I salute him with my middle finger and he smirks, but Cam and I find ourselves two cups deep and still, Mase hasn’t returned.
“I’m beginning to think his friend was a girl.”
“His friend was totally a girl. Oh, shit. Okay hurry, tell me how you want to play this.” Cam squeezes my arm.
“Play what?”
“Bitch—” she hisses.
“I spy Trey.”
She whips around, her grin instant. “Okay, fine. I’m going, but run away or cry and you’re so dead.”
“Wait, what?”
She points two fingers at me as if to say she’s watching me and skips off.
With a laugh, I spin around, and as I face forward, my spine jerks straight. I did not pick up what she was putting down.
Shit is right.
Chase stands not ten feet away, and he’s headed right for me.
A lump instantly forms in my throat, but I force myself to swallow past it.
This is his house, of course he would be here.
Why didn’t I think of that?
“Hey,” he steps up, but before I can respond, he’s wrapping his arms around me in a hug.
My body goes stiff, but only for a moment, and I find myself hugging him back.
I can’t help but inhale as my face buries into his chest, and I’m immediately hit with the warm familiar scent seared into my memory. Suddenly, images of our night on the beach are front and center.
The gentleness of his touch as his hands slid over me. The softness of his lips when he bent to kiss me. The way he held me, the things he whispered. His soft eyes looking down at me like I was… more.
Like I was worth something.
Tears spring behind my eyelids and my fingers grip onto him before I can stop them.
The sad part?
He grips me right back, pressing into my skin like he’s missed our friendship as much as I have, like he needed this. To hold me, to feel me close, when he was the one who pushed me away to begin with.
“Arianna…” he whispers.
His voice, it’s so low and gentle that I tear myself away, placing a few steps between us. It takes effort, but I bring myself to look up at him, and it’s as if he’s confused as to why I’d pull away.
He steps toward me again.
“Chase, I—” My eyes are pulled over his shoulder, my words dying in my throat.
That’s when I see him.
Noah.
He’s standing next to the gorgeous girl from the barbecue, Paige. His shoulder’s perched against the wall, a water bottle in hand while she leans her back against it, staring up at him with admiration.
He says something and she laughs, her hand lifting to shove him lightly and he smiles down at her.
A sudden sense of heavy falls over me, as if a weight has been dropped on my chest, forcing me to work harder for air.
Chase says something else, reaches out, but I don’t feel his hand if it’s touched me. I don’t hear his words, though his mouth moves in my peripheral.
I see Noah and all I can hear is Paige’s laugh echoing through my mind. Something stirs in my gut, low and repetitive. It doesn’t stop.
Chase follows my line of sight, landing on the frame-worthy couple not twenty feet away. His head yanks my way once more. “Are you serious?” he spits.
My eyes flash toward him, and his glare flits across my face in flustered snaps.
Chase jerks right, to block my view, but my arm shoots out, stopping him. His lips press into a firm line, his nostrils flaring.
I look back to Noah.
The moment I do, he glances over his shoulder. He spots me and he doesn’t turn away. He doesn’t glance toward Chase or the hand that’s still touching my arm. He doesn’t return his attention to Paige when her palm falls to his chest, creating heat in my own.
Why is she touching him?
Noah does, however, hold a hand out, those eyes never leaving mine as he excuses himself, and heads right for me.
I can’t keep my lips from twitching or my gaze from growing soft.
The tension in my muscles eases, but then Chase is gripping my arms, forcing me to face him. He stares, glares, and then he shakes his head, tearing his hands away.
Chase’s jaw clenches, and he focuses on everything, or anything, but me. “Find one of us when you’re… done here. Don’t walk around alone.”
“I know,” I say, but he’s already gone, and Noah is stepping beside me.
“Hi.”
“Hi.” He looks from where Chase disappeared to me, a tenderness in his gaze that has me smiling. “You didn’t come find me.”
“I didn’t know if you were home.”