Page 95 of Betting on the Best Friend
Ruby takes a step out, like she’s about to correct the record, but I grab her arm and hold her in place. “Not worth it,” I whisper. I let go when she nods.
“She acted like I was somehow missing out by dumping her because her friends are better and her family is better.” Niles snorts. “Yeah, right. Every single person in her life that’s not me is loud and fricking obnoxious. And now that it’s obvious she was lying the whole time and hooking up with that loser, I’m—”
I miss the next part because I have to grab Ruby again, this time pulling her against me, arms wrapping all the way around her to keep her in place, her back to my chest. “Don’t give him the satisfaction.”
She’s straining against me, but I keep my hold and say quietly, “Breathe. If you run out there mad, he’ll win.”
Ruby stops struggling, but her fists are clenched and she’s breathing hard. Meanwhile, Tally’s voice is closer.
“Why does that mean we have to stalk them in the library? I want to leave.”
They’ve reached the edge of the bookshelves, and it’s easy to hear the distraction in Niles’s answer.
“I’m going to give her a chance to confess how many other times this happened, then we’re out of here.”
Tally starts to put up an argument, but Ruby tenses to lunge again. I turn her to look at me, keeping my hands on her upper arms.
“You know nothing you say will ever convince him, right?”
She glares up at me. “It’s not fair.”
“It’s not, but he has to believe it, or he’ll have to admit that you dumped him for being Niles.”
She doesn’t smile or relax, and I feel her indignation burning against my palms. I realize how this would look to anyone else who saw us right this second. It gives me an idea, but I hesitate. Would I be offering because I want to help or to get what I want? Because if it’s the latter, it would be the most dirtbag way to go about it.
The shimmer of gathering tears she can’t hide when we’re this close decides it for me. This is a specific kind of Ruby tear, the kind she only sheds when she’s furious but feeling helpless to do anything about it. The last time I saw them was when we went to a library board meeting where the members voted to reduce the funding for a program she’d advocated for.
I couldn’t do anything about that, but I can do something about this.
“Ruby,” I say, squeezing her arms lightly, “do you want to change his mind or punish him for saying it?”
“Punish him.” She doesn’t hesitate, and I smile. That’s my girl, all right.
“I figured. How would you feel about letting him catch us in a kiss? The kind that’ll keep him up at night?”
Her eyes widen, the tears disappearing with a startled blink.
“You don’t have to,” I tell her. “I’m not trying to be creepy.”
“I know.” She looks offended that I’ve explained myself. “But are you . . . I mean, will it . . .”
“I’ll be fine.” I won’t be, but I wasn’t going to be, anyway. “I’ll think of it as a goodbye kiss to my Ruby romance era.”
“But I don’t want to—”
“Niles, this is ridiculous,” Tally says, her voice rising. Not loud enough to be heard by the tea guests, but definitely by us. “I can’t believe I bought into your whole act of coming here to show there’s no hard feelings. This is arevengeplot.”
“Tally, calm down,” Niles says, his voice moving closer.
Ruby looks at me, nods once, and hooks her fingers in my belt loops with an insistent tug.
I slide my hands from her arms to wrap around her, pressing her toward me as our mouths meet.
I am always gentle with Ruby. I am sometimes playful with Ruby.
I’m neither of those things now.
This isn’t gentle or playful. It’s scorching.
