Fake Skating(58)

So much for keeping it together.

“I’m sure,” she whispered, nodding. “Lay it on me, Zeus.”

It was the shitty little twinkle in her eye that made my knees weak. And the way she lifted her chin and tilted her head the tiniest bit, like she was getting ready, dear God. Suddenly my heart was pounding and my breath was frozen in my lungs and the smell of her perfume—apple juice and flowers—was jamming up my senses, making it impossible to breathe normally.

Because there she stood, in the dark beside my car, looking up at me exactlythe way I’d always wanted her to.

Lay it on me, Zeus.

I forgot all about Benji when I watched my fingers slide into her hair as if they worked independently from my brain. I held her in place, the curls soft against my hands, and as I lowered my mouth, one word was transmitted through to every corner of my mind like a chant.

Dani’s Dani’s Dani’s Dani’s

The blond hair wrapped around my knuckles, the unsteady breath that hovered in a cloud between us, the long eyelashes fluttering closed—the reality that they all belonged to herhit me like a blow, like a punch that knocked me all the way down.

This was Dani, holy shit.

I felt her lips underneath mine—sweet cherry lip gloss, oh God—and it was like being struck by lightning. I felt a jolt in every nerve ending in my body when she opened for me, and I was electrified when her fingers fisted in the front of my coat and her tongue—

“What the fuck is going on out here?”

Dani jumped away from me, and I felt like I was going to die when I opened my eyes and saw Mick Fucking Boche standing on the porch, glaring at me.

Oh shit.

He was wearing all black, like an angel of death, and his big arm was extended, his finger pointed directly at me. “Get your ass inside. Now.”

Shit, shit, shit.

Dani turned and started for the porch, but Mick said, “I mean you, Barczewski!”

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“Yes, sir,” I said, my heart beating so fast that it was possible I was going to faint from the fear like a little old lady. I followed Dani up the path to the porch and into her grandpa’s house, where I was surely about to be destroyed.

But as I went inside, I realized that the bright side of my death was that Benji was being eaten alive by jealousy at that very moment. He’d always been into Dani, so it was just chef’s kiss that he’d had a front-row seat to me winning.

Take that, jackass.

He may have been too jealous to give me props, but having witnessed Mick Boche catching me with his granddaughter and hollering at me to come into his house?

Ben was probably already running inside to share the info.

Dani said, “It’s not Alec’s—”

“I don’t wanna hear it,” Mick bellowed, cutting her off. “You need to go upstairs so I can talk to him.”

“What?” she gasped in disbelief.

He pointed toward the staircase that led upstairs. “You heard what I said—go.”

“You can’t—”

“I can and I will—and I know what you’re thinking, Danigirl. You’re thinking I’m not your dad and I can’t do this. But you’re wrong—I can do this. I’m the one who’s here, I’m the one who’s around, and I’m the one who gives a shit. Go upstairs and I’ll talk to you later.”

She blinked fast, like she couldn’t believe what he was saying, and then she mouthed the word sorry to me before she turned and went up the staircase.

Traitor.

“Sit down,” he barked, gesturing toward the kitchen table.

I obediently dropped into a chair, grateful for the opportunity to sit because my legs felt like they might give out and the odds were good he wasn’t going to punch me in the face if I was sitting at his kitchen table, right?

“From what I know, you’re not a bad kid.” Mick crossed his arms over his chest and glared down at me. “But did you seriously think you could date Dani for a minute and then be all over her in my own fucking driveway? Are you kidding me right now?”

“I—”

“Were you trying to prove some kind of point, like you’re a tough guy who’s not afraid to disrespect Boche’s granddaughter right in his own goddamn yard?”

“Oh my God, no,” I said. “And we’d barely even—”

“Really.” He didn’t believe me. “You weren’t remotely aware of the fact that I might look out a window?”

“No,”I insisted, shaking my head.

“Really.”

“No,” I said, even louder. “Respectfully, I wasn’t thinking of you at all. I kissed Dani because I really like her and then I forgot about everything, especially where I was. This had nothing to do with you.”

“So Dani was the only one you were thinking of when you decided to kiss her.”

Is it hot in here?I tugged at the scarf around my neckand said, “Yes. I mean, I was kind of hoping Worthington saw because I hate that guy, but yeah—it was all about Dani.”

“I hate that little shit too. Did you know he has a Maserati?”

What is happening right now?

“Yeah,” I said, shaking my head. “He had a Cayenne last year but drove it into a light pole.”