Crushed (20 page)

Reece whipped his
head around and…unbelievable. Cleo
was
looking at
him
. Only…her eyes had to scoot their way upward to finally meet
his.

Was Cleo—

The way she spun around so fast her hair swirled around her confirmed it.

Janna smacked
his
shoulder. “Told ya. And it happens all the time. At lea
st as much as you check her out. M
aybe even more,” she joked.

Or at least he
assumed she was joking.

He opened his mouth to…He
wasn’t even sure. Protest? Ask more ab
out Cleo? But she cut him
off.

“Don’t worry,” she said with an exaggerated eye roll. “I won’t tell anyone. Wouldn’t
want it getting back to your girlfriend. No offense, but she’s
hateful enough
already.” With that, she walked off.

Reece
spent the
rest of the
hour casually trying to catch Cleo in the act, so to speak. At first, it was apparent
she was going out of her way to not even face
his
direction. So of course that gave
him
t
he opportunity to let his eyes wander all over her.

He groaned. Janna was right. He
did look at Cleo
. A
lot. More than he had
even realized.
And he
had a girlfriend. Which
, he realized,
made it
a really crappy thing to be doing.

Supposedly,
he
had moved on.

Just like she had
. Right?

So what the hell was that all ab
out? She refused to ride with him
. She went out of her way not
to talk to him
. She made it clear
she wanted nothing to do with him. So he
really almost
wished she’d stop looking at him
.
Almost
. Mostly, he was glad. Because maybe he
wasn’t the only one that was confused and didn’t know what the hell was really going
on betwe
en them. The more he
though
t about it, the more irritated he
became.

When he
finally caught her looking at him again, he
gave her
a
raised eyebrows,
What the hell?
kind of look. Her face become completely impassi
ve and she turned back around. He
’d had enough of that.

He
was mad, bordering on furious when s
he disappeared around the corner of the
house. P
robably to work on
the side yard. Or more likely? He
thought
she was
probably
just trying to get away from him
. Which
really
pissed him off. They
should at least be able to work together.
They
just barely ha
d one week of the year behind them
. At this rate it was going to be a long, long senior year.
This going out of her
way to avoid him
was
bullshit
and he
was sick of it.

As
he
hea
ded over to the side yard too, he knew he
was being an ass.
He
had every intention of being one.
He
want
ed
to throw her off balance. If eve
n just a little. Just like she was always doing to him. He
plan
ned
on saying something snide in her ear.

She didn’t hear him
coming
.
Her rake wa
s on the ground at her feet. S
he had
her hands on her hips. He
couldn’t
see her face. He
ha
d
no idea what she was doing. What she was
thinking.
What she was looking at. It looked like she was
just standing there
.
He was sure the only reason she’d come back here was to get away from him. Because
she didn’t want to be where he was.

A
s
he snuck up behind her, he put his
arms around her waist.
A nasty comment was lingering on the
tip
of his tongue.

He
was
e
xpecting her to jump. To push him away. He was
completely unprepare
d for the way her breath hitched a little and she leaned back into him. Melted into
him
really, like all she’s been wa
iting for all this time wa
s for
him
to be there for her
.
She never even look
ed
back to see who it was. She just
knew
.
His
arms tighten
ed
around her waist
. S
he wrap
ped
her arms around his
, hugging them to her.

If
he thought he
was going to throw her off balanc
e, he
was wrong. She
may as well have just tossed him off a cliff because suddenly he fe
l
t like he was
freefalling. And for the first time in months, not in a bad way.

The remarks he had
been so carefully, callously, constructing splinter
ed
off into a million pieces
never leaving his
lips. I
nstead, without meaning to, he rested his cheek against hers
.
He knew he
shouldn’t but
he couldn’t help it. He was
drawn to
her like a moth to a flame and he had no doubt that he was
going to get burned again.

“Reece, what the
hell
?” she finally snap
ped
as she peel
ed
her body away from
his. It was painful, as if he could
physically feel her being torn away. Again. She turn
ed
to face
him and there wa
s fire in her eyes.
He knew he was going to get burned. He knew
t
his and yet…He couldn’t have
s
topped himself, even if he’d wanted to.
She g
ave
his
chest a shove.

“
You can’t do that!
” she sa
id.
Her bottom lip was quivering.
H
er words
were
like liquid fire
scalding
his
heart as she stormed
off.

“
I told you so,”
came
Janna’s haughty voice.

Where
had
she
come from?

Reece
stare
d
at Cleo’s retreating back
.
He
wonder
ed
if she’d
bolted because she’d
seen
Janna
. O
r if she would’ve run off anyway.

There was no mistaking that when she had her guard down for those few se
conds that she felt something. He did
n’t know what, exactly, that
something
was but it sure as hell beat the feeling of
absolute
nothingness
he’d
been getting from her. It may have been just a flicker but something was there. And
that little bit of someth
ing, after all of this time? He wasn’t
willing to let it go.

He
didn’t know what to ma
ke of what just happened. He
ha
d
no idea.

But what he
did know?

He
need
ed
t
o break up with Mia. Even if he wasn’t with Cleo, his head was. He
d
id
n’t think there was going to be anything that would
change that anytime soon.

Chapter 1
2

Mia’
s hands we
re all over
him
. And even though the door
to Mel
’s
bed
room
was locked he could
hear the crowd of people outside
, the music pounding,
and it just felt wrong. It wasn’t that he was worried anyone would
walk in
. O
r even
worried
that anyone knew that they were
in
t
here
. A
s
far as he
c
ould tell, people we
re t
o
o wrapped up in themselves to notice o
r care that he and Mia had snuck off.

The
problem was
that
he had
asked her to come back to M
el’s bedroom for a reason that wa
s not
this
.

“Mia,” he said as he
caugh
t her hands in his
. She
’d
had them on
the button of his
jeans
. “Stop. I’ve been trying to talk to you all night.” It was true. After the game she’
d caught a ride with Natalie. He ha
d tried talking to her outside but there were too many people.

“Reece,” she whined, “is this about Cleo? About what I said
yesterday
? Because I’m kind of getting tired of you defending her.”

“I wouldn’t have to defend her if you didn’t always go off on her,”
he
bluntly
pointed out
. It
had
happened a lot
over the summer and Cleo hadn’t
even
been around. And he sure
wasn’t the one to ever bring
her up. The scene she’d made yester
day was uncalled for
.

“Are you forgetting the way she humiliated you?” she demanded.

“How could I?”
he
asked. “You don’t ever stop reminding me.”

No way was he
discussing Cleo with her. Not now. Not ever.
She had
to know
this by now but she never stopped
pressing.

“You know,” she said as she finally
backed away,
“I could have any guy here.” It c
ame
out as a threat.

An
exasperated
sigh rushed out of
his
mouth. “Then maybe that’s what you should do.”

For a fraction of a second,
he
expected a hurt look. Instead, her
generic blue
eyes
—so different from Cleo’s amaz
ing cornflower blue ones—narrowed. P
robably in annoyance
. T
hen that look slammed into something else entirely.

“I don’t want anyone else but you,” she simpered.

He’d
accidentally issued her a challenge and she was ready to accept. Her
arms loop
ed
around
his
neck as she pressed herself close.
He
should want this.
And he was so frustrated with himself that he didn’t. When it came to Mia, he never
had. All he wanted was to get away.
He put his
hands on her shoulders and gently push
ed
her
back
. Her look turned furious
.