Excuse me. Can you focus for a minute?”
That made me laugh again. “I can’t, okay? I’m sorry, but I can’t focus on anything because I had an incredible night with Wes Bennett, of all people. An incredible night that ended with him kissing me like a world-champion kisser. I am shook, Helena.”
“I’m not sure how. I mean yes, you’ve hated him forever, but I still feel like you guys have been leading up to this.”
“Really?” I set the towel down on the counter. “Have we? God, I’ve been so oblivious.” Somehow, for so long, I’d managed to be fully unaware that Wes was attractive, funny, and smart, as well as the one person I was totally able to be myself around. I’d been so blinded by the idea of Michael that I hadn’t even realized what was happening between us.
“But it’s good, yes?” Helena leaned on the counter and beamed at me. “It seems to me that it’s really, really good.”
I opened the fridge—still smiling—and said, “I’m scared to say it, but I think it could be.”
Although… I was still concerned about Alex. I knew what he’d said about her, but sometimes feelings changed. Just because she wasn’t his “type” the other day didn’t mean that with more time together and more time to gaze upon her beauty, he wouldn’t change his mind.
She clapped her hands together. “What if he asks you to prom?”
I almost dropped the orange juice when she said that. I straightened a little and pictured his face as I stared into the fridge, the way his dark eyes had looked almost black after we’d stoppedkissing. It was Wes Bennett we were talking about, and yet it wasn’t. It was Wes 5.0, the grown-ass man version, and I felt like I was in over my head because I had no idea where things stood with us. He’d kissed my face off. That was the only thing I knew to be true. Did he still think he was helping me with Michael? He couldn’t, right?
And I didn’t know if he wanted to pursue anything withme, but I was desperately hopeful that the fervor of the kiss meant that he did.
The whole Michael thing felt silly now. I wished I could go back in time and play Michael and Laney’s personal cupid instead of pulling all the stunts I did. I hoped that my heart-to-heart with Michael by the piano had given him what he needed to ask Laney out.
“I’m sure he won’t.” I closed the fridge and was realistic about prom, even though mypoor, confused little love-loverside was squealing at the thought. Regardless of my pinings, I’d told Joss I’d go with her, and I needed to stick to that. So far I’d lucked out and my shittiness as a friend hadn’t cost me anything with her, so I needed to step up and keep that going. “Plus, I’ve got a date.”
