“So I thought we should go on a date tomorrow night,” Ryder said to me at lunch one Thursday.
We were sitting outside under a tree, as far away from the stares and whispers in the cafeteria as we could get. Even after being back at school for three weeks, people still had nothing better to do than gossip about Ryder having a girlfriend and Chace being pissed that I moved on so quickly. The latest rumour going around the school was that Chace thought I would have been heartbroken for a long time. He wasn’t wrong. It still hurt terribly each time I saw him and Christina together. I hadn’t moved on, but for appearance’s sake, I had.
“A date?” I choked, almost spitting out a mouthful of orange juice before turning to face Ryder to see if he was serious. “We’re not dating, though. And tomorrow is Friday.”
“Yes. A date. A real date. I know tomorrow is Friday.” Ryder gave me a quizzical look.
Why does he want to hang out with me on a Friday night? He’s Ryder freaking Jones.
“I’m sure you have better things to do than hang out with me.” It was true. I wasn’t anything special. There was no reason for him to hang around with me outside school hours.
“You don’t want to be seen with me?” He frowned, nodding slowly as if understanding what I was talking about. He was wrong.
“No!” I almost shouted, lowering my voice when we got a few glares. “Of course I want to hang out with you, but I don’t need your pity. I don’t want a pity date, Ryder.”
“It’s not a pity date, Bailey.” He rolled his eyes. “You know I like hanging out with you, and we need to make public appearances occasionally to make this look believable.” Ryder sighed, pushing his curls out of his face.
“We make plenty of public appearances.” Why would he want to hang out with me on a Friday night when he had friends and teammates that he could party with or whatever?
“Bailey, you coming to my soccer practice at the crack of dawn on a Saturday when only the guys on the team can see you is not a public appearance,” he said, stealing my juice from me and taking a huge mouthful.
“But we also—” I tried to argue back and was cut off by him rolling his eyes again. He did that a lot when I spoke. Probably because I was always arguing with him.
“And as much fun as it is making out with you in the school halls, the school parking lot, and homeroom, it’s not the same. People in relationships go on dates,” he said. I sat up on my knees to face him, watching his mouth pull up into a smile when I wrapped my arms around his neck, his bright green eyes widening in surprise.
“You forgot making out in the cafeteria line, and the car, and in front of Chace’s locker,” I said. His eyes lit up, and a smirk formed on his soft, pink lips.
“That was fun. Best kiss ever. Even if you did have my back pushed into the damn padlock. Swear it’s still bruised.” He had a dreamy but pained expression on his face.
“That was all you, Casanova. Not my fault you got carried away.” Not that I minded. Who would? I was fast becoming used to kissing Ryder. Chace, however, was furious, muttering something about disinfecting his locker and indecent exposure followed by a few choice words thrown in my direction. There was nothing indecently exposed. I wasn’t that kind of girl. But I will never forget the look on Chace’s face when Ryder finally stopped attacking me with his lips.
“Totally your fault,” I added before closing the distance between us to kiss him.
I was nervous about kissing him. What if he didn’t want to kiss me? Even though we had kissed in all those places, and quite a lot too, it was always Ryder initiating things. I had never felt confident enough just to land one on him at random times. I always let him make the first move. But when I heard that small moaning sound from the back of his throat, I knew I hadn’t crossed the line.
“And besides, I heard Chace and Christina talking about going to the drive-in tomorrow night to watch that new chick flick. Wanna make them jealous?” He cleared his throat and grinned cheekily. I couldn’t refuse him. Not when he looked at me like that—with that smile and those excited eyes.
As terrible as it sounded, I’d quite enjoyed seeing Chace’s reactions to things over the past couple of weeks. Ryder and I being in a relationship was clearly getting to him. His beautiful, show-stopping, teeth-flashing, movie-star smile had completely disappeared and had been replaced by what Ryder named Chace’s perma-scowl. It was evident he didn’t want me to move on and that he expected me to pine after him, but I refused to do that. Every day I spent with Ryder made it that little bit easier to forget how much I had loved Chace and how I was truly better off without him.
“Okay, let’s go. It could be fun.” I nodded, shifting so I could sit beside him and steal a fry from his tray.
“Hey,” he complained, reaching to grab it back from me. But I just shrugged and shoved it in my mouth before smiling and leaning back into his arms.
I was becoming increasingly comfortable around Ryder the more time I spent with him. It was getting easier to act as his girlfriend now with small gestures like cuddling up to him and holding his hand. Maybe now I could add kissing to the list of things I was comfortable doing. Or maybe not. It was still weird. I didn’t want him to think that I wanted to kiss him because I liked him in that way or anything. Because I didn’t. That would be awkward. I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea or freak out. Maybe I’d just leave the big gestures like kissing to him. But I wouldn’t complain. Ever.
“Urgh, you guys are so sweet it’s disgusting.” Indie huffed, throwing her bag on the ground and sitting beside us.
“Disgusting?” I asked.
At the same time, Ryder screwed his nose up and asked, “Sweet?”
“Yes, disgusting and sweet. Looking all loved up and sexy.” She glared at Ryder. “And happy together cuddling under a tree. I want tree cuddles. Ryder, do you have an identical twin you could introduce me to?”
“Sorry, In. It’s just me.” He laughed, absentmindedly tracing patterns on my waist where his hand was resting.
Indie pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. “Damn it. I need to find a boyfriend, or at least a date for prom.”
“It’s not even a real prom. We don’t have them here.” I shook my head.
“But they’re crowning a king and queen, so it still counts. And I need a date!” She huffed and looked at Ryder hopefully.
“Uh…why?” Ryder asked, pulling his eyebrows together in confusion.
“Stupid boys suck.” Indie sighed.
“Then why do you want a boyfriend?” Ryder was baffled. Indie wasn’t making much sense to him.
“To get over a stupid boy. What about any hot friends?” she asked.
“Nah, none, sorry.” What the hell? Ryder mouthed to me behind Indie’s back. I’d have to fill him in later on Indie’s life-long crush on her brother’s best friend.
“Yeah, but what about Jayden?” I asked. “He’s single.” I tilted my head to look at Ryder.
Ryder pouted thoughtfully and shrugged. Jayden was one of the guys on Ryder’s soccer team and Ryder’s closest friend. We’d had lunch a couple of times after practice the past couple of weeks. He was cool. I liked him. Unfortunately, he didn’t go to our school. Jayden could at least take her out a few times and then to the dance, maybe get her mind off Lincoln Andrews for a while.
“Jayden? Who’s Jayden? Is he hot? Is he sweet? Does he want a girlfriend? Can I meet him?” Indie asked a hundred miles an hour, her eyes shining bright like a star.
“One of Ryder’s friends. Yes, he’s hot, single, and looking for a girlfriend. We can introduce them, yeah, Jones?” I nudged him when I noticed he was frowning. His fingers had stopped trailing patterns on my skin. “What’s wrong?”
“You think Jayden’s hot?” he asked quietly, avoiding eye contact. Was he seriously jealous? I rolled my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to grab hold of that confidence I had slowly been building.
“Not as hot as you. No one compares to you,” I told him before pressing my lips to his.
“Oh look, Chace is coming this way,” Indie announced while my lips were still attached to Ryder’s. He didn’t respond at first, and I didn’t move. I kept my lips on his, ignoring Indie’s gagging sounds in the background. I finally felt Ryder’s mouth curl into a small smile and felt one arm wrap around my waist. His other hand grasped my shoulder and began pushing me backwards gently, until I was down on the grass and Ryder’s long body was pressed against my side.
“Ohhh…kay, I’m leaving now. This is getting rather uncomfortable. Call me when I can meet Jayden.” I heard her shuffling around to leave but didn’t acknowledge it. Instead, my fingers found their way into Ryder’s hair and pulled his mouth down to mine again when he broke the kiss.
“I wasn’t finished,” I mumbled against his mouth, earning a chuckle from him before I felt his tongue trace along my bottom lip. I immediately parted my lips, letting him deepen the kiss. I could feel eyes on us like someone was staring, and I was vaguely aware that we were in the schoolyard and remembered Indie announcing something about Chace, but I was too lost in Ryder’s kiss and the warmth of his large hand gripping my waist to care.
Finally, when we were both struggling for breath, Ryder pulled away slightly and, looking down at me, smiled. “Damn it, Bailey. That was some kiss.” I laughed at that and ran my thumb across his bottom lip, noticing how pink and swollen it looked from that intense kiss.
“It was,” I agreed. “You’re a mess, sorry.” I smoothed my hands over his hair to tame it.
“So are you, but I like this dishevelled just-been-kissed look on you.” He smirked. “Can’t wait to see the dishevelled just been fu—” I reached up and pinched his mouth shut with my fingers.
“Don’t finish that sentence.” I tried to sound stern and severe but was trying not to laugh at him at the same time. He sighed as I released my gag.
“Just saying that is definitely a look I want to see on you.” He winked.
“In your dreams, Jones,” I told him, slapping him on the chest as the warning bell rang.
“Every night,” he admitted, pushing himself up and helping me to stand. I was just about to respond when Ryder stiffened and looked over my shoulder. I turned to look in the direction he was staring and saw Chace standing there watching, mad as hell. “Chace,” Ryder growled.
“You didn’t know he was there?” I thought that was why he had pushed me down and kissed me like that.
“No, why?”
“That kiss. I thought you were trying to piss him off.”
“That kiss was all you, Bailey.”