"None of your business. Party's over." I grab her by the shoulders and turn her to the door.
She twists out of my grip. "Take your fucking hands off me! This is bullshit, Winch. I don't know what the hell happened to you, but you turned into a real dick."
"All the better reason to get away from me. Good-bye, Lala."
I don't touch her again, but I herd her to the door, secretly thanking God that Evan never turned around and gave Lala a good look.
She tosses her blond hair and shakes it back from her face, licking her pouty lips and narrowing her eyes. "This isn't fucking over."
Her phone is already in her hand, and I'm willing to bet she's texting my sister. Benelli will keep her mouth shut until she talks to me, but she's definitely Team Lala, and I know she'll be curious about Evan. My head pounds with the migraine that's crawling in fast and strong as hell.
I watch as Lala stomps away and keep watching as her Audi squeals out of the driveway and into the dark night. Finally the only sound is the crash of the waves, over and over, roaring and peaceful all at once.
Evan's back is to me, her long neck bent over her phone. I want to kiss her up and down that neck, make her moan my name the way she did on that stupid date so many days ago. The one I can't stop thinking about even though I know I should put it out of my head.
"Hey."
I had enough weight to stop a full blown rager in its tracks, but this girl leaves me feeling like I'm a gangly middle-schooler talking to his first crush.
She whirls around, the tight little dress clingy and perfect against her tanned curves. I imagine how much more perfect it would be peeled off and dropped on the floor.
"What's going on? Why did you kick Jace out? Why did you end the party? This is...I feel like..." She puts her hands up to her temples and squeezes her eyes shut.
I take a few steps toward her and have to cement myself where I am to keep from going further.
"Who are you texting?"
I point to her phone and am ripped between equal parts dread and hope that she called for a ride home.
"Brenna. My best friend."
She stares at the little screen and furrows her brow.
"You told her what happened?"
I kick some cans out of the way and sit a few feet away from her, head leaned back on the chair cushion so I can watch her from my half-closed eyes without looking too obvious. She’s fucking gorgeous. I forgot just how gorgeous she is.
"Yes."
She shakes her head angrily at the phone and tosses it in her purse with a sharp motion of her wrist.
"What did she say?"
Despite the shittines of the night, something tells me her friend gave her advice I'm gonna be happy about.
"Brenna, who is a hopeless, insane romantic, told me that I should ask why you kicked Jace out with no explanation. She seems to think you're actually not an antisocial maniac."
She pulls herself up on the deck railing and the wind blows loose pieces of her hair around her neck and moves the skirt of her dress to her upper thighs.
"Do you want to ask me?" I close my eyes and wait.
"Is it a good reason?" Her voice is curious. I shrug, she sighs and asks, "Winch, why did you kick Jace out?"
"Jace cooks meth." I lift my head up for the satisfaction of seeing her mouth drop. "That's what he does with his fancy-ass chem degree. My brother is in a bad place. He's had some guys approach him, dealers. I've been working my ass off to keep them away from Remington."
"Do your parents know?" Her voice is a bare-bones whisper, almost lost in the screeching wind.
"My parents...it's--" I stop before I say "complicated" again. "My parents leave these things to me. My brother and I have been close since we were real young, so it makes sense for me to handle all this."
"Sense?" She chews on the word, shakes her head, puts a hand up, drops it, and sighs. "Listen, can you just take me home? I would have left with Jace. I didn't know this was your place or anything. Tonight has been so bizarre. This is honestly the weirdest freaking night ever."
Her eyes drop and her shoulders sag like she's exhausted. I'm half afraid she's going to fall off the railing, so I get up and move next to her.
"I know you didn't realize this was my place. But I'm glad you're here."
I stand right next to her, close enough to smell her and feel the heat coming off her skin. Her laugh is so devoid of happiness, it sounds like a bunch of rocks shaken in a tin can.
"Glad? Really? I didn't hear a word from you all week long, Winch." I look up at her face when she says my name, and I can see the torn, hurt frustration that I put there. It stabs like a hunting knife in my intestines. "I hate games, and I feel like I'm getting played by you big time. You're happy now because I walked in here and fell into your lap. But you never would have come to get me, you never would--"
"I wanted to," I interrupt and run my fingers over her hand. She stares down at my hand on hers. "I wanted to call you. See you. You have no idea how bad I wanted to."
"Oh, I have an idea." Her voice is low and husky. "I wish I could stop thinking about you. I wish I never met you, actually. Because all week long, all I thought about was you. And when Jace came up to me, the only reason I was remotely interested was because I hoped he might make me think about anything else for a few minutes."
This time her laugh is
