Earning Edie (Espinoza Boys #1) (23 page)

On the other hand, Jaime planned to tell the truth. He would eventually come out. I was just giving him time to figure things out.

Nick might have made the lie true by actually dating me, but his feelings wouldn’t have been true.

“I think you just pretend for Jaime because it’s safe. Giving me a chance scared you, so you sabotaged it. Even if I hadn’t pushed you too far, even if I hadn’t asked you for too much, you never would have given me a fair shot. You don’t trust me enough.”

“What do you want me to say?”

“Nothing,” he said with a sigh. “I’m sorry about Jaime. And everything else.”

He turned and walked away from me. I stared after him, wanting to stop him from giving up on me, but my feet felt like concrete.

A few feet away, he stopped and looked back at me and Lil.

“Here’s some breaking news for you: You’re not perfect, either. You guys stole from me. Did you really think I wouldn’t find the credit card bill eventually? You charged more than $500 — half of it on makeup and clothes. If you wanted to be smart about it, you wouldn’t buy stuff I’d never actually charge myself.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. Clothes and makeup? I turned to look at Lil, who was busy looking the other direction, purposely avoiding my gaze.

“You promised only gas for the car!”

“Sorry, I—”

She stopped short, and  I turned back toward Nick, trying to come up with a response. Because he was right, I had screwed up, and even though Lil had promised me not to charge anything but gas, even that was wrong.

But he was gone.

I could just make out his figure as it moved down the beach, yards away now. My chest tightened, as I wondered if I should chase after him. But for what? He knew I didn’t trust him, and after the credit card fiasco, he couldn’t possibly trust me. There wasn’t much to salvage.

“Are you just going to let him leave?” Lily asked in disbelief.

I shot her an irritated look. “What do you care? You never liked him anyway.”

She waved a hand. “That was before I knew he liked you. He looked shattered when you laid into him.”

I glanced in the direction Nick stalked off, but there was no sign of him. The time limit for going after him had elapsed.

“Let’s find Jaime and go home,” I said quietly. “I’m not in the mood for a party anymore.”

***

We found Jaime sitting on the ground, close to shore, next to Tony. The two had their heads bent close together and were speaking in hushed tones.

“Look at it this way. You’ll know who your real friends are now, and you won’t have to make some awkward announcement—”

Jaime snorted. “Yeah, because Nick doing it for me wasn’t embarrassing or anything.”

“True,” Tony acknowledged. “But now you’ve got the whole pity thing going. Poor Jaime. I can’t believe that asshole outed him like that.”

Jaime laughed lightly, and I felt a rush of affection for Tony. I’d never seen this softer, more sensitive side to him.

“Yeah, right,” Jaime scoffed. “They’re all rushing over to comfort me.”

That was my cue.

“I am,” I said, and both their heads swiveled in my direction.

“Me too,” Lily added.

“Sorry, I got held up telling off some asshole for outing you.”

Jaime smiled weakly at my lame joke, and Tony stood up and gestured to his seat.

“Are you leaving?” Jaime asked.

He glanced up at Tony shyly, and it was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen. I wondered, just then, how I’d never guessed Jaime’s attraction for men. He’d
never
looked at me that way.

“Not if you don’t want me to,” Tony said easily, as I moved over to sit next to Jaime. “I’ll just get to know Lily a little better while you two talk.”

Jaime nodded, and Tony drew Lil down the beach a ways.

There was more to Nick’s brother than I’d realized. He’d seemed angry and resentful when I met him with Nick, but he treated Jaime gently and with so much more sensitivity than I would have predicted.

“I’m sorry Jaime,” I said once they’d moved out of earshot. “I feel like this is my fault. If Nick hadn’t felt threatened by you, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“It’s not your fault.” He dropped his head into his hands. “I am so
fucked
, though.”

He tugged at the strands of his hair in frustration. “Shit!
Everyone
knows.”

“Hey, easy,” I said, folding my hand over his. Carefully, I untangled the fingers of his right hand and brought it down to his lap. “I know this is sudden, and it was a terrible way to come out. But you
were
going to come out soon, right?”

He bit his lip and looked away.

“Jaime?”

His shoulders fell. “I’d planned to wait until college started at least, or I had a reason to come out, like a boyfriend.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“I don’t blame you. Nick shot off his mouth, but he might not have outed me if I hadn’t blocked his way tonight. I just didn’t want him to hurt you again.”

Jaime had a first-row seat to my low spirits after leaving Nick’s apartment, mainly because I’d been staying at his house for most of that time.

I sighed. “We need to stop blaming ourselves. Nick’s big mouth is to blame. I still can’t believe he did that!”

Jaime squeezed my thigh. “Easy, girl. It’s done. Now, I just have to figure out how to deal with it.”

“I’ll help you however I can.”

He forced a smile. “I know you will.”

He gazed out over the water thoughtfully for a long moment before speaking again.

“You know, when you told me about what happened with Nick and you, and how he tried to manipulate you into bed so he could use you as an escape and lie to his family …”

“Yeah, you asked if he was gay.”

Jaime barked a laugh. “I knew he wasn’t gay. I’ve met him enough times to see there was no interest there. But when he looks at you …” Jaime turned to face me fully. “You forgot to tell me that he wanted you for real, Edie. That he cared.”

I made a face. “He was trying to use me, Jaime. He pretended to his family we were dating, and when I didn’t want to lie for him, he said it didn’t have to be a lie and tried to get me in bed.”

“Sounds like he was telling the truth.”

I gaped at him. “What do you mean?”

“Did it ever occur to you that when he said it didn’t have to be a lie, he actually meant, he didn’t want it to be a lie. That maybe he wanted a real relationship with you?”

“Uh ... no?” I said. And we both laughed.

“Do you have feelings for him?” Jaime asked.

I shrugged a shoulder. “Maybe. I don’t know. I’m pretty mad at him. It’s like he just doesn’t stop and think sometimes, you know? I think he has a good heart, but he’s made so many bad choices. And after tonight, I’m not sure he’d want to see me again. I was pretty hard on him.”

“Eh, he deserved it.”

“Yeah.”

I was at least partly to blame for putting us in this situation. If I’d answered Nick’s calls and texts, he wouldn’t have been so desperate to corner me tonight. Maybe none of this would have happened.

Feeling the need for a subject change, I nudged Jaime.

“What about you? Are you longing for a member of the Espinoza family yourself?”

He shoved my shoulder. “Shut up!”

I laughed. “You are.”

He glanced down the beach, to where Tony and Lil stood skipping stones across the water.

“I’ve been outed enough tonight. Please don’t tell Tony I think he’s …” he stopped and shook his head.

“Totally hot?” I supplied.

“And totally sweet,” he added.

“I know, right?”

He sighed, watching Tony with Lil.

“I’ve got no chance. No doubt, he likes them a little more like you and a little less like me,” Jaime said. “Maybe he’ll hook up with Lily. They’re getting friendly down there.”

“Well, let’s bust up the party and go home.”

“Nah. I wanna hang here. You go ahead. Take Lil.”

I smirked. “Okay, but you take Tony.”

I headed down the beach while Jaime called after me to shut my big trap. When I reached Lily, I snagged her arm.

“Time to go,” I said, and tugged her away without so much as glancing at Tony.

He could return to his spot with Jaime, or he could find his own way home. I wasn’t going to invite him along.

“What about—”

“Don’t. You already dated his cousin.”

“Yeah, okay. Maybe we’ve had enough of that family,” she agreed.

NICK

I kicked an empty cup angrily, but the satisfaction of watching it fly across dirt and scrubby dead grass was short-lived.

“Shit!” I tugged at my hair in frustration. Why did this keep happening? It was like Edie short-circuited my damned brain.

Continuing on to my car, wrapped in a cycle of self-loathing and frustration, I almost didn’t notice the couple at the edge of the parking area, tucked between a dark sedan and a bright yellow Hummer that reflected the moonlight, catching my eye.

Something made me stop. I couldn’t hear their words, but the tone of their conversation had the hairs prickling on the back of my neck.

I turned and headed in their direction, walking between rows of cars. Before long, I could hear them clearly.

“I want to go home,” the girl pleaded.

“Come on, babe. You promised me a good time.”

My jaw tightened. I hated pushy assholes. The guy pressed closer to her, and bent down to kiss her. She twisted to avoid him, and that’s when I saw her face.
Oh, shit.

“Tequila?”

Her frightened eyes met mine, and I could tell she didn’t recognize me right away. The asshole stepped back and turned toward me.

“What do you want?”

“For starters, you can stop being an asshole. If a girl wants to go home, you take her home.”

“Fuck off—”

I grabbed the kid’s arm and yanked him away from Tequila. He looked to be 16, at most. That was too young for this party and too old for a 13-year-old.

“I think you should take your own advice, and get out of here before I knock you on your ass. Do you realize touching this girl is a crime? She’s 13 years old, idiot. You could have a sexual offense record for the rest of your life—”

“She wanted it!”

“No, I didn’t, Tyrone!” I glanced over to Tequila, whose eyes were wide and full of pleading. “Nick, I swear!”

I hated to see her so uncertain, as if she thought I’d actually believe this asshole over her. I pushed Tyrone against the side of the Hummer in disgust.

“I believe you,” I told Tequila. “But, hey, Tyrone, a word of advice. Even if Tequila had been okay with it, it’s still a crime. So be smart, and stick to girls your own age.”

Tyrone shoved me with more strength than I expected, and I stumbled a couple of steps back before falling on my ass. He turned to Tequila, his hands fisted at his sides.

“You wanna be like that, you can go home with this fucker,” he snarled, before opening the door of the sedan and climbing in. Just before closing the door, he added: “Don’t ever call me again.”

The engine revved, and Tequila scrambled to my side, grabbing my arm as I stood and tugging me out of the way as Tyrone sped out of the parking spot. I could feel her trembling against my side, so I wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

“Come on, I’ll give you a ride home.”

***

Tequila was quiet outside of giving me directions to her home as we buckled in and I started the car. But her silence didn’t last long.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice shaky. I was about to reassure her, when the rest came spilling out. “Are you going to tell me parents?”

“Tequila…”

“Because I won’t ever do it again, I swear. And they’ll ground me for the rest of the summer, probably. I didn’t know Tyrone was going to be like that. He was always so nice before.”

Tears slipped down her cheeks, and I knew she had probably learned her lesson. But this was serious. She could have been assaulted tonight, and she was too young to be out without her parents’ knowledge. Maybe I was getting old, or maybe some of Edie’s responsible nature had rubbed off, but I knew I couldn’t let Tequila slide by on this one.

“Your parents need to know—”

“Nick,
please
!”

“You can tell them, or I can, but they’re going to hear about it,” I said firmly.

I chanced a glance in her direction. She looked miserable.

“Keeping secrets from your family isn’t a road you want to go down,” I added. “Trust me. You won’t be happy living like that—”

The words turned to ash in my mouth. I was a hell of a hypocrite, wasn’t I? I was the ultimate secret-keeper, but I was beginning to realize Edie had been right all along. It wasn’t a secret I could keep from my family forever. Even if I could keep them learning the truth, that secret would eat at me for the rest of my life. I could never lay down my guilt unless I laid down the truth.