CHAPTER ELEVEN
MILO
Colton’s face fell as he made his way slowly up the stairs. Funny how life happened. I spent half my childhood waiting for him at the top of the stairs.
And now? Now I was waiting for him again.
Not to slay the dragon, but to do something more heroic.
“It’s smaller than I remember,” he mused once he reached the top; his green eyes took in the room. The toy trunk was still in the corner along with my princess gowns and the giant family portrait from when I was born. My parents held me up between them like I was freaking Simba from The Lion King while an irritated Jason made a face at the camera. Priceless.
Dusty boxes lined the walls. The boxes had been there since I could remember. We used to build castles out of them.
The dragon always—and I do mean always—got slain before he reached the box castle. Colton was good like that.
I shrugged. “You’re just bigger.”
“Guess so.” Colton walked around to the tiny window and took a seat on the toy box. “So we’re just going to hide out until break time?”
“You have any better ideas?” I teased, wiping my hand across the dusty surface of one of the boxes. “My mom’s losing her head over this wedding—don’t shake your head, you know it’s true. It’s not even like she likes Jayne anyway!”
“No.” Colton patted the spot next to him. “But she loves Jason and if Jason loves Jayne, then your mom loves Jayne, which means she wants everything to be perfect.”
“You’re right.”
“Sorry, I didn’t quite get that.” He grinned, making my stomach drop to my feet.
“I’m not saying it again for your benefit, Colt.”
“Fine.” He sighed and picked up the wooden sword by his feet. “Tell me, how badass of a dragon was I?”
Laughing, I took the sword. “You always got the dragon. Meaning you did a really good job of killing yourself and then turning back into the knight. And I must admit the dragon always made really cool dying noises.”
“Why’d we stop?”
“Hmm?” I was too busy watching his mouth to pay attention to the words actually coming out of it.
“Playing dragons and knights.”
“Um, I got boobs?”
Colton dropped the sword and swore.
“Sorry, but it’s true.”
“You had . . .” He pointed and looked away. “You’ve always been a girl.” The tips of his ears burned a bit pink. Was it possible that the great Colton Mathews was embarrassed?
“Right,” I said slowly. “But the minute you realized I wasn’t just a girl, that I was turning into a young woman, you went from playing and slaying the dragon to slaying all my friends.”
Colton glared with disapproval. “I did not slay your friends. And by slay I’m assuming you mean lay because it rhymes and you’re ridiculous like that.”
My stomach clenched. I could still remember what it had felt like to go to Jason’s and his graduation party and see Colton locking lips with Jenna. They’d been behind the garage, kissing in the shadows. When Colton saw me, he tried to run after me, but I went and hid like a total loser. My heart had been broken. After all, Jenna and I were in the same exact class, which meant he was interested in girls my age. Just not me.
“There weren’t that many girls, Milo. I think you’re exaggerating. Besides, I’m reformed. I haven’t dated seriously in . . .”
“What?” I interrupted, folding my arms across my chest. “Thirty days? Having problems counting that high?”
“It’s been a while.”
“Look . . .” I stood. “It’s not like it’s any of my business.”
The attic fell silent.
“Isn’t it, though?” he whispered, his eyes searching mine. When I didn’t say anything, he stood and pulled me into his arms. “Tell me it’s not your business.”
“It’s—”
“Jayne, seriously, back off!” Max yelled.
Colton and I froze, then silently padded down the stairs to the door and listened.
“What?” Jayne whined.
I made a face at Colton while he put a pretend gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
“Come on, nobody has to know . . . for old times’ sake.”
“Run away!” I whispered. “Run!”
“No, no, I’m good. Thanks for the really inappropriate offer, though,” Max said in a stern voice.
Cursing, she walked off and slammed the door.
I pushed open the attic door and yelled, “What the hell, Max?”
Whoops! Now I looked like a lover scorned.
“She came on to me!” Max held up his hands. “And you heard what I said! The bitch has got to go! I’m serious, guys. She tried grabbing me under the table! And when I swatted her hand away she took it as an invitation to get more aggressive.” He groaned and closed his eyes. “All I kept thinking was if I can just spill orange juice on her shirt then she’ll freak. Instead she thought it was an excuse for us to go somewhere private.”
I walked over and put my arm on his shoulder.
“Wait a second . . .” Max looked between me and Colton. “What were you guys doing in the closet?”
“Attic,” Colton said quickly. “Just looking for . . .”
Oh, hell, if he said birds again we were done for.
“Something old, for Jayne, for the wedding.”
I nodded and winked at Max.
“It’s almost break time, I’ll just . . .” Colton walked out of the room, leaving me alone with Max.
I smacked him on the chest. “You ruined our moment.”
“I almost ended up on a milk carton!” Max shouted. “She wasn’t taking no for an answer!”
“You’re a man, make her!”
“I may be a man, but she terrifies me. Yeah, she broke my heart, but holy shit, it’s like she got a brain transplant. She asked how much money engineers make!”
I laughed. “What did you tell her?”
“I told her I was going to be a lifer. You know, go to school and just keep learning because learning was the foundation of life and I wanted to give life back into the world.”
I tilted my head and squinted at him. “You come up with that crap ahead of time or does it just pour forth out of those wise lips of yours?”
“It’s a gift.” He shrugged. “Unfortunately I grossly miscalculated her ability to understand complicated sentences and big words, so from that lovely explanation she took that I had enough money to just go to school for the rest of my life.”
“Damn.”
Max sighed. “Thus the milk carton theory. No doubt she would have kidnapped me and you would have dreamed of my kisses for an eternity.”
“No doubt.”
“You should tell Jason.”
“You tell Jason!”
“Okay.” Max held up his hands. “We’re not doing this. I refuse to engage.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I blocked his way to the door.
“This!” He held up his hands. “This is what you do. You’re picking a fight because you’re frustrated, albeit sexually. A little hint, take off your shirt and stare him down, works nine times out of ten.”
“And the one time it doesn’t?”
“You may have a repeat of your sixteenth birthday and get laughed at.”
“Are you saying I have a bad chest?”
“Aw, shit. There you go picking fights again.” Max went over to the bed and took a seat. “Let’s get this over with.”
“What?” I looked around the room. “What are we getting over with?”
“Let’s have a look.” He motioned to my shirt with his hand and sighed impatiently. “Come on, we don’t have all day. It’s like prison, your mom expects us to be back at work in fifteen minutes.”
“Fine.” I fidgeted with my shirt. “Just, don’t laugh, and be honest. I want to know if I’m going to be that ten percent or the ninety, all right?”
“Okay.”
I lifted a bit of the shirt, and stopped. “And if it’s bad, maybe just . . . let me down slowly, like say something like, ‘Oh, wow, at least you have really pretty lingerie.’ ”
“Fine.”
Lifting the shirt higher, I almost punked out when Max groaned and shouted, “Damn it, Milo, take off your clothes!”
Irritated, I lifted the shirt all the way up to my head.
When the door opened.
“Hey guys, Mrs. Caro wants—”
The shirt was still over my head. Max was probably staring, and that was Colton’s voice.
“Er, I mean when you’re, um, finished . . .”
“This isn’t what it looks like!” I turned toward the door and barreled in the general direction as I tried jerking my shirt down.
When the shirt was finally dislodged, I stumbled into Colton’s arms, sending him crashing against the door, and my shirt fell enough for me to see that he’d banged his cheekbone.
“Shit!” He pulled away from me, but my shirt was still slightly up around my bra, so his hands went directly to my naked stomach. “Shhhit!” He pushed me away and tried to turn around but was clearly disoriented because this time he ran into the other side of the door, stumbled, and then hobbled down the hall holding one hand to his cheek.
After a few moments of silence, during which I prayed someone from the future had created time travel and was coming back to save my sorry ass, Max finally clapped. “Or you could just take off your top, give him two head wounds, and chase him down the hall. Yeah, that works too.”
“Oh, no.” My eyes filled with tears.
“Hey, hey.” Max came up behind me and helped me pull my shirt back down. “If it makes you feel better, your boobs looked awesome.”
“You mean it?”
“Comes from my heart.” He grinned. “Right here.” His grin widened as he placed his hand low on my chest.
I groaned as he fell into fits of laughter.
“All right, little girl, let’s go do damage control and face that drill sergeant mom of yours.”
“He’s never going to want me,” I whispered under my breath.
“Course he will.” Max held me close. “If he doesn’t, I’ll just kill him.”