Forgiving Lies

They waited with me until Kash pulled up, and Eli instantly took on the big-brother stance. “Do I need to have a talk with this guy?”

Candice and I both laughed but I just hugged Eli and kissed his cheek before heading toward the truck. “He’s harmless, Eli, promise. His only problem is that he has a bad habit of waking me up early and forcing me to make pancakes, but he’s just our neighbor.”

“Just.” Candice snickered and grinned mischievously at me.

“You should really ask Candice about her relationship with his cousin.” I made a faux-shocked face before blowing a kiss to Candice and practically throwing myself into Kash’s truck.

“Bitch!” was her muffled response, and I grinned at Kash until I saw the hard set of his jaw and mocking eyes.

“So she’s the lucky winner tonight?” he asked after a few minutes of silent driving.

“Excuse me?”

“Kinda surprised you’re not more upset about it.”

“Well, I kinda want to know what I’m supposed to be upset about.” I crossed my arms under my chest and turned so my back was resting against the door so I could look at him more easily. What is his problem? I made the douche bag pancakes two days ago! And I told him all about Blake this morning. That was hard for me; now he’s going to treat me like this? “I got the job, by the way, in case you were wondering.”

He shook his head and rested his forearms on the steering wheel while he waited for the light to turn green. “Knew you would, and Rod called me this afternoon so I already knew that you did. You start tomorrow night?”

“Mmm-hmm. Are you going to tell me why I’m supposed to be upset?”

“Because that guy is taking Candice home tonight instead of you.”

My head jerked back and I could only imagine the disgust dripping from my expression. “Ew! What?!”

Kash looked quickly between the road and me a couple of times. “That guy. I saw you launch yourself at him earlier. He kept kissing your cheek, and now he’s taking Candice back to his place.”

I slammed my fist over my mouth and swallowed. “Oh God, I just threw up a little bit in my mouth.”

“Shit, do you need me to pull over?”

“No, no. Oh, just ew, Kash! You and Mase kiss my head all the time. Mason picks me up almost every time I see him.”

“So?”

“So? So! So, Eli is Candice’s older brother that I grew up with and I actually view like my own brother. Besides Candice he was the best friend I had. He helped me through—” I cut myself off quickly and blew out a deep breath. “He helped me through a lot when I was younger. But I have never once viewed him as anything other than family and a friend. He even calls me sis, for crying out loud. Candice isn’t going home with him, they’re going to meet up with their cousin for drinks and I didn’t want to go.”

Kash’s face relaxed, and though I expected him to look embarrassed, he just turned and raised an eyebrow. “You don’t like him?”

“Seriously, this conversation is grossing me out.”

He blew out a deep breath and the corners of his mouth tipped up. “Why didn’t you want to go to drinks with their cousin?”

Don’t shake. Don’t shake. I gripped the seat belt like it was a lifeline and worked at keeping my heart rate under control. “He and I have bad history, I really don’t like him.” God, even I could hear the shakiness in my response. Before Kash could comment on it, I forced myself to sound as normal as possible, but I sounded like a cracked-out Valley girl instead. I definitely wouldn’t be winning any Oscars in my life. “Logan Hendricks, were you jealous of Eli?”

“What? Come on, Rach, I just didn’t like that he was playing both of you like that. Or that I thought he was, anyway.” He started sucking on that lip ring again and my eyes zeroed in on the action.

We’d just pulled into a parking spot, so I took off my seat belt, leaned in close enough that I could smell his cinnamon gum, and whispered, “Liar,” before throwing open my door and hopping out of his truck.

“I wasn’t jealous,” he grumbled as he joined me on the concrete.

Such a baby. “Whatever you say, Kash. What do you say to a pseudo lock-out night? Neither of us are locked out, but I’m going to be bored . . . I’ll even let you pick out the movie this time.”

He immediately stopped sucking on his lip ring and I frowned. “Let’s go.” He grabbed my hand and began leading me to his apartment, but I pulled back.

“No way, crazy. You finished off the Ben and Jerry’s in your apartment the other night. My place tonight.”

“I have the better TV.”

“But I’m Rachel.”

His head jerked back and his shoulders scrunched up as he looked at me like he was lost. “What—what does that have to do with anything?”

Oh, good question. “I’m not sure. Give me a bit to come up with an answer. But for now, it means you’ll let me get my way.”

Kash’s eyes narrowed and he sucked in a deep breath, but then he shut his mouth and shook his head. “I was going to say something that probably would’ve resulted in me getting slapped right now . . . but it would also mean you wouldn’t cook pancakes for me anymore.”

“Probably smart to keep your mouth shut then.”

“Unfortunately.” He sighed. “All right, lead the way to the ice cream. I don’t want to look like I’m Photoshopped anymore and you really need an ass.”

I slapped him.

Hard.

9

Rachel

YOU EVER HAVE that feeling when you know someone is in the room with you, even though you should be alone?

Yeah. I was having it right now.

I kept my eyes closed and tried to keep my breathing steady, but I was on the verge of a full-blown Rachel freak-out before I caught the scent of cinnamon. Cracking one eye open, I saw Kash sitting on the edge of my bed just staring at me with an amused expression.

“Can I help you?” I mumbled against the pillow.

“I’m hungry and want pancakes.”

“You want . . . What are you, five?! Make your own. I even bought the easy-make pancakes last weekend. All you have to do is add water.” I rolled over and groaned. “Seven thirty? Kash, we didn’t get back from work until after one. You have got to stop waking me up so early. And how are you even in here?”

He looked like he was fighting a smile and his eyes kept flashing up above mine. “Candice let me in.”

Trying to act like I didn’t notice where his eyes kept going, and like I wasn’t flipping out because I was sure my hair looked like a hot mess, I slowly brought my arm up to brush back the hair from my face when my hand hit something that tugged at my forehead. “What the hell?” I tried to look straight up and even leaned my head back to try to follow whatever was at the very top of my forehead. I saw a blue tip and grabbed at it before yanking it off and holding it in front of my eyes. “A Nerf dart?!”

Kash shamelessly pulled up a Nerf gun and waved it at his side. His eyes slid back up to my forehead and a hard laugh burst from his chest. Rolling back, he fell off the bed and landed with a dull thump on the floor.

“What?” I snapped, and scrambled out of bed. As I made my way to the bathroom, I was hit once in the butt