It was like she had stepped into an alien world. The very strangeness of it made her feel like there was a neon arrow above her head pointing at her and flashing the word misfit.
This was not her life. At no time had this ever been her life. This place was for family and friends and love.
She didn’t have a place like that. But right now, she was going to fake it.
Lesson #16
If you always play it safe . . . you may never actually get to play.
x Nolan x
Hayden Vargas shouldn’t be here.
It was Nolan’s only thought as the girls rushed inside the house to get out of the cold. Trembling in their towels, they chatted excitedly as they filled the kitchen, leaving wet puddles everywhere that would send his mother into fits.
Several greeted Nolan and Beau. He could only nod hello because he was busy looking at her.
She met his gaze head-on and grinned, clearly aware that he wasn’t happy to see her here. Any makeup she’d worn had washed off and she looked younger. Not at all like the hard-edged girl she usually presented to the world. Her honey complexion was marred with faint smudges under her eyes, giving her a hint of vulnerability. She looked human. Approachable. More like the zombie movie aficionado who had shared popcorn with him.
He realized he was staring and forced himself to turn away.
Emmaline and Sanjana were busy pulling food and drinks out of the fridge. Apparently, the pizza they had finished earlier wasn’t satisfying enough.
“You like—what is this?” Sanjana pulled a lid off a pitcher and sniffed. “Kool-Aid? You want Kool-Aid, Hayden? I think it’s cherry.”
“I can’t have red dye,” Monica interjected, as though the question has been posed to her. “Hayden, do you have any allergies?”
“I found the dip!” Emmaline proclaimed, brandishing the container in the air. “Hey, Lia, get the chips from the pantry, would you?”
Lia did as commanded and dived into the pantry, emerging with several bags of chips. “I love these jalapeño potato chips! My mom never buys them. Says they give her heartburn. Hayden, do you like jalapeño chips?”
Was it just his imagination or were all the girls fawning over Hayden like she was a new toy in their midst?
“What’s happening?” he murmured to Beau, who was also watching the scene in apparent fascination.
Beau shrugged. “I think your sister is having a slumber party . . .”
“Yeah,” he replied in a voice only Beau could hear. “With Hayden Vargas.”
Hayden Vargas was spending the night at his house. Hayden would be under the same roof with him all night. Again. Yeah. Okay. He’d spent the night with her at her house, but that had been an accident.
Hayden asleep in his house, just a few rooms down from him . . .
It was a fact that didn’t compute. With the exception of Hayden, the girls in his kitchen had been sleeping over since elementary school. Hayden was the piece that didn’t fit.
His gaze fixed on her again. She was laughing at something Sanjana was saying—a full-bodied throw-back-your-head laugh that hit him right in the gut.
He muttered a curse and felt Beau staring at him again, like he didn’t know what to make of him, and that was fair, because Nolan didn’t know what to make of himself either. Usually he was the calm one. Composed and collected.
How many times had he dragged Beau out of a fight or some scrape? Or stepped in when some guy was being rude to a girl? Or wrestled the keys from some inebriated friend determined to drive home?
He wasn’t the one to lose his cool or get overly affected by anything.
But right now he felt . . . unsettled, and he didn’t like it.
Beau leaned in. “Man, you’re totally staring at her.”
He knew that. He couldn’t stop it though.
What was she doing here?
What did she have in common with a bunch of girls on the academic decathlon team?
Nolan knew he was probably a douche thinking that . . . but there was something going on here, and no one was talking about the new addition to his sister’s friend group. Illogical or not, after their night together he felt as though Hayden could trust him enough to explain what was going on.
Except she wasn’t here for him, and it’s not like he could just pull her aside and demand an explanation. Again. She was at his house for Emmaline and that annoyed him. He knew it was messed up to feel like he had some sort of bond with Hayden, but that didn’t make the feeling go away.
Even as he looked across the kitchen at her, he couldn’t stop seeing her as he had seen her outside, not wrapped in a towel. Now he knew where her tattoo was.
She’d mentioned having a tattoo that night at the party, and every now and then, the random thought of it would pop in his mind and he would wonder where it was . . . what it looked like.
Now he knew.
He kept seeing it low on her hip, that green twisting vine crawling over her skin and opening up into a bright flower in varying shades of pink. The artwork was stunning, practically leaping off her golden skin. It couldn’t be very old. The color was so vibrant.
He gave himself a mental slap. He shouldn’t be thinking about her tattoo or her skin. He swallowed against the sudden lump in his throat.
The girls all chattered, oblivious to him and Beau as they continued to eat and raid the fridge. Now they were pulling ice cream from the freezer. He watched mutely as they made bowls of mint chocolate chip.
“Hey, Nolan.” Hayden looked at him, daring to speak to him with the memory of their night together throbbing on the air between them. He could read the knowledge of it in the deep brown of her eyes. She was taking smug pleasure in the secret of that night, in the power she held over him.
He stared, waiting for whatever she was going to say.
Her bold eyes sparked as she lifted her spoon from her bowl and licked the ice cream clean off it in a long, savoring swipe of her tongue. “Want some ice cream?”
All around her the girls froze.
Conversation ground to a halt. It was deliberate. A provocative little display meant to rattle him. He knew that much about her. Knew she was enjoying herself. Enjoying his discomfort.
Everyone picked up on it and watched him, waiting for his reaction.
He knew it was meant to embarrass him. It worked.
It also infuriated him, but he wouldn’t satisfy her by losing his composure.
“No, thanks,” he said tightly. “I’m fine.”
Although he didn’t feel fine.
He wasn’t fine.
The girls grabbed their ice cream and skipped off to Emmaline’s room, leaving the kitchen a disaster behind them. Mom was going to love that when she woke up in the morning.
Beau released a heavy breath beside him. “What the hell was that?”
Nolan shook his head. He didn’t know, but before this night was over, he would.
He was going to find out.
Lesson #17
Sometimes being bad is very good.
x Hayden x
Hayden really should grab her stuff and go home.
Everything about this felt wrong. She’d gone and done what she did in the kitchen with the spoon. She couldn’t help herself. Nolan Martin made her angry and she wanted to rattle him.