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All of our heads swivel toward the entrance as Carter comes stomping into the store. His frustrated gaze lands on me, and I see a glimmer of embarrassment surface in his eyes before it’s quickly masked by a bright, overconfident smile.
“He still breathing?” Carter chides, glancing down at his old man.
“Yeah, but I don’t think he wants to be.” I smirk back, appreciating that he’s keeping things light and friendly.
“Boy, yer lucky I can’t walk, or I’d be kickin’ yer ass right about now.”
Carter snorts out a laugh, all long, dark eyelashes and floppy black curls, but as I’m watching him, I get the feeling that someone else is watching me. I turn and glance over my shoulder, thinking I’m just being paranoid, but the smitten stare of Mrs. Renshaw is definitely glued to the side of my face. She flicks her eyes from me to her son, and I swear, if her irises weren’t such a dark brown, I’d be able to see big red hearts floating in them.
Ohhhh, no. No, no, no.
“Well, I’ll let y’all get back to your day. Just … let me know if you need anything,” I say with a smile, speed-walking back through the haphazard rows of shelves between me and the door.
My eyes meet Carter’s as I pass, and just when I think he’s going to let me walk away without making it awkward, he spins on his heel and follows me out the door.
“Rain, wait!”
I don’t wanna talk about it. I don’t wanna talk about it. I don’t wanna—
I turn around and force a smile. “What’s up?”
“So, about last night …”
Damn.
“Carter, you don’t have to—”
“Do you remember what I did with my flashlight? I can’t find it anywhere, and everything is kind of a blur after you went Karate Kid on my dad’s leg.” He winces and rubs his forehead. “I’m pretty sure that tequila was just rat poison with a worm floating in it.”
Carter gives me a small, sheepish smile as he stuffs his hands in the pockets of his athletic shorts, and of course, I know that smile just like all the others.
Carter’s giving me an out.
Gratefully, I return the favor. Cocking my head to one side, I give him a scowl. “You mean, you don’t remember running down the halls, shining it in everybody’s rooms last night? You were shouting something like”—I put my fist to my mouth and lower my voice—”‘FBI! Hand over all your marijuana, and nobody gets hurt!’”
Carter laughs and wraps an arm around my shoulders, steering me in the opposite direction of the atrium. “Man, I turn into a damn genius when I’m drunk.”
You turn into something all right.
“Where are we going?”
“To have some fun.”
My feet freeze, and for the second time in as many days, I feel the urge to run away from Carter Renshaw.
I don’t know what’s wrong with me. People don’t run away from Carter; they run toward him. Literally. They can’t even help it. He’s just that magnetic. His smile, those eyes, that tall and chiseled body, his cocky swagger. I was just as much of a fangirl as every other female—and some of the males—at Franklin Springs High School. The only advantage I had was that I’d found him first.
I fell in love with the boy next door before he became the big man on campus, but once he became the big man on campus, I got the distinct feeling that he’d outgrown the girl next door. I saw his wandering eye, the way he let the cheerleaders feel him up in the hallway. I knew he wasn’t always truthful about where he was or how often he had practice. And overhearing Kimmy say that they’d made out senior year only confirmed what I’d suspected all along.
That must be what this no feeling is about. This is about Carter breaking my trust and leaving me behind. It’s definitely not about a certain Hawaiian shirt–wearing, gun-toting, green-eyed loner who’s out there somewhere with my heart in his pocket.
Nope. It can’t be. I deleted him.
“What? You don’t like fun?” Carter asks, giving me a lazy grin.
“What kind of fun?”
“You’ll see.” He starts walking again with his arm still around my shoulders, obviously expecting my feet to just magically do what he wants, like everything else.
