Just a Little Crush(59)
“Ready to go?” I asked.
He stood. “Yeah. Everything okay?”
I nodded. “As okay as it ever is.”
He looped his fingers through mine and stayed quiet as we walked down the hallway. We stepped onto the elevator and he turned to me. “Did your mom remember you drove her home?”
I shook my head.
“Did you tell her anything?”
“No. Grandma will tell her.”
“But all that other stuff. Everything she said to you. She just gets to say it and never own up to it?”
I sighed. “Pretty much.”
“Why? Why didn’t you say something?”
“Really, Ryder? You know the answer. The same reason you haven’t said anything to your mom.”
He pulled his hand free and stared at me. “No. That’s not at all the same.”
“It’s exactly the same. I’m protecting her.”
He scoffed. “From what?”
“Herself.”
The elevator chimed and settled on the ground floor. The doors slid open and I stepped out. Ryder followed. Neither of us said another word the entire way to the car.
He started the ignition but didn’t put the car into gear. I had nothing more to say though and folded my hands into my lap. Further discussions of Mom wouldn’t end well. Clearly he didn’t like who or what she was, but I’d defend her nonetheless because no matter what, she was my mom.
“Will you spend the night with me?”
“Huh?” That wasn’t what I’d expected.
“I want you stay with me tonight but I understand if you’re mad and don’t want to.”
“I’m not mad at you.”
He tugged his metal hoop between his teeth. “I should’ve stayed out of your family business and I’m sorry I keep saying shit I shouldn’t.” He turned to me. “I don’t like the thought of anyone hurting you and I’m sorry if I was one of those people right now.”
“Ryder, honest, you didn’t. I’m not mad. I’d just rather not talk about my mom.” I grabbed his hand from where it rested against his bouncing knee.
“I understand.” He wove his fingers through mine. “My mom and stepdad won’t be home until tomorrow night. Do you want to go back to their place?”
“Sure.” I smiled. “But I left my new sleep shirt at my dorm.”
“Doubt you’ll need it.” His gaze trailed down my body.
We picked up food and took it back to his parents’ house. Careful again not to draw the attention of his nosy neighbor, we kept the lights off and snuck to his room. Which was fine by me, especially after Ryder mentioned how much of an anal neat-freak his stepdad was. I worried we’d leave something out of place, and he really didn’t seem to want his parents to know we’d stayed there over the weekend.
Ryder finished off my carton of takeout while I snuggled into him and we watched some crappy horror movie that was terribly predictable.
“Seriously?” I grumbled at the TV.
He laughed. “I wish we had something to drink. We could take a shot every time someone loses a limb.”
“Or every time a girl screams instead of running from the murderer.”
“No way, we’d never make it to the end of the movie. We’d be trashed midway through.”
“True.” I laughed.
Ryder tossed the empty take-out box back in the brown bag. “Of course, we could probably find something to substitute for drinking.”
“Oh, yeah?” I grinned as he scooted down next to me, gaze fixed on my lips. “Uh-oh, that guy just lost his hand,” I whispered.
Ryder leaned forward and pressed his mouth to mine. He ran his tongue along the seam of my lips.
“Now he lost a leg,” I said. “And the girl just screamed.”
“You know what that means?” He flipped me onto my back and positioned himself over me.
“That this movie really sucks?”
He laughed. “Yeah, that.” With the remote aimed over his shoulder he flipped off the movie. “And you have to take your clothes off.”
“Why’s that?”
“New rules.”
I laughed as he pushed my shirt over my head. He sprinkled kisses over my collarbone then created a trail to my ear. “I love…”
My breath caught. What did he love?
He paused only long enough to brush his lips over my neck, but I’d counted at least five rapid heartbeats in the space between the start of the sentence and the end.
“…your laugh.” His mouth was warm as it pressed into the soft spot under my jaw.
My laugh. Of course. My face warmed, embarrassed my mind had immediately jumped to a very different answer.