Page 16 of A Little Bit Reckless
“You’re being nice, little rabbit,” she said. She called me little rabbit because I always talked and moved a mile a minute. I blamed it on my ADHD and always loved that I had a friend to give me a nickname. Sloane wasn’t scared of Wells, and, even if she found out about my history with him, I knew she’d still be my friend. Even if I probably didn’t deserve it.
I hadn’t gone out of my way to talk about my past with Sloane. We became friends in high school, but that was after everything happened with Wells. It was something none of us involved liked talking about.
It was something I didn’t like talking about.
Maybe a part of me was as terrible as Wells believed I was. I was selfish when it came to Sloane. I wanted her friendship.I wanted a friend, and, even though I knew that wouldn’t change if the past came out, she may look at me differently.
Sloane hugged me. “I swear you’re just too much of a sweetheart for your own good.”
But I wasn’t though, not really.
I eased my arms away from her, knowing I was in this situation with Wells because of something else I’d done. Maybe I was just as bad as he believed, evil and manipulative. I bit my lip. “Where’s your brother?”
I obviously meant Bru since Ares was in the other room and another wave of shame hit me that I hadn’t told her about what happened with him in his car. I doubted Sloane would care I kissed her brother. She wasn’t like that. But I didn’t tell her what happened because I was embarrassed.
I had a feeling Bru hadn’t told Sloane what happened either, but that didn’t surprise me. Bru was such a good guy, and he saw how embarrassed I was in the car.
I thought I was going to be sick all over again. Especially when the front door opened, and Bru entered the room. He consumed it, since he was so big and all-encompassing.
He was also gorgeous.
I always found my best friend’s brother attractive. Truth be told,allof my brother’s best friends were good looking, but I grew up with them, so that basically made them brothers.Mostof them were like brothers. The ones that didn’t hate me.
Bru wasn’t like a brother, and I certainly noticed how much space he took up in the room. I also noticed how low his jeans hung and how well they fit his, quite frankly, tree trunk–sized thighs. He was nearly as large as my brother, Thatcher, but had a golden retriever energy about him that was only emphasized by his large brown eyes and tousled dark hair.
He hugged Sloane right away. He had a messenger bag on his arm and slid it to the floor to fully hug his sis.
“Speaking of,” Sloane stated, hugging her brother real tight back. They looked nothing alike. Bru was white, and Sloane was a mixture of races. Even though they weren’t biological siblings, they were raised together.
Sloane dropped an arm around Bru. She wasn’t as tall as him, but definitely had height on her. She was one of the tallest girls I’d ever known personally. She grinned. “And excellent timing. We were just talking about you.”
Having been acknowledged, I popped up, but that was hard considering how I completely embarrassed myself in Bru’s car.
You idiot.
I couldn’t believe I kissed him, but I’d been vulnerable, going through stuff…
That wasn’t an excuse, but after Bru came away from the hug, he smiled at me. He gave me his warm,kindsmile whenIhadn’t been kind. I’d been stupid and I threw myself at someone who’d always been nice to me. Bru was the only one of my brother’s friends who hung out with me, and, whenever we were together, I knew it was because he actually wanted to be. He genuinely liked spending time with me.
Perhaps that was why I gave in to the delusion that anyone like Bru could actually be into me. I took his kindness for something else.
He lifted a hand. “Hey, Bow.”
I sat there trying not to be weird because Sloane was here, and she always knew when something was wrong with me. I waved back. “Hey.”
“You guys were talking about me?” he continued, and it was so nice because he completely switched his attention to Sloane. He didn’t put any pressure on me after what happened by staring awkwardly at me, not like I was at him.
Sloane nodded. “Yeah. Bow just asked where you were and then you came in.”
“Ah,” he said, keeping his focus on her. It truly made me hate myself for making things so awkward between us, kissing him…
“And it’s good you just came in. Dorian and I were talking earlier about getting pizza,” Sloane continued. “You guys want to come?”
Sloane had asked Bru and me both, and I said yes after he did. It would be weird if I didn’t go. Whenever our friend group went out, we all did.
“Brilliant,” Sloane said, squeezing Bru’s arm, then mine when she passed me. She called to Dorian and the others about pizza, and they all gave their version ofhell yeah. The loudest had been my brother, who could easily eat his way through a pizza house.
“I’ll text Wells what we’re doing,” Dorian said as he reentered the room. He had his phone in his hand and dropped his arm around Sloane. Dorian wanted to grab a jacket, so Sloane went with him. Thatcher headed to his room to change, and that wasn’t surprising since he spent more time in the mirror back home than I did when we were growing up. Ares and Fawn decided to head out and wait in Ares’s truck, so that left Bru and me.
