“Who’s messing with you?” Paige asks, hooking her book bag over her desk chair and sliding her shoes from her feet.
“Ty! And Nate! They flipped our drawers,” I say, stuffing—not folding—clothes back into my drawers so I can slide them in. Paige brushes by me; at first I think she’s going to help, but instead she starts pulling on her drawers to see if she’s been pranked too. When nothing happens, and her clothes all stay in place, I feel a little bad. I can see the hurt on my sister’s face over the fact that Rowe and I are part of something she isn’t. But that’s how this was supposed to go, wasn’t it? Paige finally gets her life, and I get mine? Yes, that’s how it’s supposed to go. But I still don’t like seeing my sister slighted.
“Okay, tell me what you girls need me to do. Let’s get those assholes back,” Paige says, and I know this is just her way of joining—of finding a way in on the attention. My gut instinct is to tell her not to worry about it, but then I look at Rowe, and I can see my new friend is happy to finally have my sister’s approval, in some small way, so I let it slide. I’ll let Paige be a part of this, even if she has nothing to do with it.
“I have an idea, but we’re going to need to go to a hardware store,” Rowe says. I can tell this has Paige losing interest right away.
“Yeah, I’m not doing that,” she says, sitting back down on her bed, and pulling her phone from her purse.
“Hey, you wanted in. Either you’re in or you’re out,” I say, taking the phone from her hands and tossing it a few feet away. I stare Paige in the eyes, challenging her to just drop her damn better-than-everyone complex for now. My sister is being a bitch because she doesn’t want to like Rowe, she doesn’t like taking orders from Rowe, and I know it’s just because Rowe has the attention of Nate. But my sister needs to get over herself, because Rowe is nice. I need Rowe. And that should be enough.
“Fine,” she says, blowing the bangs from her face with a dramatic huff of air. “Let’s go to the hardware store. But I’m borrowing a car. It’s too hot to walk anywhere,” she says, grabbing her purse and leading us out the door. Out of habit, we follow.
Pain in the ass or not, my sister is good at getting things. Within minutes, she had a car borrowed from some frat guy, and she also managed to get us two gallons of free paint from the guy working the counter at the hardware store in town. We hid the paint and supplies in our closet overnight, and I woke up extra early this morning to set our plan in motion. Now, I just need to catch Ty before he is really ready to leave.
Rowe’s long brown hair is all I can see hanging out from our doorframe down the hall. One more step, and she’s out of sight. I know she’s still listening, though. Somehow, I was nominated for this job—the inside job, as Rowe called it. I feel like a criminal, and I’m really bad at things like this. But Rowe got really excited when we picked up the supplies, and she was the first one awake this morning. For some reason, I feel like I need to pull this off for her. I take one more deep breath and knock softly on their door. Ty has a business class early this morning, so I know he’s up. I can hear him making his way to the door. When it opens, I lunge at him before he has a chance to make conversation. I sit on his lap, kissing him until he lets the door fall closed behind us.
Phase one: complete—I’ve made it inside.
His kiss is intoxicating, even at seven in the morning, and I almost forget the real reason behind my mission. I hate that my next real kiss with him isn’t really real at all. Ty pulls away begrudgingly and lets his eyes wash over my body before he speaks—his attention tuned in to my workout pants and bare stomach, a tactic I have to give Paige full credit for. My sister knows men. I may have slept with more of them, but she’s had more of them chase her.
“I’m sorry, did I…order a wake up call?” he says, his tongue barely licking his bottom lip as his perfect smirk slides into place. My body suddenly feels a million degrees hotter, and my pulse is beating like a drum, firing away in my head, arms, and chest.
“No, I was just getting back from an early workout, and I remembered you would be up,” I say, hating that I’m lying to him, but knowing it’s not for a bad reason. He studies me, and for a few seconds, I think he might be seeing right through our little plan, but then his smile is back. He’s pulling my head in close to kiss me again. Oh god, his kiss.
“Baby,” he practically growls. “Wait, I can call you that now, right?” he asks, one eyebrow slightly cocked while he looks at me from only a few inches away. His face is shadowed with the perfect layer of unshaven stubble, and I allow my hands the pleasure of feeling it.