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Sly Remington was bad news, and I didn’t have time for it.
CHAPTER5
SLY
IT’S NEVER OKAY TO BE A DICK
Idid my best to stay quiet the rest of the meal because every time I opened my mouth, horrendous surprises issued forth like demon spawn. Still, Clara continued to ignore me right up through Mom’s dessert, through coffee, and even as she and Katie thanked everyone and headed for the front door.
I’d almost made it to the end of the evening when Mom said, “So we’ll see you on Saturday for the party. Sly will pick you both up.”
“What?” I thought I’d whispered, but it might have come out as something more like a growl.
“No, that’s—” Clara began to protest and I was equal parts relieved and disappointed. I didn’t want to see her again. And I wanted to see her again so badly I thought it was possible my life would never be quite the same again if I didn’t.
“We insist,” Mom told her. And when Mom insisted, that was pretty much it, unless you wanted to be cleaning toilets for the next two months or performing some other menial chore as punishment. Clara didn’t know that, though.
“I’ll definitely look at my calendar,” she was saying. “I’m just not sure if—”
“Mooommmmmyyyyy.” I couldn’t suppress the smile that Katie’s pleading voice inspired. That kid. Something about her, man.
“Okay, well, I’ll let you know,” Clara said, though I couldn’t see her from where I was basically hiding in the dining room around the corner from the front door.
“Sly will be by at five-thirty Saturday,” Mom told her as if Clara had said none of the things she’d just said.
“See you then!” Katie cried loudly. “Thank you for dinner!” Her volume was cranked to eleven. She’d be great at a hockey game.
As the front door shut, I lifted my eyes from the floorboards in front of me to find Beck still sitting at the table in the next room, watching me with an exceedingly irritating expression on his face.
“Shut it,” I said, hoping to preempt any dumbfuckery about to come from that direction.
“Seriously, man. What was all that?” Beck shook his head slowly back and forth, a smile spreading across his face.
I sniffed. “Fuck off.”
He laughed.
I really wanted to punch him. The whole night had gotten under my skin somehow. Between Katie being both ridiculously cute and highly obnoxious all in one teeny tiny little blonde package and Clara appearing like my high school wet dream all grown up and even sexier...I was not quite myself. I needed time to recombobulate.
“I’m working this one out,” Beck said, leaning back in his chair and picking up his coffee cup. “And I think I’m close. Either you have a serious hard-on for our next-door neighbor, or you’ve taken more hits to the head than I realized this season. Or you’re just a total dick.”
“Let’s go with the last one, asshole.” I stood, pushing my chair back and hoping to just slip away, back to the bedroom I’d occupied until college, where I could finally put enough distance between me and the house next door to think straight.
“Sly, have you ever heard the expression ‘you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar?’” Beck asked, following me.
I turned around and glared down at him. “Have you ever heard the expression ‘mind your own business or I’ll pound you into the ground?’”
“No,” he said. “You sure you’re getting it right? Not familiar.”
I was twenty kinds of annoyed and angry and I didn’t even know what else. Of course I’d thought about the house next door every time I’d been home over the years...But she had never been there. She wasn’t supposed to be there. “I’m going to bed,” I told my brother. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Okay, Romeo,” he said, turning away with a smug smile and heading back toward the family room where Dad had baseball blaring once again.
Back in my own room, I dropped to the bed, stretching out to stare at the familiar crack in the ceiling as I pieced through whatever the fuck had happened out there.
I’d been fine. My usual charming self.
And then the little blond imp had challenged me the second she’d walked through the door, at a moment when I was not quite balanced, thanks to the sudden appearance of Clara Connor.
