Page 72 of Come As You Are
I snort at the weird turn this conversation is taking. “I should hope so, after I spent an entire evening—”
“No.” The slightest of smiles creeps onto his lips, twisting something inside of me. “Iknowhow to do my own damn laundry. You reallyshoulddo whites separately, by the way. And unlike you, I even know how to use fabric softener.”
“Now you’re just bragging,” I say, trying to keep my voice light so it doesn’t shake like the rest of my body is trying to.
“No, I’m bragging and I’m telling you that the reason I didn’t ‘correct’ Jenna is because she was right,” he says as he rolls up to the bed, “and it would’ve been a dick move to pretend she wasn’t when everyone knows it except you.”
“Everyone knows…” My face flushes with warmth as my brain finally catches up and registers what I think he’s saying. What I hope he’s saying. What I really, really need to make sure he’s saying. “Words, Grayson. I need words.”
“Do you, though?” And then the warmth is everywhere as he slides onto the bed and slips one of those rough, callused hands into my hair, pulling my mouth to his. The kiss is soft, tentative enough to let me pull away, but I kiss him back without hesitation and it quickly turns hungry. Fevered.
Electric.
And I know that this time, I finally got the person right.
At that thought, I yank myself away, because I can’t start something here without putting everything else behind me.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him as I catch my breath. “I… really, really want to keep doing that—like, wow, alot—but I need to tell you something. I said honesty was important to me, and you deserve it too, even if it’s going to make you think a little less of me.”
He rubs his bottom lip with his thumb, as if he’s still feeling a little tingle there. Lord knows I am. “If you’re the one who drew that picture of Hoffman on the bathroom wall, for the record, I support that a thousand percent. It was hilarious.”
“I thoughtyoudid that.”
“Oh, yeah, I did do that.”
“Salem.”
He flutters his eyelashes innocently, and God, I am so mad at how attractive I find him. People shouldnotbe able to creep up on you like that. But there’s no question—Salem and his rock-star hair and angular jaw and stormy eyes are stupid hot. Which, considering he landed Jenna London, seems like another thing everyone knew before I did. “Peach, whatever it is, it’s going to be fine.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” Another deep breath. Another silent prayer for courage. Maybe I should be going to chapel on the weekends after all. “I made out with Lucas.”
“Oh.” He scratches the back of his neck and looks up at me. “Wait, Lucas Burke? I thought Sabrina told me he’s been with Heather since the school year began.”
I look away, and get another, quieter, more heartbreaking “Oh.” He takes a deep breath and shifts a few inches away from me on the bed; it feels like miles. “That… doesn’t really seem like you.”
“It isn’t,” I say quickly. “I mean, I didn’t know he was with Heather—it was literally my firstday.But he’d seemed sweet, and interested, and after everything with my ex and my sister, I just… wanted to be with someone who chose me, I guess? And of course, even he’d chosen someone else first. So much for being a nice guy.”
“You know he’s the kind of guy who tells everyone what a nice guy he is and is an actual, certifiable douchebag, right? Everyone on the team hates him.”
“Well obviously I know he’s a dicknow.” I swipe a tear off my face, and another one quickly appears in its place. “Anyway, there you have it—I’m a bad girl after all. Sooo proud.”
“Hey.” He lifts my chin, wipes the new tear gently with his thumb before tugging on a curl. “You are like goodness incarnate, Evie Riley. You are a fucking literal ball of sunshine. I was dreading everything about this year, thinking how incredibly fucking stupid I was getting myself sent toboardingschool, and then you rolled into that orientation you shouldn’t have been at and made melaugh.Do you know how many people here make me laugh?”
I open my mouth to answer, and he adds, “Intentionally?”
“Oh. Probably not a lot.”
“No,” he says, sweeping my hair behind my ear, “not a lot. And then you just kept on finding new ways to be such a cute fucking weirdo, and I fell so damn hard for it. Hell, I’mstill falling. You are magic to me, Peach, and the best person I know.”
“Most of the people you know are terrible,” I say with a sniffle.
“I didn’t say it was a high bar.” His hand lingers on my skin, so warm and gentle as he swipes away another tear. “But even if you’d known about Heather, there’s a difference between doing something shitty and being someone shitty.” He cracks a grin. “Kind of like doing something slutty and being someone slutty. And if I recall correctly, you’re the one who ripped me a new one over not getting that.”
I know it’s supposed to make me laugh, but all I can do is look up at him in wonder and, if I’m being honest, a little confusion. “That’s it? You’re just… cool with it?”
He shrugs. “I mean, unless you’re still into him?”
“Oh, hell no,” I say with such certainty that Salem laughs, and I take his hands and squeeze them. “No, no, no. I am very firmly in the Salem Grayson cheering section. But if you’ve had feelings for a while, why didn’t you say something?”
