There isn’t a hint of noise, not a whisper of sound between us for what seems like an eternity.
“Has he done or said anything mean to you since the accident?” she asks, completely ignoring the questions she really wants to ask. Knowing Frankie, we’ll come full circle, eventually.
“He’s been nice.”
“Am I going to have to pull this information from you? Quit wasting both of our time and tell me what is going on.”
“He wants to be friends.” She huffs. “He wants to be more than friends. He likes me, or so he claims.”
“Has he done anything to make you doubt that?”
“Besides years and years of torment?”
“All of that is in the past.”
“Now you sound like him,” I mumble.
“Let the past go.”
“Did he tell you to say that?”
She chuckles, and I know it was a stupid question to ask. Frankie would tell me the second our call connected if Dalton was brazen enough to call her. It reminds me that I told him I was dating Dillon, and I also told him Frankie was my boyfriend when I was on the phone with her the first time I saw him at the diner. He hasn’t called me out on that yet, but I have no doubt it’ll come. The fake boyfriend trick with Dillon has already been blown out of the water.
“What if he really does like you?” Frankie whispers. “What do you do then?”
“I don’t have a clue. I want to run as far as I can get, but at the same time, I want to see where it takes me. That makes me crazy, doesn’t it?”
“I think you should—”
A knock on Frankie’s end interrupts what she was about to say.
“Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning,” a husky voice says.
“Who is that?” I hiss.
“I have to go.”
The line goes dead before I can find out who the man was speaking to her, but more importantly, she didn’t finish telling me what she thought I should do.
“Crap,” I hiss, readying my arm to throw my phone across the room when it rings.
Peyton’s pretty face flashes across my screen with a request to video chat.
“I’m sorry.” I apologize the second the video connects. “I just couldn’t be over there today.”
“I understand,” she says. “Maybe I can come to your house in a little bit?”
“Of course. How was the funeral?”
“Sad,” she says with a frown. “Everyone loved Mr. Clark.”
“Yeah.”
“Dillon is the hottest guy I’ve ever seen before in my life.”
“He’s pretty good-looking,” I agree.
“Why does he have to be so much older than me?” she whines.
“He’s also gay,” I inform her.
“All the gorgeous ones are.”
We both smile.
“So, see you in about an hour?”
“Sounds good.”
“I think I need to focus on—”
Peyton stops talking, looking up from her phone.
“Knock much?”
“I didn’t know you were here,” Dalton says, his voice low and hard to hear across the room.
“Do you normally creep into my room when you think I’m away?”
“You know why I’m here.”
“Of course, the window.” Peyton looks down at the phone, smiling when she sees how wide my eyes are. She winks before looking back up at her brother. “No matter how hard you stare at her curtains, she’s not going to pull them back while standing naked in her room.”
Oh, Jesus. What is this girl doing?Chapter 25Dalton“I don’t want to see her naked,” I argue.
Peyton raises an eyebrow at me. Just mentioning it makes me think of her in the bathing suit and shorts. Even with the naked nerdy girls I found in my phone, I haven’t seen a sexier sight than Piper Schofield in a one-piece. I’m a guy, of course I want to see her naked.
“Okay. I don’t only want to see her naked.”
My sister huffs.
I swear I have more than a one-track mind, but I can’t help where it ends up where Piper is concerned. I want her naked. I want her clothed. I want her in pajamas and in a white dress as I wait at the other end of the church for her. I want it all. And yes, I want her naked.
Naked and wet, sweaty and reaching for me.
Peyton clears her throat in irritation, and I force those thoughts and dreams down so I can focus on what needs to be said and done right now. Yes, I came into Peyton’s room for a reason, but I also need to talk with her.
“I need your help.”
She’s been a brat to me since the night Piper stayed over, but that has to end. She’s my only connection to the girl, and I’m losing my mind already. They’re both shutting me out, and it’s killing me.
“I’m not going to help you.”
I knew she was going to say that. She can’t even stand to look at me recently.
“Will you at least tell me why you’re mad at me? What the hell did I do to you?”