“What are you hiding?”
“I asked first.”
He looked out at the night again but his heart was running a marathon in his chest. “You already know Nick was taking my tests for me.”
She cocked her head to the side and gave a little shrug.
“That’s not even a secret. That’s like me saying, I have a deaf little brother.”
Gabriel shrugged. Truths were clawing at his lips, begging to escape. God, to tell someone.
No way. Like he could sit here, trapped on the tailgate, and spill everything. Gee, well, I can control fire. Oh, and those articles in the paper? They’re talking about me. And maybe I should mention that I’ve been thinking about your arms around me all day. Or how I’ve wanted to kiss you for days, but right now that would make me no better than Ryan Stacey . . .
Yeah, that would be great. He drew a choking breath and fought for words.
“How about,” she said, her voice careful, “I get a question, then you get a question.”
That made him smile. “Like truth or dare?”
She blushed and her eyes dropped. “I’ve never played that.”
“Come on, Layne, kids play that when they’re ten.”
“Not all kids.”
She could be so fierce one minute, yet so innocent the next, and it was seriously making him crazy. “All right, go. Truth.”
“I told you I don’t know how to play.”
Gabriel leaned in and whispered, “The name of the game might be a giveaway.”
Her eyes flicked up, sparking with defiance, and for a breathless moment he regretted not choosing dare.
“Truth,” she said. “Why did you start cheating in math?”
At least that slammed the brakes on his train of thought. “Because I stopped passing. In seventh grade.”
“When your parents died.” Her voice was tentative, but it wasn’t a question.
“Yeah. I’d never been an A student or anything, but after that . . . I didn’t even want to be at school, much less do any work.” He shrugged and leaned against the side of the tailgate to look at her. “I was in danger of being held back, and things were already so messed up. Nick started doing it for me, just to get us through the year.”
But Gabriel remembered that first week of eighth grade, when he’d decided he was done cheating, that he didn’t need his brother’s help. He’d struggled to figure out how to solve every problem. Losing three months to his family mess, then another three to summer hadn’t exactly set him up to start pre-algebra.
But he’d been ready to put his brain to a task, to do something normal, something routine, when so much of his life wasn’t.
Then Nick had come into his room with an identical paper.
“Here,” he’d said, and his voice had been almost proud. “I did your math.”
Gabriel glanced across at Layne, who was still waiting, still listening. “Nick wasn’t into sports or anything. He needed to be doing something, to be helping. To have a purpose. I didn’t want to take it away from him.” He snorted. “Christ, that sounds lame.”
“No,” she said. “No, I think I get it.”
“At first I would do the work and throw it away. But I hated lying to him, so I stopped. Then I hit high school and made varsity freshman year, and it was just one less class to worry about.
Now I’m so far behind that I don’t think I’ll ever make up the difference.”
“I’ll help you,” she said.
“You can try.” He almost reached out to push the hair back from her face. “Your turn.”
She held his eyes. “Truth.”
“How did Taylor get you to that party, really?” He gave her a quick once-over. “Especially looking like that.”
She shifted to look out at the darkness. “I changed my mind.
Dare.”
Gabriel slid his cell phone out of his pocket and held it out.
“Okay. Here. I dare you to call your father and tell him you’re sitting in a dark parking lot with me.”
“Ooooh.” She glared up at him without any real malice. “I don’t think I like this game.”
He smiled. “Come on, pony up.”
She folded her arms across her stomach and sighed. Her voice came out very small, warring with the crickets and water. “Taylor told me that she’d talked to you and that you hoped to see me there. My friend Kara picked my clothes.”
Oh.
Suddenly he felt like he’d had a hand in this, though he hadn’t known anything about it. “Layne,” he said. “Taylor never talked to me. I swear ”
“I know! I figured it out, okay? That’s why I feel like such an idiot.”
Navigating this conversation made controlling fire seem easy.
“But I would have ”
“Don’t. Please don’t.”
“Layne, let me ”
“Your turn!”
He drew back and sighed. “Truth.”
“How did your parents die?”
The words felt like a weapon, as if she were trying to hurt him for asking her something that obviously left her off balance.
But his parents’ deaths were just another bolt of guilt that struck him on a daily basis.
“In a fire,” he said flatly. “They were arguing with the parents of some kids who used to hassle us. The house burned down. Not everyone got out.”
She stared at him for the longest moment. “Really?”
“Yeah, really. Why would I make that up?”
Her mouth worked like she wanted to say something, but the words couldn’t quite make it out. He knew that expression, and he couldn’t take one more ounce of pity. So he made his voice hard. “Your turn.”
She licked her lips. “Okay,” she said slowly. “Truth.”
He wanted to fire an arrow back, something to make her flinch, too. “Why did Ryan Stacey say you were deformed?”
Of course it did make her flinch, but it made him feel like an ass.
She didn’t look at him, but she answered. “Because I have scars all the way up the right side of my body.”
“Yeah? From what?”
“From a house fire,” she said. “My house burned down when I was five.”
Shit.
Now he was the one staring. “Layne,” he ground out. “Layne, I’m ”
“I really don’t like this game.” Her legs swung off the tailgate, and her feet crunched on the rough pavement.
“Stop,” he said. “Layne ”
“See, Gabriel?” she called over her shoulder. “I’m not perfect either, right?”
Then she was running, and the darkness swallowed her up.
CHAPTER 24
The short skirt made for easy running. The scent of grass and water was in Layne’s nose, and she really had no idea where she was going, except away. The sound of her breath filled her ears, ragged and almost sobbing. Thank god the parking lot was empty, because she couldn’t see a thing except for the industrial plants across the water. Pavement gritted beneath her boots, then grass as she stumbled and almost missed a curb.
She couldn’t believe she’d told Gabriel about the fire.
Really, like it mattered. Her scars would be all over the Internet tomorrow.
She’d kept a secret for ten years, and now everyone knew.
“Layne. Stop.”
Of course he’d follow. He didn’t even sound breathless. “Go away,” she yelled. “I’ll call my dad to come get me. Just ”
The ground went out from under her. She sucked in a breath, flailing for balance. Arms came around her waist from behind, jerking her back, keeping her feet in the air.
She fought, feeling his chest at her back, but he was too strong.
“Damn it,” he said, his voice strained. “Do you want to go in the water?”
That forced her still. Red and white lights still hung in the distance, warring with the stars. Now that she wasn’t running, the sound of waves hitting the rocks was unmistakable.
And right in front of her.
“The water?” she said numbly.
He put her feet on the ground, but he didn’t let her go. “Yeah.
Water. Did you miss the part where I said we’re parked on a peninsula?”
“Wow,” she whispered. Talk about a night going from bad to worse.
“If I let you go, are you going to take off again?”
She shook her head. But she didn’t want him to let her go, either.
He did anyway. “You’re lucky you didn’t break an ankle.”
“Thanks.” She still hadn’t turned to face him. “For catching me.” Then she added, “And for punching Ryan. I should have thanked you for that before.”
“Oh, you don’t have to thank me for that. He’s lucky I left the party to run after you.”
The heat in his voice made her shiver. She’d seen blood on Ryan’s face.
But she couldn’t summon the righteous indignation she’d felt in the hallway when Gabriel had hassled those bullies. The only things at risk that day had been school papers and hurt feelings.
She had no idea what Ryan had planned or what else Taylor had paid him for but she wasn’t naïve enough to think he would have stopped there.
“Are you cold?” said Gabriel. He hadn’t stepped back, but he wasn’t close enough to touch anymore. “There’s a fleece blanket in the car.”
Layne shook her head and turned away, keeping her eyes on the lights across the water. She wondered if he was thinking about her scars. For the first time, she understood that expression about the gorilla in the corner of the room. She’d always thought being burned in a house fire was one of the worst possible things that could ever happen. Then he went and yanked the rug out from under her, saying his parents had died in one. For some reason it made her feel ridiculous and furious all at once.
“You know,” he said quietly, “you don’t have to keep running from me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But she did.
“I might pick fights, but you run.”
Layne whirled. Starlight traced shadows across his features, and she was glad for the darkness.
“You’re wrong.” She stepped up and poked him in the chest.
“You ran from me on the trail.”
He knocked her hand away. “Yeah, after you pulled away.”
He was so close, almost stealing her breath. She fumbled for words. “Well, I didn’t know what you ”
Gabriel kissed her.
Thank god his hands were there, catching her arms, because her knees didn’t feel up to the job of keeping her on her feet. He tasted like coffee and caramel and sugar. She’d always imagined he would be rough, but he wasn’t. He was gentle, cautious, drawing at her lips in a way that pulled a sound from her throat and made her want to press up against him.
Oh. This was what all the fuss was about.
His hands slid up her arms to find her face, his fingers tangling in her hair. His kiss grew more insistent, parting her lips.
At the first brush of his tongue, she gasped and knew her knees were going to give out.
But then Gabriel stepped back, his hands braced on her shoulders. She was left shaking there in the middle of the path, wind coming off the water to whip through the space between them.
“I’m sorry.” His voice was rough, almost ashamed. “I didn’t think . . . after the way that ass**le treated you ”
She shook her head fiercely. “No it’s fine ”
“I should have waited.”
“I’m glad you didn’t.”
Her breath stumbled when the words escaped, and she felt her cheeks burn.
But he smiled. “Yeah?”