Ruin Me (40 page)

***

Running a little late. Just made it through security!

I read the text message to myself and take a long breath. By my estimation, it should take her about five minutes to get through the airport. At least, I have another few quiet moments to live on this planet before she finds out I invited Shawn to come with us on our romantic getaway. It’s not that Piper straight up hates Shawn, she just strongly dislikes him and I don’t blame her. Shawn can be very overwhelming if you’re not used to him, especially in enclosed spaces.

“Europe party town, episode two!” he shouts from his seat, drawing the annoyed eyes from those sitting around us near the gate.

I give them a few apologetic smiles. “You seem to be in a better mood already,” I say to him.

He nods. “I am seconds away from breaking into song right now.”

“Please don’t.”

He bounces his knees up and down as his feet pop with excitement. “Maybe I can score with some hot European girls this time,” he says. “They like American guys, right? Something about the accent?”

“No idea.” I stare straight ahead, rehearsing what to tell Piper over and over again.

I’m sorry, Pipes. He’s having a hard time right now.

You’ll never see him, I promise.

Piper… put the gun down.

Shawn slaps his hand on my shoulder. “So, where are we going on this trip?” he asks. “We land in London, then where to?”

“Umm…” I happily shift my thoughts to the itinerary. “After London is—”

“Kai?”

I twitch in my seat and turn in the direction of her voice. She stares down at me, her blue-eyed expression locked somewhere between confusion and surprise. “Piper—” I stand up, force a big fucking smile, and step over to her. “You made it—”

Oh, shit.

I look over her shoulder to find Mandy standing behind her.

“Kai, what is Shawn doing here?” Piper asks.

“Piper, what is Mandy doing here?” I turn back to look at Shawn and find him staring at Mandy with painful eyes. Mandy herself looks the same, only a bit more angry.

Piper reaches out and grips my elbow. “A word, please?” she mutters as she pulls me away, clearly giving me no option to refuse. “I thought this was supposed to be a romantic getaway, Kai. What is he doing here?” she repeats.

I try to remember the response I rehearsed, but of course, it’s gone. “It is. What is
she
doing here?”

“I asked you first.”

I sigh. “He’s… not handling their break-up well. He asked to come along—”

“And you said
yes
?” Her eyes get narrower the more I explain.

“Yes, I did,” I say. “He wanted to get away for a while and he promised to entertain himself. I didn’t see any issue with it.”

“And you didn’t think to run that by
me
first?” she seethes.

“Pipes…” I lean in closer. “I fucked his ex-girlfriend last night and I feel like an asshole.”

Her little blue eyes turn soft on me. “Kai…” she whispers. “You don’t have to feel—”

“Well, I do. I did it knowing full well that he’s still in love with her, so…” I look over her shoulder at him. “Yeah, I kind of feel like I need to make it up to him.”

She places a comforting hand on mine. “What about Mandy?” she asks.

“Why is she here?” I ask again.

A chuckle escapes her lips. “Ironically, to get away from Shawn for a while.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah…” she nods. “Fuck.”

“What do we do?” I ask.

“Flight 355 to London is now boarding.”

Piper bites her lip as the announcement blares over our heads. We turn back to Shawn and Mandy and she takes a quick step forward. “So…” she addresses them.

“My ticket is nonrefundable,” Mandy blurts out, staring daggers at Shawn.

“So is mine,” he replies.

“Well, I’m not going home.”

“Neither am I.”

“Fine.”

“Cool.”

I glance at Piper and she stares back at me with concern. “I guess we’re all going to Europe then,” I say to the group.

“Yep,” Mandy confirms, her eyes still locked on Shawn.

“It’ll be just like old times,” Shawn mutters.

“Even better, actually.”

“No doubt.”

“We should board—” I spit out.

“Oh, yeah—” Piper says, gripping her suitcase.

Shawn stands up and grabs his duffel bag before charging towards the gate. Mandy lingers behind him and takes a moment to shoot me a death stare before following him to the line.

“Well, this should be
fun
,” Piper says, her voice dripping with sarcastic bite.

I take her hand in mine and bring her fingers to my lips. “I won’t let it ruin our week. I promise.” She smiles at me, but I can see the doubt behind her eyes. “It’ll be okay,” I assure her.

“Yeah, it’ll be fine…” She nods, staring at the two of them. Her eyes slowly drift up towards me. “We should probably work on our communication, though…”

I smile. “Definitely.” I lean down and kiss her forehead. She gives no reaction. “You okay?”

Her eyes snap up to mine. “Yeah. Why?”

“You just look a little pale — well, more so than usual,” I note.

She shakes her head and her black hair slips across her face. “No, I’m fine,” she says. “A little nervous, maybe.”

I take her hand and lead her through the line, not wanting to say anything else about it. I’ve known Piper Lynch for a long time, ever since we were children, but I’ve really
known her
for a few years. One of her many talents is getting away with a lie, but one of my talents is catching her in one. I’m not saying she’s lying, but one thing is certain.

Piper Lynch is hiding something.

Chapter 39

Piper

Oh, yeah. Remember how much you hate planes, Piper?

The cabin lurches slightly and I take a deep breath to hide my weakness from Kai. He’s already had his inquisitive eye on me ever since we met in the airport and I don’t want to give him more reason to wonder if there’s something wrong with me.

I smile over at him, but he’s got his face plastered to the window. He graciously offered me the coveted window seat, but I absolutely hate staring out the window while flying. It’s always made me dizzy and the last thing I want to do is get sick right now. I happily took the aisle seat.

Luckily, it’s the end of take-off and the plane should start to chill the fuck out right about now—

The seatbelt light flickers off above our heads and I instantly see Mandy pop out of her seat just a few rows ahead. She shoots into the aisle and rushes back to where Kai and I are sitting.

Mandy lowers herself to my eye line. “So, this is a total
nightmare,
” she says.

“It’ll be fine,” I tell her. “Just ignore him.”

“It’s hard to
ignore
someone that won’t stop staring at you.”

I peek about the cabin and make eye contact with Shawn. He’s sitting on the other side of the plane, his beady eyes poking out from behind his thick, blond lashes. “Yeah, he’s definitely got his Mandy-radar on.” I throw him a quick wave and he turns around to face forward.

“Hey, asshole,” Mandy shoots towards Kai. “Why’d you bring him?”

Kai smirks back at her. “Ironically enough, he wanted to get away from
you
for a while.”

“Oh,
please
.”

“I’m serious.”

Mandy discretely looks over her shoulder at Shawn. “He didn’t know I was coming?” Kai shakes his head in response. “He didn’t plan this?” she asks.

“Shawn’s not exactly a master of the mind, Mandy,” he replies. “He’s heartbroken and he wanted some much-needed time away to clear his head. There’s no way he could have known you were asking Piper to come along at the same time he was asking me.”

“I didn’t ask to come along—”

I shoot her a glare, but the damage has already been done.

“You didn’t?” Kai asks. My cheek burns red. I can feel his eyes on me, willing for me to answer for this.

“Whoops,” she mutters. “I guess I’ll go back to my seat now.”

“You do that,” I snap.

Mandy pulls herself up and steps away from us.

“So, if
she
didn’t ask to come along,” Kai begins, “then that means
you
asked
her
to come along.”

I avoid his gaze for as long as possible. “I… thought… it’d be fun,” I stutter.

“More fun than a week alone with me?”

I turn to face him. “No—” I say, shaking me head. “It’s not like that.”

“Then what is it like, Piper?”

My tongue trembles in my mouth. There are quite a few answers to this question, but I’m not ready to say them out loud just yet. “I thought it’d be fun for her to get away, just like Shawn.”

He sighs, obviously not very satisfied with the response. “Piper, if there’s something on your mind, I’d prefer it if you’d just say it.”

“There’s
nothing
,” I say. “Please, Kai — really. She hasn’t taken their break-up that well either—”

“She seemed pretty okay with it last night.”

“She was just doing what I asked her to do, Kai.”

“I honestly thought I couldn’t feel worse about it, but here we are…”

I put my hand on his. “Kai, you don’t have to feel anything but your classic smug satisfaction, okay? Mandy was there because she wanted to be with us. There’s nothing to be ashamed about.”

“Are you sure this is it?” he asks. “There’s no other reason why you invited her along?”

“This is it,” I say quickly. “I felt like she needed a few days away from home, away from
him
, so I told her she could tag along. There’s no other reason.” I keep my eyes steady to hide the lie, but this is Kai Casablancas I’m talking to. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think it would upset you this much.”

He flips his hand over to interlock our fingers. “It doesn’t,” he answers. “I just… can’t shake the feeling that there’s something you’re not telling me.”

“Well…” I lighten my voice. “To be fair… there are things about this week you’re not telling me either…”

“You’re not getting your hands on the itinerary,” he jokes.

“You have your secret surprises,” I say, “and I have
my
secret surprises.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, really.”

“Okay then. Why didn’t you just say so?”

“Because saying there’s a surprise kind of ruins the surprise, don’t you think?”

He raises my fingers to his lips. “You are such a tease.”

“I’ve been told that.”

Kai leans back in his seat. If he suspects anything else, it’s not showing in his face. A rock settles in my gut. I hate to lie to him, but it’s the only thing I can think to do right now.

The plane jolts and the seatbelt light clicks on.

“Relax, Piper,” he soothes and squeezes my sweaty hand. “Just a little turbulence.”

“Yeah,” I nod. “Just a little turbulence.”

***

“What are you doing?”

I look up from the textbook lying on my knees and roll my eyes. “Homework. Go away.”

Kai steps into my bedroom. “Tonight?” he asks.

I grip my pencil tighter as my fingers twitch with anger. “Yes.” I look back down at my notebook. The numbers blend together and I quickly lose track of what math problem I’m on.

“It’s Friday night,” he says.

“So?”

“So, you’re doing homework on a Friday night.”

I sigh and look up at him again. “So?” I ask again.

He crosses his arms over his chest and leans against the door frame. “Man, it’s true what they say about you, isn’t it?”