4. Kiara
four
Kiara
“H ey, I’m sorry about the kiss, okay?” Colton says as soon as we’re in the car, driving back to Emerald Creek.
I glance at him and lick my lips, the taste of him still there, haunting me. Oh no. I have to stop that right now. I can’t be fantasizing about my best friend. That’s all kinds of wrong.
“Hey, I said I’m sorry,” he insists when I don’t say anything.
Well, I’m not. Best kiss ever. “Yeah-yeah-yeah, don’t worry about it.”
“Your sister has a way of getting under my skin… I don’t know what it is with her.”
I huff. “Tell me about it.”
He chuckles. “Not that you needed to share the story about her boyfriend. That was brutal. Even if it was a long time ago.”
“What sto—oh that? No, I totally made that up.” I pick at my cuticle, tearing off the piece that’s been nagging me since dinner with my teeth.
He glances at me, frowning. “Why would you do that?”
I take a deep breath. “Just some high school drama. Nothing that matters now, but it felt good for a minute to get back at them.”
“Alright…” he says, clearly expecting more. Yep, there it is. The raised eyebrow.
I cross my arms, forcing myself to stop picking at my nails. “The usual. We were dating, and then he started fooling around with my sister.”
“Wait-what?”
“I mean, she was—still is—way prettier than me, more feminine, more everything—”
“What the fuck?”
“And clearly more interesting. The pretty twin. The outgoing one. Turns out, he was using me to get to her. Smart, I guess.”
“What?” he says, trying to interrupt me.
I shrug, ignoring his protestations. “I get it. But fuck! Someone should have told me he’d be there tonight.” Although, honestly, who would have told me? Not Maya. Not my mother. And apart from them, no one would remember that David and I were ever a thing. At the time, there was so much more drama, that little heartbreak never registered. “If she’d told me, I wouldn’t have felt cornered.”
“Sweets, she provoked you with her question.”
Sweets? My heart takes a little break to ponder this, then resumes normal operations. “I guess.”
“I’m sorry,” he says softly. “On the other hand, your uncle Bill rocks.”
“Right?” I uncross my arms. My mother’s brother is her exact opposite. Warm, cheerful, always in my corner. Watching him and Colton talk cars, races, and all that gearhead stuff—it almost felt like having a normal family. “I feel real bad.”
“’Bout what?”
“That he thinks we’re in a relationship. I could tell how happy he was for me.”
Colton grunts.
“I’ll call him and tell him the truth,” I decide.
“Maybe wait a little?” Colton suggests.
Why should I wait? Lies are insidious. Destructive. The longer they sit, the deeper they hurt. “No, I’ll call him tonight. He won’t say anything. He’ll get why I did it.”
“What if… what if there’s another family reunion and you need your favorite boyfriend for support?” He flashes a devilish smile at me, whatever defenses I still had quickly falling apart.
“Nah, I’ll handle them.” If I’m being honest with myself, I’m a little embarrassed that Colton felt the need to pull a knight-in-shining-armor move. “Are you going to tell Country Club that you kissed me at the time you were supposed to be out with her?”
“I didn’t kiss you.”
“Yeah you did.”
He slants his dark eyes at me. “Honey, that was not a kiss. That was barely a peck.”
I re-cross my arms. I’m not going to try and make my point by reliving this moment. By describing to him that the way he’d drawn my nape, the way his body tensed under my touch, the way he growled—I heard him growl, okay?—the way his lips didn’t feel placed on mine like for a mock kiss only for show, but instead encapsulated mine, and especially— especially —the way his tongue found its way into my briefly opened mouth, felt like a real kiss.
Like something he should think about in the scope of potentially dating someone that wasn’t the person he kissed. But then again, look at David. Are all guys like that? No wonder I can’t find a shoe that fits.
“If you think that was a kiss, you have never been properly kissed.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m not talking about French kissing, Colt. But there was…” Nope. Nope. I’m not going there.
“There was what?”
I shake my head. “Never mind.” I squeeze my thighs together to shut down the hot tickle. “So you’re saying, you’re not gonna tell her.”
“Sweets, I’ve yet to meet the girl. And honestly, the way you talk about it, makes it sound like a lot of work.”
“What sounds like work?”
“This relationship thing.”
My mouth goes dry. He wants a relationship? Not a casual thing? Is that new? Was I not paying attention? “What are you saying?”
“Don’t think I’m gonna see her.”
My traitorous stomach does a little happy dance, and what’s up with that?
“I get it. You had a taste of a toxic family, why would you bother with the nice and proper type?”
“Aw, come on. Overall, it wasn’t that bad, was it?”
Yeah, you don’t know the half of it.