The Summer I Fell (The Six Series) (5 page)

“No. Now stop arguing with me and let’s go.” His fingers gripped my elbow a little tighter, and we moved down the hallway.

“Huh. Who woulda thought Riley would actually cave in to Ace getting all dominant like that?” Aiden piped up. The guys howled with laughter since it was so unlike him to point something like that out. Out of all of them, Aiden was the one with the least to say.

“Idiots,” Ace mumbled under his breath, flipping the bathroom light on.

“They’re your friends,” I shot back at him.

“They’re yours, too. Okay, how do you wanna do this?” I could see the blush creep along his cheeks before he turned and tossed the sweatpants on the counter.

I struggled to sit down on the closed toilet seat. Ace turned just in time to grab my arms and take the weight off my legs. “Thanks,” I said, blowing out the breath I’d held. The codeine must have kicked in because the pain had at least dulled, and it was a little easier to move. Leave it to Eli to know just what I’d need. Then again, Eli was constantly getting hurt, so he was experienced with all sorts of injuries.

Before I could ask, Ace knelt down and grabbed the heel of my boot. With a gentle tug, it slipped off my foot, and he set it on the floor beside him. Picking up my other foot, he removed my other boot.

“Riley?” He kept his head bent as he spoke.

“Yeah, Ace?”

“Jake.” He whispered his name back at me.

The way he said it was like asking me to call him by his real name, and that was treading dangerous ground for me. Using his nickname kind of put a barrier, a self-created wall up between us. Calling him Jake took it away and made it more. So much more.

He sat back on his feet. Waiting.

“Can you help me up, Jake?” His head snapped up, and he looked at me as his hands came out to mine. I slipped mine over his and felt every ridge, every callous, every single ripple and indent, almost like I’d done it all in slow motion. His hands locked around mine, and he lifted me up until I stood close enough that our chests brushed against one another. I sucked in a sharp breath as my fingers clenched over his. His eyes never left mine until he brought my hand to the sink counter, and I let go to balance myself. He moved the sweatpants over to where I could reach them and turned around. Widening his stance, he put his arm out. “Just grab a hold of me if you feel like you’re gonna fall.”

“Thanks.”

I let go of the counter, unbuttoned my jeans, and then slid the zipper down. The problem was shimmying them past my hips, and not using my upper body to do it. I felt myself falling, and my fingertips slipped off Ace’s arm. He spun so fast that I didn’t even have time to process that he’d turned. “Riley?”

He cradled my neck in one hand and gripped my hip with the other. He heaved a sigh of relief as his forehead came down to rest on mine. “That. Was. Close.”

I could feel his heart beating against my hand and realized in that moment that my hand was splayed over his chest. When he looked down, the corner of his lips kicked up into a half smile. “See, admit it, you need my help.”

“Fine. I need you… your help.” My admission made Ace’s half smile bloom into a full one. He really was devastatingly handsome. And so very, very unattainable.

“What makes you say that, Riles?” His thumb brushed up my neck, as his other hand splayed a little wider along my hip.

“Huh?”

He winked at me. “I’ve never been unattainable.”

I stood there, dumbfounded. “I said that out loud?”

He chuckled and dropped his hand from my neck, as I slumped back into the counter. “Hold on, please.” And before I could stop him, he grabbed the sides of my jeans and tugged them down over my hips, all the way to my feet. I couldn’t help the blush that bloomed across my cheeks, as I looked down at the top of his head. I could feel the fire of it spreading down my neck to my chest.

Ace reached up past me, grabbing the sweatpants from where he’d set them. He picked up one foot, then the other, sliding the material up my legs and over my hips. When he let go of the waistband, he stood, putting his hands against the countertop, caging me in as his eyes sought mine. I could see his pupils dilate. The vein in his neck stood out, pulsing in time with his heartbeat. His jaw flexed once, and then again, as he stepped forward, lining his body up with mine.

He leaned in, and I closed my eyes on a quick intake of breath. A bolt of electricity zipped through me when I felt his nose brush against mine, and I waited. Would he kiss me? My lips tingled as he drew in a deep breath, making it feel like he’d pulled every bit of oxygen from the air around us. His hand came up, cupping my neck with fingers. They were warm and rough against my skin. The catch in my breath stalled him, and I found myself reaching out to grab a fistful of his shirt as I trembled. Ace’s hand slipped from the counter to my hip. I tilted my lips close enough that they barely touched his. He shuddered as his lips moved lightly against mine with the barest hinted whisper of touch. It wasn’t a kiss—it was torture.

“Yo, Ace!” Jared yelled down the hallway. “We got a fire goin’. How many hot dogs y’all want?”

Ace jerked back and dropped his hands. “I’m sorry… I don’t know why I did that. I shouldn’t have done that.” His voice was a hoarse whisper. His words, while apologetic, sent a knife through my heart. Ace didn’t want me. He was just being a typical guy.

I turned my back on him and grabbed my jeans, using the excuse of folding them to look away and give him his escape. I cursed myself for being such an idiot. Ace had seen me almost naked. He was only reacting like any other hormone-driven guy and when he realized what he’d started, he’d shut down when reality crashed in on us. Or I should say, when Jared’s big-ass mouth opened and reminded us of who we were and where we were. The kick in the ass of it was that we’d left the door wide open. Anyone could have walked in on us while Ace helped me get my pants on.

“Ace, what the hell, man? Is everything okay? Is Riley okay?” The tone in Jared’s voice changed as he jogged down the hallway.

I didn’t want to face Jared after what had happened, or really, what hadn’t happened with Ace, so I grabbed a washcloth from the cabinet behind me and moved around Ace to get to the sink. He backed up to put some room between us and shoved his hands in his pockets, putting his head down so I couldn’t see his face. Jared came to sliding halt, as he grabbed the doorframe. His eyes darted between Ace and me, taking in the scene.

“Is everything okay?”

I turned the sink on and wet the washcloth, giving him a smile in the mirror. “Everything’s fine. I just wanted to wash my face, Mr. Impatient.”

Jared rolled his eyes and stepped into the bathroom. Putting his hand on my shoulder, he forced me to turn around. When I did, he bit back a wince as he grabbed the washcloth from my hand, wiping the cool cloth along the cut under my eye. I hissed at the contact.

Before I could say anything, Ace pushed off the wall. “She can do that herself, ya know.”

It sounded harsh coming from him. The Six always joked, argued, and grumbled at each other, but his tone was one I’d never heard him use before on his friends. Jared’s eyes darted to look over my shoulder. His mouth kicked up at the corner before he answered, “The rules have changed, brother.”

Ace swore under his breath and stormed out of the bathroom.

I caught Jared’s wrist and stepped back from him. “What was that about?”

Jared chuckled. “Ace doesn’t like his own rules.” He shrugged and handed the washcloth back to me with a wink. “Hurry up. We got a fire rollin’ and dogs on.”

He walked out before I could reply.

I took a few minutes longer to collect myself. It wasn’t very often I had a moment of peace with the Six around. They hovered whether they realized it or not, and all that testosterone at once could be suffocating. I ran the washcloth back under the tap and wrung it out as I assessed my eye. It was swollen, but not as bad as I would have thought, given the expressions on the guys’ faces. There was a gash just below my left eye from the ring Samantha wore, but it was more a scratch than anything. Had I not turned my head with her punch, it would have been worse. The bruise would be ugly. The purple in it was almost black, and I knew I’d be sporting it for at least a week. The tightness in my back had lessened, so I was able to lift my shirt to get a look at the damage. A large, red welt ran left to right just under my bra strap, and the beginning of a bruise formed underneath it from the log Samantha had hit me with. I could only hope her bruises were worse than mine. Then again, the bruise to her ego probably went deeper than any mark I could have made on her, so that was at least something.

The guys had made it seem worse than it was. Like always. Sometimes it felt like I had six older brothers, but that wasn’t quite right either, because what I felt for Ace was nothing close to brotherly.

His lips had been so close, so soft. His body so hard, so near, and then gone. I let out a watery sigh, as I fought the tears that threatened to spill. Ace would be my undoing if I let him. I needed to come to terms with the fact that he was off-limits, and let it go.

A tear trekked down my face and then another. I didn’t have the energy or the want to wipe them away. Besides, it was just me, alone in the bathroom, crying over a boy I couldn’t have. Another tear fell as a warm hand landed lightly on my shoulder.

“Oh damn, I should have warned you that you’d probably feel a little out of sorts.” Eli’s voice was quiet, soft, like he knew if he talked any louder than a whisper, I’d shatter.

A watery laugh slipped past my lips, as I picked up the washcloth and wiped the tears from my face.

“Sorry, Riley.” Eli pulled his hand back and leaned against the doorjamb. “If you want, I can help you to bed. It might help if you get some rest. I always took the pain meds before I went to bed, so I could at least sleep through the night.”

Eli had become part of the Six when the
Bentons adopted him five years ago. He never talked about life before then, and no one asked. Times were a little different back when Eli came into our lives. The Bentons had tried for a long time to have a baby and it never happened, so they decided to try foster parenting. Eli was the first, and only, child the state sent to them. When the state contacted them a year later, informing them that Eli’s mother had died from a drug overdose and he had no other family, the Bentons rushed to their lawyer’s office. The rest was history.

At first, they homeschooled him, to get him up to grade level, and I think in some ways to protect him from being bullied. Kids were cruel, but parents could be worse. The
Bentons knew that bringing in an interracial child to a predominantly white school might be tricky. Their fears were erased when Eli put his foot down and all but demanded to go to school like everyone else.

He went through hell the first week he started eighth grade, but he never let on to his parents about it. At that point, the other five were just a group of friends. Where you saw one, you saw all, and they saw everything. Jared was the first to snap when he watched the class bully, Seth Johns, corner Eli and threaten him. The next day, Seth came to school with a black eye and apologized to Eli, but he wouldn’t tell anyone what happened to him. The following month, Ace showed up at Josh’s house with Eli in tow, and he’d been one of the Six ever since.

My stomach rumbled, and he snickered. “I guess that means food first, huh?”

The thought of food made my stomach clench. I should have thought of it before I took the pain pills on an empty stomach.

Eli stepped back and jerked his head towards the front of the cabin. “Come on, slugger. I’ll walk with you, so you don’t fall over your own feet.”

“Eli?”

“Yeah?”

I walked past him and ran my hand along the wall to help keep my balance since the next side effect of the pain pills was to make me feel loopy. “The next time you tell me to take medicine, I’m gonna punch you, too.”

He cupped my elbow to steady me. “Duly noted, Riles.”

The screen door of the cabin opened as I crossed the kitchen, and Aiden stuck his head in. When he noticed me, he grinned. “I was just about to come find out what was taking y’all so long.”

“Eli drugged me, and the hallway somehow got longer,” I grumbled.

Eli let
go of my arm and tossed his hands out at his sides. “I didn’t drug you!” The exasperation in his voice made me laugh.

Aiden held the door open for me, and I stepped out into the sultry night air, which did nothing to clear out the fog that had settled in my mind.

“Watch out, guys, Riley’s on a bender!” Aiden called out from behind me.

“Shut up, Aiden.” I tried to toss him a dirty look over my shoulder and ended up stumbling into Mark. “Whoa there, Riles.” He steadied me and then walked with me to the closest chair.

Josh leaned forward in his chair. “Hey Riles? Do we need to feed you, too? Or do you got that covered?”

I flipped
him off, and the six jackasses laughed.

I gave them all a sweeping scowl. “I’m glad y’all are getting a kick outta this.”

“Aw, come on, Riled-up, how many times have we seen you like this?” Mark asked as he handed me a doctored-up hot dog. He’d made it just the way I liked it, with mayo and mustard—hold the ketchup.