“You thought?” I growl.
“But then we went to the party and did you see how everyone was looking at us? No, looking at me—like I didn’t belong there at all. That one girl? Heidi? Completely froze me out with her gaze. And I overheard a couple chicks calling me a rich snob and saying my dress is ridiculous.”
“Why is your dress ridiculous?” From where I’m sitting, her short yellow dress looks ridiculously sexy.
“Because it’s Givenchy and I guess nobody wears a thousand-dollar dress to a house party?” Mac’s cheeks redden with embarrassment. “My mom’s assistant buys most of my clothes. In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t care about fashion. I live in jeans and T-shirts.” She sounds more and more anguished. “I only wore this stupid dress because it’s cute and summery and short enough that I knew it’d drive you crazy.”
I fight a laugh. I also force myself not to comment on the fact that the scrap of yellow fabric barely covering her delectable body cost a grand.
“But maybe it did come off like I was flaunting? I don’t know. I wasn’t trying to. All I know is that nobody wanted me there tonight.”
“I wanted you there.”
“You don’t count,” she grumbles.
I reach over the center console and grab her hand. Forcibly lacing our fingers together. “I’m the only one who counts,” I correct.
“They count too,” she argues. “You’ve got an entire group of friends, and you’ve all known each other forever. I have like two friends, one of whom is my roommate so she’s kind of forced to like me.”
The laugh slips out.
“I wish I had a huge friend group like yours. I’m jealous,” she says frankly. “And I really wanted everyone to like me tonight.”
I release her hand and steer the truck to the shoulder of the road. I put it in park and turn to her with a firm stare. “Babe. I like you. Okay? And my friends, they’ll come around and grow to like you too. I promise you that.”
She frowns. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“I mean it. Give it a little more time,” I say gruffly. “Don’t bail on me, on this, just because the reception tonight wasn’t the warmest, and some girls got all judgmental about your dress—which, just so you know, is the hottest thing ever and I want to rip that thousand-dollar fabric off your body with my teeth.”
Mac laughs, albeit weakly.
“Please.” I almost cringe at the pleading note I hear in my voice. “Don’t bail on me, princess.”
The shadows in the truck dance over her pretty face as she sits in silence for a moment. It feels like an eternity before she finally responds.
Green eyes gleaming from the headlights of a passing vehicle, she leans toward me and kisses me. Hard. With a lot of tongue. Then she pulls back breathlessly and whispers, “I won’t bail on you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
MACKENZIE
Give it time, he said.
They’ll come around, he said.
Well, I’m calling bullshit on Cooper’s bullshit. Since the disaster at the party, I’ve been on a hearts-and-minds campaign, doing my damnedest to try to win over Cooper’s “gang.” Though he’d never admit it, I know he’s bothered by the fissures where his friends and I are concerned, and I don’t want to be the reason he drifts away from the people he cares about. They’ve been in his life a lot longer than I have. The way I see it, there’s no reason we can’t all get along.
So I’m trying. I’m really, really trying. Whether it’s out at the sports bar playing darts or hanging on the beach at a bonfire, I’ve been working to make inroads in recent weeks. Most of Cooper’s guy friends—Tate, Chase, Wyatt—seem to have completely warmed up to me. We even went out for dinner one night with Chase and his boyfriend, a cute guy named Alec who also goes to Garnet. Except they don’t count, because they’re not the ones I need to win over. That would be the gang, the inner circle.
Aside from Steph, who continues to be an ally, I can’t seem to crack the iron curtain that is the Alana and Heidi blockade. And while Evan hasn’t been overtly hostile lately, it seems he’s opted for the silent approach where I’m concerned. If you can’t say anything nice, and all that.
Which is why I thought tonight would be the perfect opportunity for a more intimate get-together. Just the gang. S’mores, scary movies, maybe a little Truth or Dare and Never Have I Ever. Bonding stuff and all that jazz.
So of course, by midafternoon the scattered showers predicted for this evening turn into severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings throughout the Carolinas.
Awesome. Even the weather is against me.
An hour ago, Cooper and Evan left to help Levi batten down the hatches at one of his construction sites. So now I’m sitting here at their house with ten pounds of cold buffalo wings and cheesy garlic bread, and beyond the sliding glass doors, the sky grows gray and foreboding over the bay. Without much else to do, and because I happen to love storms—there’s something about the fierce, electric anticipation of chaos—I open the back door to let the cool air in and then curl up on the couch with some homework. The TV is on quietly in the background, turned to the local news, where the weather people are standing in front of a radar image awash in red and orange, tossing around words like hunker down.