The waiter starts taking everyone’s orders, and when I place mine for the fish tacos, I just barely catch Daisy’s words.
“I think kissing is overrated.”
Oh no.
Ryke tenses beside me, and I hope he’s hearing my fucking voice raging in his head right now.
“How so?” Melissa takes the bait.
Rose chokes on a bite of rice. She clears her throat and puts a hand to her chest. “This isn’t appropriate dinner conversation.” Rose isn’t a complete prude. She swears and talks dirty like the rest of us. I’ve heard her curse out a three-hundred pound redneck for slapping a girl’s ass. Her language was vulgar and kind of hilarious. Rose just knows this is headed to a bad place.
Melissa rolls her eyes, not the biggest Rose-fan considering Ryke blamed her and Connor for shutting the room down for sex. “I, for one, would love a sixteen-year-old’s perspective,” Melissa says, turning right back to Daisy. “I want to know how the younger generation feels.”
“Totally,” Daisy says with a head bob. “So my theory about kissing—”
“There’s a theory?”
“Oh yeah. And my theory is that not kissing is sexier than actually kissing.” She holds up her hands. “Just go with me on this. Say you’re with a guy and you can tell he’s interested. There’s some heavy petting, some under the bra fondling.”
“We get it,” I snap.
“And then,” she continues without missing a beat, “he goes in for the kiss. You pull back, refuse him an intimate piece of you. Tension builds, and every other touch, flesh against flesh, feels illicit and intoxicating.”
“So you’re a tease,” Ryke says.
I’m about to curse him out, but Daisy cuts me off. “No, we end up having sex.”
Ryke doesn’t even flinch. “If I’m not fucking mistaken,” he says, “you mentioned sex being overrated as well.” When?! Rehab. I fucking hate rehab. I missed everything.
“That was until I took your advice.”
This is a train I cannot stop, and I selfishly want the information I lost more than trying to halt it. “What advice?” I ask, my voice edged.
Lily taps my leg repeatedly in fear. She knows, but I don’t want to wait until later to hear myself.
Daisy opens her mouth and Ryke interrupts, seeing my anger begin to boil. “We don’t have to talk about it.”
It’s bad. Whatever he said to Daisy involved sex, and my mind is already reeling. “No, I’d like to hear,” I say, motioning for Daisy to continue.
“Me too,” Melissa adds, shooting Ryke a side glare.
Lily buries her head in her hands. She’s the only one who knows what they said to each other. She was the only one who went to Acapulco besides Daisy’s friends.
Daisy hesitates now, and she tries to backpedal. “Just so you all know, my sexual experience before was less than stellar, and I had planned on warding off the male species entirely before Ryke talked to me.”
“That’s comforting,” Connor says flatly. He has a finger to his cheek in contemplation, but his gaze is directed on Ryke, not Daisy.
I turn to my half-brother. “Thank God for your advice, Ryke.” I wear a bitter smile and slap him on the back, hard.
He jerks forward and almost tips over his glass of water, but he grabs it before it spills.
“Honestly, his advice worked,” Daisy continues, trying to dig him out of a hole, but he’s buried too deep. “So really, you can’t fault him for saying it if it helped me in the end.”
“Seriously,” I say between clenched teeth, “if you don’t fucking tell me what he said, I’m going to flip the table.”
Ryke winces and gestures to Daisy. “Just say it.”
He gave her permission, but she’s still wary. Slowly and cautiously, she says, “You shouldn’t let any guy fuck you until he makes you come at least twice.”
The table practically silences with Rose giving Ryke an unparalleled death glare.
Ryke and Daisy are both in the wrong. I know this, but I’m putting all my frustration on Ryke. I don’t even know what to do or say, but if I look at him, I think I may lose my mind.
Melissa breaks the quiet. “What great instruction for a sixteen-year-old.” She crosses her arms over her chest.
Ryke lets out a breath. “What can I say? I give good advice.”
Melissa slaps him across the face, the sound like a gunshot, and most of the restaurant quiets.