Page 53 of Stealing for Keeps
“I’m okay,” Claire tells her. “I just need to sleep.”
Her friend comes forward and hugs her. “Love you, Claire Bear. Text me when you get home.” She then looks at me. “If something happens to her, I will shove a glitter bomb up your—”
“Oooo-kay.” Rowan takes Lacey by the shoulders and pulls her close to him, then drapes one arm around her. “We’re good here.”
With a nod of appreciation to Rowan and a weary smile at Lacey, I take more of Claire’s weight and start toward the side gate to the street.
She’s quiet as I help her into the passenger side of my Jeep. I go around the front and slide behind the wheel. The music is blasting from my drive earlier, and I turn it down and glance over at Claire. She hasn’t budged, so I lean across her to buckle her seat belt. The movement puts us close—too close. She smells like cotton candy and rum. Her eyes lock with mine, and when she glances down at my mouth,I realize if I leaned forward even an inch, our lips would touch.
I’ve thought about kissing her again every day since the first time. I wonder if she’s ever thought about kissing me again.
“How are you feeling now?” I ask, not recognizing my own voice. It’s deep and sounds like I chewed on gravel. I pull away and start the vehicle, only daring to look at her again when I pull out onto the road.
“Better. I think. My stomach doesn’t hurt anymore.” She offers a weak smile. “I probably won’t puke in your car.”
“Reassuring,” I say dryly, focusing on the road. It’s dark out, and there are only a few streetlights. I still don’t know my way around yet, and the last thing I want is to get lost so Claire can have time to start feeling bad again and vomit on the floorboard. I do not do well with the smell of vomit. Just thinking about it makes me queasy.
She laughs a little. “You’d deserve it.”
“For what?” I ask, looking over at her. Her eyes are brighter now, more alive, sparking with their usual heat and playfulness.
“You know what.”
I clamp my jaw shut.
“What did Vaughn say exactly anyway?” she asks.
I guess it was too much to hope she’d forgotten about that, but she hasn’t brought it up in weeks. I don’t want to talk about Vaughn.
“It must have been pretty bad, because you went from not caring what he thought to avoiding me like the plague only a few hours later.”
“I’m not avoiding you now,” I point out, then add,“It wasn’t bad. Vaughn has never said anything bad about you.”
She doesn’t look convinced. She turns in her seat, angling her legs toward me. “It’s okay. I can handle it. What did he say?” Silence follows, then she says, “I bet I can guess. Did he say I was a distraction that you didn’t need? That you were better off not getting involved with me? Or maybe that since my injury, I just don’t understand what it takes to be an elite athlete in the same way.”
He didn’t say any of those things to me, but now I’m wondering if he said them to her. What a fucking idiot. Does he really think those things, or is Claire just trying to con me into talking? I don’t know, but I can tell she isn’t going to drop this. I make a wrong turn and curse myself. Could I make this drive any longer or more painful?
“Austin,” she says my name softly. I think it’s the first time I’ve heard her say it without mocking me, and I want her to do it again.
I let out a long breath. I don’t see how I could make things any worse at this point. “He said things were complicated between you two, and he implied that you’d end up back together.”
Actually, now that I’ve said it out loud, I wonder if it’s true. Does she want that? Maybe I’ve misread her signals. Am I a decoy in her plot to get back with Vaughn? The idea makesmefeel nauseous.
Claire is quiet, and I wish I hadn’t said anything. Although if she’s going to end up with him anyway, maybe it’s better she knows. They can work shit out, and I can go back to not being distracted and focusing on soccer.
Laughter spills out of her while I’m still muddlingthrough my thoughts and assuring myself I won’t be jealous or care at all if she and Vaughn get back together.
I roll to a stop at a light. Inside the city limits, the lighting is better, and I can see the warm pink of her lips and the way the purple strap of her dress slides down off her shoulder.
“That’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever said.” She’s taken with another fit of laughter. “Complicated? Ha!”
“So you’re not getting back together?” I ask, then hold my breath while I wait for her answer.
She stifles her laughter and hits me with those multicolored eyes. “Why? You’re not interested in me, so does it matter?”
I start to tell her that I never said that, but I can’t tell her what I really want to, so what’s the point of clearing up that I’m very interested in her? I have just enough self-preservation to know when to hold my tongue.
I manage to find her house without taking any more wrong turns.
