Breaking the Rules (Pushing the Limits 1.50)

Noah ignores Hunter and looks down at me. “You okay here?”

“Yeah.” I think.

Noah frames my face and gently kisses my lips. “I’ll be back soon, baby.”

A part of me melts when I spot that wicked glint in his eyes that tells me that I’m officially naked in his mind. I bite my lip as he releases me.

“I love you,” I say.

Noah flashes me a pirate smile and disappears down the stairs.

“Bad-boy phase?” Hunter asks after Noah’s footsteps fade.

I wrinkle my forehead and return to the canvas. “He’s not a phase, and he’s not that bad. You freaked him out by showing at our hotel room.”

“Did I scare you?”

Something in his voice causes me to whip my head in his direction. Hunter appears casual with his hip cocked against a table that contains multiple bowls of fruit. He’s dressed up in a pressed pair of jeans and a black button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. But his question feels weighted.

“No, you didn’t scare me.” Yeah, he did a little, but I have one last chance to prove my talent outside my mother’s influence, and I’m not going to blow it again by telling the truth.

“Good.” Hunter straightens. “Do you need a picture of the Aires constellation?”

Not when it’s engraved as scar tissue on my soul. “I know it by heart.”

Amid the sensation of bliss comes a wave of disorientation. Dizzy, I shut my eyes and sink to the stool next to the canvas. Aires. I miss you. So much that part of me always feels like I’m dying a painful death.

“What are you going to start with?” Hunter asks and my eyes reopen.

“The horizon.” Because that’s safe. Light still exists in the horizon. I combine the red and yellow to create the hue I desire then focus on last night’s sunset and the memory of Noah’s strong arms holding me.

Noah

Lucky for me, the Malt and Burger is packed again, giving me little time to focus on Echo with that cocky bastard. The noise from the crowded restaurant reaches a new decibel of loud, and the heat from the grill causes sweat to form along the roots of my hair.

I toss on two more patties and squeeze the hell out of two already frying. Wish it was Hunter I was throttling. The reason I didn’t tear out of that art attic with Echo over my shoulder was that damn light shining from her face when she saw the blank canvas and paint.

I don’t claim to understand her obsession with art, but I understand Echo. If I don’t grant her the space she needs to play with her passion, she could run from me.

Mia sashays up and bends over to rest her arms on the counter, exposing what she thinks I want to see. “There’s going to be a field party tomorrow night at the fry cook’s place. Drinking, drugging, a little casual sex.”

I flip a patty and slam my spatula on it. The grease pouring out sizzles. “I told you—”

Her laughter cuts me off. “That you’re going to get your heart ripped out very soon because you can’t read the signs of a bad-boy phase going downhill. Yeah, I know. You told me. That doesn’t mean that I can’t find other mice to play with in the meantime. So here’s another bullet point to add to your growing number of checklist items. Did your boring person once enjoy being at a good party and now wants to stay home and watch Wheel of Fortune?”

The answer is, I don’t know. I watched Echo throw a few beers back before graduation. Fuck, one of the first times I screwed with her was at a party where she was drunk off her ass. But after we left Kentucky, parties haven’t come up. “Not your business.”

I slide the patty off the grill, lay it on the bun and shove the plate in her direction. “Someone pays you to deliver this, don’t they?”

She only winks. “Party, tomorrow night, nine o’clock. Ask your girl and find the answer.”

My muscles lock up when I think of Echo at those gallery shows this summer. She glided through the parties as if she belonged, as if she was finally in her element, and I stood out like that damn beaver with the headphones.

This morning, Echo said she was terrified that we were going to change, but what if the problem is that she has and I haven’t? If I ask my girl to a party, would she say yes or no? Does she still belong in my world?

I rub the tension out of my shoulder. Fuck it. It’s a party. Not a verdict from the jury. Mia’s good at messing with my mind, and I’ve got to stop letting her.

I glance at the clock then at the neighboring grill. The other cook is already filling orders. It’s fifteen minutes past the end of my shift, and I’m done. I yank the bandanna off, and my hair falls into my eyes.