It made me feel even more guilty for noticing her in a new way, considering my plans for the evening.
I thought about how excited my friends and I were to have our brand-new fake IDs. No more begging adults to buy for us outside the corner store. We’d be purchasing our own Rolling Rocks tonight,muchas gracias.
I would have been embarrassed if Cori knew most of what we’d been getting up to lately. She probably had her suspicions, butthe fact that I didn’t want her to know only proved that I would never deserve her. She didn’t need me dirtying up her life.
Johnny turned off the water, mercifully ending his off-key rendition of “Umbrella.” He exited the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. Before I could stop him, he came over and shook his soaking wet hair like a dog, spraying our clothes and faces as we held up our hands.
Cori giggled. “Knock it off!”
“Showers for everyone!” Johnny declared.
“Fucker.” I wiped the water drops from my jaw. “Go put some clothes on.”
Johnny cackled and turned around before releasing the towel, shaking his bare ass at us as he grabbed some wadded-up jeans off the floor and headed back into the bathroom.
“That’s my crazy brother. He’s on offer if you want him,” Cori said, still laughing.
“At least he didn’t give us full frontal.”
“True.” Cori reached over and ran a thumb across my forehead before snatching her hand back. “Sorry,” she said. “The water…”
I captured her wrist before she could pull it away completely. Brushing my thumb across the sensitive skin, I fixed my gaze on her. “It’s okay.”
Our eyes locked. A gulp worked its way down her throat as I touched her.
I knew I needed to let go, but I didn’t want to.
Fuck, I didn’t want to.
“C’mon, bro.” Johnny reappeared wearing the jeans and a gray zip-up. “Cruz just pulled up outside.”
I released Cori and stood. At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to stay there and talk about small-town cowboys. To eat shitty popcorn. To lean forward and beg her to touch my forehead again. To do whatever I needed to do to be good enough for her.
But Johnny was already pushing me out the door.
Chapter six
Deck
PRESENT DAY
Cori and I pulled into a neighborhood near the one we’d grown up in, walking distance to the ancient skating rink and not too far from the freeway. Houses here looked slightly nicer than the ones on my parents’ street, with fewer sketchy apartments, but it wasn’t exactly Beverly Hills. Weeds still sprouted thickly in the overgrown lawns, pushing on the low chain-link fences surrounding them.
Parking the truck a block away from our destination, I pointed out the drab yellow house to Cori. She took a deep breath and moved to climb down from her seat when I stopped her with a hand to the shoulder.
“You sure about this? I can go in on my own if you want,” I offered.
“No. I’ll go nuts if I sit here and wait. I’m going.”
“I figured. But we ought to do some things so you don’t draw attention. I’m not sure exactly what we’ll find. It’s two in the afternoon, so anything is possible. The party could be finishing up or just getting started, but there definitely won’t be any women who look like you in there.”
She didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “What should I do?”
“First, let’s not take your bag in with us. That’s just asking for trouble.”
I pulled the lid up on the silver lock box in the back of the cab. After taking out the pepper spray and shoving it in her pocket, she put her purse in, along with her phone. “Anything else?”
“Can you, um, maybe take your hair down, muss it up a bit? It’ll help if you look a bit…used.”
