But then Lee said quietly, “I kinda don’t blame him. Don’t be too mad at him, Shelly.”
“Excuse me?” I choked, stopping to gawp at him.
Lee sighed. His mouth twisted up on one side and he shrugged helplessly. “I’m just saying. You know, I get where he’s coming from. I know he said he was cool with Levi, and he’s really been trying hard, Elle. I know he has. And it’s not like he doesn’t trust you. But I just…get where he’s coming from.”
“You don’t even know what he was mad about,” I scoffed. I did my best not to glare too much at my best friend right now. Wasn’t he always meant to take my side?
“I’d probably be pissed if Rachel was always hanging out with her ex.”
“Okay,first,” I snapped, ticking off one finger, “he’s not my ex. Second, if Noah reallydidtrust me, he wouldn’t have gotten so mad. And—”
“Point taken,” Lee said gently, holding his hands up to me. “But I mean…I knowyoudon’t have feelings for Levi anymore—”
“I’m not even really sure I ever did,” I pointed out.
“—but I see the way he is around you. And all I’m saying is, if he did still have a crush on you, it wouldn’t surprise me. You know you’d feelexactlythe same if Noah had kissed Amanda or if she had a crush on him.”
“That’s totally different. She’s staying with us. Levi just took part in race day. Same as Rachel and Ashton and Jon Fletcher and Warren was going to…That doesn’t mean anything. He saw Levi at graduation! He’s been on FaceTime when I’ve been hanging out with him. They’ve been totally fine around each other. I don’t know why he’s suddenly lostit.”
Lee thought about it. “I guess he’s never reallybeenthere when you two have been hanging out. Graduation was a different thing.”
“He asked if I was always gonna go running back to Levi.”
He blinked at me. I gave Lee a second for that to sink in. “All right, well, that was out of line. But it’s gonna be hard for him, Elle. He thought you broke up with him for Levi forweeksbefore you two figured things out. I’m not saying he was right to be such a little bitch earlier, but don’t be too hard on him.”
I pursed my lips before my shoulders drooped and my expression relaxed. Hard as I wanted to cling to this frustration at Noah’s behavior and at what he’d said, Lee put forward a pretty good argument.
I didn’t think he’d have been so convincing if he hadn’t been so earnest. It was a rare occasion for him to take Noah’s side on something like this. Next to me, Lee was the first person to call Noah out on his bullshit.
“Besides,” Lee added, seeing my resolve fracture, “I don’t think I can handle having to be in the beach house if you two are going to be at each other’s throats and then have crazy makeup sex. That isnotsomething any of us need to hear, Shelly.”
“Fine,” I said. “But only for you. And he has to apologize.”
“Don’t look at me! I can’t promise he will.”
“Hmm.”
Lee slipped his cell phone out of his pocket—three guesses who he was texting and what it was about. Lee hadn’t exactly been the most enthusiastic supporter of my relationship with Noah when he first found out about us, but he loved both of us; times like this, I was glad of it.
“Okay!” He clapped his hands together, looped his arm through mine, and started walking again. “Putting all your relationship drama behind us…can we just appreciate again how freaking awesome today was? Did you see that crowd? I bet the video looks incredible.”
“I can’t believe you got so far behind.”
“I was so close to catching up on that last lap, but then Amanda took a corner too fast and spun straight into me and Rachel went into the back of me. It was a three-car pileup that cost me precious seconds.” He gave a mournful sigh and shake of his head, but when he looked back up at me, he was beaming. “And, hell, if I’d known it’d raise so much money, I would’ve made a bigger deal out of it. We should’ve done itagesago.”
“For charity, Lee?” I shot him a sly smile.
He laughed. “Always, Shelly, always. And—” He broke off, snorting and laughing suddenly and taking me by surprise. His eyes began to water. “Can we also appreciate how goddamn stupid Noah looked in the Toad costume?”
I allowed myself a smile and snickered as I remembered. Warren was shorter than Noah, a different build. The white trousers had hung a couple of inches above Noah’s ankles and the blue waistcoat with yellow trim had looked a little snug on him. I hadn’t even really been able to appreciate the sight of his bare chest, I’d been too angry at him when we’d finally been face to face. And the giant mushroom hat that had been secured to his helmet…
Lee was laughing so hard he was wheezing, and I leaned heavily on him, a stitch pulling tight at my side as I tried to sober up.
“How in the hell did he manage to look so mad dressed like that?” I asked breathlessly. “How? Nobody should be able to dress up like Toad and look so pissed.”
“Imagine how much better it would’ve been if he’d kept the helmet on to be mad.”
Picturing it, I started laughing all over again.
