“You’re already in, Zoe.”
I pull the duvet up more securely over my butt-naked body as she hurries across the room and drops with a bounce on the bed, facing me.
The eyes fixed on me are enormous. “Well?”
I shrug. “Well what?”
She makes an aggravated growl, lying back on Bobby’s pillow beside me. “How was it? It was your first time. Tell me everything. It’s like a rule. You have to tell your best friend everything the first time you do it. You can’t leave out anything. It’s part of the girl code. Spill.”
“Are you going to tell me everything about Jake?”
Zoe’s brows shoot upward. “No. Jake wasn’t my first. But we’ll share my grim details later.” She makes a comic face, then laughs all bubbly again. “Was he any good? Bobby seems like he’d be good in bed. Was he?”
I just know she’s going to be tenacious about his and I’m not escaping without telling her something. But, crap, why does she have to be so blunt and invasive? If she wasn’t so sweet, it would bother me. And damn, I’m blushing.
She starts laughing, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “That good, huh?”
My cheeks grow hotter. “Good.”
She stares at me, intense and determined. “How many times?”
“Jeez, Zoe. Really? You’re asking me that?”
She nods. “I have a rating system. If you do it twice your first time, it was good. Three means fantastic.”
Oh, Zoe, if you only knew.
My eyes grow sparkly. “What does four mean?”
“Four? Really? That means you’re a freak of nature because you should hurt too much to do it four times the first night. I couldn’t stand the pain after my first time and I did it only once. But then my first time sucked. It was with that jerk Tommy Brander.”
I frown. “Tommy Brander?”
She shudders. “You know. He’s in our class. Short. Wrestler. He was drunk and got kind of rough. Such an asshole. At least he was quick.”
I wince in sympathy. Poor Zoe.
She stares at me pointedly.
Her brows crinkle.
“Bullshit. You and Bobby did not do it four times. You must think I’m so gullible. Nope, not falling for it. If you wanted not to tell me the details, you should have just said so.”
“Fine. I won’t say anything else.”
I try to hide my overly happy, tell-all smile.
Zoe groans. “This isn’t fair. I told you everything.”
I change course. “How many times did you do it with Jake last night?”
She frowns. “Once.”
I lean up on an elbow, studying her. “What happened?”
Zoe looks wistful. “It’s was OK. The sex was good. Pretty good. I came and that hardly ever happens with penetration.”
I curl on my side facing her, my nose close to her nose. “Then what’s wrong?”
She’s really bummed about something.
“Have you ever heard the phrase ‘Fat girls try harder’?” she asks, and then grimaces. “Let’s just say Jake expected me to try harder more than once last night.”
My temper spikes.
“You mean—” I break off.
“I hate it when guys push my head down and just think I’m going to give them a blowjob.”
What an asshole.
I spot Bobby’s t-shirt from last night lying on the floor, tug it over my head and then spring from the bed searching for either my duffel or my discarded panties.
“Where is he? I swear I’m going to kick his ass. You are not fat, Zoe. You’re a beautiful girl, he should treat you with respect, and fuck any guy who expects you to try hard for him. I used to like Jake, but I hate him now. I can’t believe Bobby has such an asshole friend.”
She stops me with an arm. “He’s not an asshole. He’s a guy. They’re all like that. Stay out of it. It’s not like I did it. It just bugged me. And we are official as of last night.”
I sink down on the bed. “Are you sure you don’t want me to kick his ass? I’m still mad.”
Zoe shakes her head. “Well, I’m not mad at all so stop it. Boy, do you have a temper. You go from zero to kick-ass in half a second. You’re like fucking Rambo at times.”
For some reason that kind of stings.
I pout. “I do for the people I care about.”
She grins. “It’s all good so stop being angry.”
A knock on the bedroom door makes us both turn.
I stare at the repulsive creature standing in the open doorway. Blond. Petite. Perfect.
Oh no. It can’t be.
My insides turn.
Caroline makes a fake apologetic smile. “Sorry to interrupt. I just need to grab a blow dryer. I forgot mine.”
Before I can say anything she darts across the room into the master bath.
I turn on Zoe. “What the hell is she doing here?”
Zoe’s eyes widen in surprise. “She’s Seth’s date. I thought you knew. I’ve been trapped with her all morning.”
“No. I didn’t know,” I say in a heated whisper. “She wasn’t there when we left yesterday. And Bobby didn’t tell me.”
I hear a cabinet open and close. A second later, Caroline comes back into the room, holding the dryer up in a mission accomplished sort of way.
“Thanks,” she purrs. “I’ll get out of your way.”
My eyes narrow as I follow her.
How did she know where the blow dryer was?
Oh fuck.
Everything inside me goes cold.
Somehow I wait until the door closes behind her.
I whirl on Zoe. “She’s been here before, hasn’t she?”
Zoe’s face tightens with confusion. “Yes. Once. Last summer. We were all here two weeks before school started. Right after Linda gave Bobby the house. The guys came here to surf. What does it matter? Why do you ask?”
Jealousy and hurt shoot through my body, destroying the happy glow I’ve had all morning. “I can’t believe Bobby brought me someplace he stayed with her and thought it would be special.”
She frowns. “He didn’t.”
“Don’t lie to me to make me feel better. I despise when you give me pity props. She used to date Bobby.”
“Yeah, for like half a second,” Zoe counters. She rolls her eyes. “If you fall for that one, Kaley, I swear I’m going to slap you. This is nothing to get all butt-hurt over and ruin everyone’s week for.”
My lips scrunch up and I cross my arms. “Don’t tell me what I should get angry over and not. I’m at not staying here five days with her. She bugs the hell out of me. I can’t believe she’s here. I can’t believe Bobby let her come, he knows I hate her, and it was definitely a jerk thing to do. I’m out of here as soon as he gets back—”
“God, she is so fucking obvious,” Zoe exclaims, interrupting me. “And you are so blind when you get angry. You react without even thinking things through. Leave? That’s what she wants you to do, have some kind of big blow up with Bobby because she’s jealous as hell that you’ve got him and she doesn’t. As if he’d ever want that fucking toxic fembot back. Can you really not see what she just did? Coming in here all cutesy and dressed in the morning. Blah. Blah. Sweet. Sweet. ‘I can get the blow dryer myself.’ Nice little dramatic sashay to the bathroom. She wanted you to know she’d been here before because she knew you’d fly off the handle and assume she was here with Bobby. Which she wasn’t. She slept in my fucking room for two weeks and that was a freaking nightmare. She knows exactly what to do to bug you. How to find the right pin and you are such an easy grenade to explode. Jeez, you need to knock off that shit. Stop letting her pull your pins. She’s manipulative as hell, she’ll do it if you let her, and I hate watching Caroline be happy.”
CHAPTER 14
I press into Bobby’s side as his arm tightens around my shoulders and we walk from the Boardwalk toward the street.