Kiss with Cherry Flavor (Grover Beach #4) (11 page)

“Game for what?”

“The girlfriend thing…”

MY HEART STUTTERED. Tony wanted me to be his girlfriend. He’d
asked
me to be. How could I not say yes?

I chuckled, pressing my cheek against his.
“Only if I can keep your jersey.”

He
released me, bent over, and picked it up from the step behind me. Then he offered it to me with a teasing smile. “It looks better on you anyway.” When I took the shirt from him, he took my hand in turn, lacing his fingers easily through mine. “Should we go back down? What do you think?”

“I think I want a Cherry Coke now.”

“All right,” he laughed. “Let’s go get you one.” Turning around, he started to drag me down the stairs with him. And that was the first time I remembered we actually weren’t alone in this place. The crowd was still moving, dancing, and chatting. But a few people stood against the wall at the other side of the hall, their familiar faces turned our way, gazes on us.

“Looks like we had spectators,” Tony said over his shoulder, apparently noticing them at the same time.

My cheeks grew warm. “At least they look like they enjoyed the show.”

Lisa
had her palms pressed to her face, her expression sweetly scrunched up. Hunter winked at me then gave Tony a thumbs-up. Alex Winter held a snickering Simone, and Susan had her arm slung through Nick’s, who looked happy like the rest.

Tony squeezed my hand. “Oh yes, they were so waiting for this.”

I smiled brightly at them when Tony wasn’t looking. But not far from our friends, I found another pair of eyes fixed on us. Jealous eyes. The sight of my pissed cousin made my shoulders slump.

Chloe trudged toward us just as we reached the bottom step. When Tony glimpsed her for the first time, I felt the shock tensing his muscles. “Fuck,
Summers, what’s going on with your hair?”

She’s slowly
transmuting into me
, I wanted to tell him, but held off.

Chloe gritted her teeth, answering him with a death glare. She turned to me. “Now don’t you two make a nice couple?” Saccharin sweetness dripped from her voice.

“Shove it, Chloe,” I snapped. “It’s none of your business.” Shit, in those shoes she was as tall as Tony and I had to tilt my head back to look at her face.

“It
is
my damned business when this jerk is coming to
my
house and screwing my stupid little cousin.”

My mouth dropped open. What in the world
had made her say that?

But obviously, she wasn’t done yet. Folding her arms underneath her breasts, she looked down her nose at me, leaning slightly back and displaying her disgust. “I hope you enjoy him. Meager skills, I’m sorry to say. But then you’re one to be easily satisfied, aren’t you? Not making high demands on someone as long as
he’s willing to just let you follow at his heels like a dull puppy. You’re so pathetic, Samantha.” Her voice turned low and cold. “But I guess that makes you two the perfect match.”

Horror clogged my throat. I had to swallow hard before I could say anything. When I spoke,
however, it was loud enough for the rest of the room to hear. “Why are you such a ass, Chloe? What did I ever do to you to make you want to destroy my every happy moment? You probably don’t even realize that jealousy brings out your ugliest side. Why can’t you back
the hell
out of my life?” I stomped forward and added, my voice lethal, “And what do
you
know about Tony’s skills? It’s not like you ever—”

“Sam!” Tony’s hand closed tightly enough around mine to cut the blood flow to my fingers. He pulled me back. I looked at him over my shoulder. His gaze sharp, he mouthed, “You promised.”

“But—”

“No, Sam.” He eased his grip on my hand but didn’t let go. “She’s not worth it.”

A second passed. I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t let me defend his honor. But in the end, it didn’t matter. “You’re right,” I said, turning away from Chloe and toward him. “Let’s get out of here.” I pulled him with me and we headed outside.

As soon as t
he heavy door closed behind us, the music faded to a dull noise. A cool wind whirled my hair around my face as we walked down to the street. Finally letting go of Tony, I raked my hands over my skull, tilting my face up. Thousands of stars dotted the sky. The silence was calming. I sighed.

A gentle arm sn
eaked around my shoulders and pulled me against a comforting chest. Being so close and held by Tony made the little hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

In a soft voice, he said in my ear, “I’m sorry about the crap she threw at you.”

“She’s not over you yet,” I mumbled against the fabric of his shirt.

“Looks like she isn’t.”

“Is it strange that I feel sorry for her, no matter how ugly she was to us in there?”

“Not at all.
She can style her hair like yours all she wants. Your compassion will always be the one big difference between the two of you.”

I wrapped my arms around his waist, enjoying his caress on the back of my neck. “So you think so, too. She’s trying to copy me, isn’t she?”

“Mm-hm.”

“But why?
She hates me,” I whined.

“Maybe she does. But she also adores you, I think. Did you know that imitation is the highest form of flattery?”

Now I tilted my head back and gave him a skeptical look. “Where did you get
that
from?”

Tony grinned, loosening up the tension inside me easily.
“Data. I’m a Trekkie.”

He was? Realizing I
still knew so little about him, I hugged him tighter. “So you love
Star Trek
…what else?”

He cut a glance up
to the sky, deliberating. “There’s cheese crackers and mayo, for one. Dogs. And video games.” He looked down at me again with a smirk. “And then that hot black top you’re wearing right now.”

That made me laugh
.

We strolled off, hand in hand. When we reached Tony’s car, or rather his mother
’s, he said, “Want me to give you a ride home?”

“Umm, no thanks.
I think I’ll walk tonight.” I needed to calm down before I got back to my aunt’s house. Tony pouted. He looked so sweet it made me want to kiss him on the tip of his nose. “But if you like,” I added in a low, hopeful voice, “you can
walk
me home.”

His pout disappeared
in an instant and the corners of his lips tilted up. Oh yes, he liked.

I walked slowly, because I didn’t want to reach my aunt’s house too quickly. Ambling in the dark with Tony appealed to me. He swung our hands back and forth
between us, stroking his thumb over my knuckles. We didn’t talk much at first, which was a shame, because the only thing missing to make this moment perfect was the sound of his voice and laugh.

Thinking about it made me remember last Sunday, when he’d taken me to his aunt’s house. The day with him and the horses was one of the very best of my life. With th
at memory also came the image of the picture he’d drawn of me that afternoon. The one I’d destroyed.

“I’m sorry I shredded your drawings,” I said in a low voice.

Tony eyed me sideways. “Why did you?”

“Because I thought I hated you.”

“You
thought
?”

“Yeah, well…” I raised our joined hands to his view. “Obviously, it wasn’t true.”

He smiled at that. “Don’t worry, Bungee. I do have one or two more drawings of you.”

My shoulders dropped.
“The witch?”

“Nope, not the witch.”
He frowned into the distance. “I shredded that one myself the other day.”

“Really?”
That was news to me. Good news. “Then what?”

“Nu-uh, not saying.”

“Oh, come on, please,” I begged, dancing before him, walking backward a few steps. “When did you draw me?”

With a big, round smile,
Tony pulled me to his side and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, not letting go of my hand. “The first one I drew after I saw you practicing with the cheerleaders for the first time.”

My
forehead creased. “That was—”

“Tuesday.
Your second day at school.”

As the information sank in,
I stopped dead. His hand dropped from my shoulder. “That was before Mrs. Jackson gave us that particular homework about villains.” I turned to face him. “Why did you draw me back then? And what
did
you draw?”

A sly grin sneaked onto his face. “No,
Summers. You’re not getting me to tell you that right now.”

“Ryan said
it looked quite awesome,” I mumbled, remembering how he’d found me under the tree in tears.

“Yes, he was the only one who actually
ever saw them. Or
one
of them.”

“Will you show me?” I pleaded when my curiosity actually
started to kill me.

Obviously feeling a little uncomfortable now, h
e laughed. “Maybe. One day.”

Great
, that wasn’t a
no
, so all it would take was a little more persuasion. And I would have lots and lots of time for that…now that he was my boyfriend. Oh my freaking
God
—that word alone combined with Tony made millions of tiny, excited butterflies erupt in my stomach.

Unaware of my turning into
a butterfly playground, Tony pulled me on. “Why do you wear camouflage pants all the time?” I knew he’d changed the subject so he wouldn’t get pestered about the pictures anymore.

I let it go.
“Why not? I like them. And you never know when they’ll come in handy.”

He arched his brows, dipping his chin, and gave me a dubious look. “Come in handy?” he repeated flatly.

“Yeah. See, if I ever need to hide from someone, I just jump in here—” For demonstration purposes, I skipped into one of the bushes in someone’s front yard, and spread my arms in a silly
ta-da
pose. “And no one can see me. That’s it. I’m a bush.”

Tony’s laugh m
ade my heart skip. “Come here, bush.” He took my hand and roughly pulled me out of the weeds and against his chest. Looking down at me, he picked a twig and some leaves out of my hair then brushed a strand behind my ear. “You know that you’re insane, right?”

I smiled up at him.

At the same time, his cell phone went off in his pocket. Just a whistling sound. He pulled it out, studied the display, then keyed in a message.

“Who’s texting you?” I asked.

“Hunter wants to know where I am.” When he was done, he laced our fingers again and we strolled on. But a few seconds later, another text arrived. “He asked me to come to his beach house tomorrow afternoon. Most of our friends will be there.”

An invitation?
It didn’t escape me that my cell phone hadn’t buzzed with a message. I wanted to pout but held off and gave Tony a cute look instead. “Can I come with you?”

“No. You’re too crazy,
bush.
” Playfully, he tucked me under his arm.

Squaring my shoulders, I looked into his mocking eyes. “I can do normal.”

“Oh, really? I’m dying to see that.”

Sulking
, I stuck my tongue out at him.

“Relax, Bungee.” Tony chuckled. “Hunter actually said, ‘
bring Sam’.” He taunted me with a roll of his eyes.

A lunatic grin on my face spread wider and wider.

“Give me your number,” he demanded then. “I’ll call you tomorrow before I pick you up.”

We’d reached my ho
use, and I sat down on the curb of the sidewalk, reciting my number while he punched it in. Tony lowered himself beside me, stretching his legs out on the street. They were so much longer than mine. “My dad says there’s a chance I’ll grow a little more before I turn eighteen,” I told Tony for no obvious reason. Maybe I just felt I had to defend my height to him.

“That’s cool. But I like you the way you are.” He said it so absently, so naturally, that it sounded more like the truth than anything else I’d heard from him. My mouth dropped open, but he didn’t notice as he was still busy with his cell.

The next instant, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out. “You’re calling me?”

Tony rang off before I could answer his call. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“Now you have my number, too. And if you get bored alone in your room later, you can text
me.” He winked, setting my blood to a boiling temperature. Texting Tony. That was like emailing him, only better. And I’d loved reading the emails he’d sent me the other day.

Anticipation crawled into my chest. I tried to hide it from him, because it made me feel a little silly. With my finger I traced the outline of one of the holes in his jeans. “So, you expect me to send you a message later?”