“I don’t know,” he said. Her laughter quieted at his more somber tone. “All I know is that I want you so much. And that you’re so beautiful,” he said, his lips brushing her temple. “Especially when you feel good. Never be embarrassed by who you are or what you feel. You’re too special to ever run from anything.”
“I wasn’t running because of that,” she whispered, turning her face up and nuzzling his chin.
His lips grazed hers. “Weren’t you?”
“Ash.”
The breath she’d been holding in her lungs when he’d asked her that pointed question popped out of her throat.
“Jimmy?” Asher asked, looking past Laila’s shoulder.
“Yeah. We’re all waiting at the car,” Jim said in a hushed tone.
“Is everything okay?” Asher asked.
“Yeah. All is still quiet. Tahi just kicked us out, and told me to find Laila and send her back.”
Relief swept through her at the news they hadn’t been caught. Yet, anyway. She glanced up at Asher uncertainly as she stepped out of his embrace. She’d never answered his question. She wasn’t sure if she could.
So somehow, it kept hovering around in her head.
• • •
Asher insisted on driving home, still pissed at Eric for hijacking them. Once they were all in the car and headed for the beach house, Eric reached to turn on the stereo to the aggressive rap music he’d been blaring earlier.
“Don’t.”
Eric glanced over at him from the passenger seat. “What’s got your knickers in a twist?” he asked snidely, but at least he dropped his hand from the stereo.
If Asher couldn’t be with Laila anymore tonight, then he craved quiet. He was desperate for privacy. He could barely tolerate his friends at that moment, let alone Eric and his loud music. “Or should I even ask what’s wrong? Did Snow White leave you high and dry again? Snow White.” Eric’s snide laughter and dumb-ass racist joke broke through Asher’s fraying attempt at calm. It would be one thing if it were the first time Eric had ever demonstrated prejudice and elitism. Unfortunately, Asher had experienced it dozens of times in the past. Hearing it leveled at Laila shattered his restraint.
Rudy yelped from the backseat when Asher jerked the car over to the side of the country road and braked hard. He leaned toward Eric.
“You are gone if you ever talk about her like that again, you racist pig. Do you understand me? And that face of yours isn’t going to look too pretty when you fly out the front door either,” Asher seethed, gripping the wheel in lieu of his cousin’s neck.
Eric looked startled at his abrupt fury. But then he laughed roughly, choosing to take the threat as a joke.
“You wouldn’t want to upset your mama like that, would you? She was so insistent that I come here.”
“I don’t care if my mother begged you. We both know I upset her all the time, so it won’t be a new experience for her. I just want to make sure I’m making myself clear.”
Eric’s jaw tightened and he looked away. After a tense few seconds, Asher decided to take his sullen silence as a passive acquiescence. He rolled the car back onto the road.
“You do usually go for the brainy, smoking-hot, ballsy chicks,” Rudy said cautiously from the backseat after a strained pause. Asher heard the hint of puzzlement in his friend’s tone. “Laila’s gorgeous, but . . . well, she’s not your typical.”
“I would have thought that was obvious,” Asher said, staring straight ahead at the road.
Chapter Nine
It was a little after five the next evening when Zara turned her car onto the private road that led to Asher’s parents’ lake house. It hadn’t been all that hard for them to get away. Laila’s father and uncles had returned to Detroit for work, and the aunties and her mom were looking forward to taking it easy after the excitement of Zarif’s visit. Laila had managed to get away without promising her mom she’d be home at a certain time. Since they’d told everyone they were going to play putt-putt golf in Crescent Bay, then go to dinner and a late movie, a wonderfully long stretch of the night was free.
The white house came into view on the horizon. Nerves and excitement flickered in Laila’s stomach. She rubbed her belly nervously. In the front seats, Zara and Tahi were unusually quiet as they approached the house, as well.
“I can’t believe we’re actually going to the white house,” Tahi said, glancing back at Laila and grinning. She looked especially pretty tonight, wearing a short strapless sapphire-blue dress, her long, highlighted brown hair spilling around her tanned shoulders. They’d all tucked their swimsuits and beach cover-ups in their purses, since they’d been invited for a swim.
Tahi had confessed to Laila earlier that afternoon that she liked Rudy. “But not in an ‘I-have-to-have-him-or-die’ kind of way. He’s cute, though. He makes me laugh. But it’s not like Zara likes Eric, or you—”
Her cousin had halted herself when Laila shook her head repressively once. She wasn’t going to gossip to Tahi at the moment. Not about Asher, she wasn’t. Something about what was happening between them was unique. So intensely personal. At least to Laila it was.