CHAPTER FOUR
MILO
In my mind the Ping-Pong game looked a heck of a lot like the movie 300, you know, without the swords, blood, and capes.
Grunts and curses cut through the tense air like fireworks. I’d serve, Colton would return, and so the game went, back and forth, back and forth.
A few times I sacrificed my body to gain a point. But my small scratches were nothing next to his war wounds.
Colton struck his head against the table trying to perform a low hit, and I’m pretty sure Jason was going to have a black eye after I accidently slammed the ball in the wrong direction.
“Foul!” Colton shouted.
“No fouls in Ping-Pong, bitch,” I yelled.
“Whoa!” Colton held up his hands. “Got a fire under your ass there, squirt? Pulling out the big-girl words?”
“I know big-girl words and I can do big-girl things.” I inwardly cringed. Yeah, I should have left that second part out.
He smirked and leaned forward so his hands were pressed against the table as sweat poured from his face. We’d been at it for at least three hours.
Each game had ended in a tie.
“What kind of big-girl things?” He licked his lips.
“Just . . .” My throat went completely dry. “Things.”
“Tiebreaker!” Jason removed the ice pack from his eye and set it on the desk behind him.
“Next point wins?” I offered.
“I have a better idea.” Colton set his paddle on the table and walked around until he was on my side. “Slap game.”
“Are you ten?” I narrowed my eyes, not trusting him for a second.
Colton looked himself up and down and then shrugged. “Do I look ten?”
No. Hell, no. He looked . . . well, I wasn’t sure, but I needed to snap my mouth shut before I started panting. Sweat soaked through his shirt, and his shirt clung to his abs, which in turn made me want to both cry and thank God that his shirt was tight.
“Slap game.” Jason laughed, jolting me out of my stare-down with Colt’s abs. “Classic.”
Colton held out his hands, pressing them together in front of his body. “Ladies first.”
“What a gentleman,” I mumbled, holding my hands on either side of his in the air.
“I’m ready when you are,” he whispered.
I stole a look at his face; his eyes drank me in.
Crap.
He was messing with me.
“Stop it.” My jaw clenched.
“What?” He licked his lips again, this time taking extra care to bite down on his bottom lip in such a way that it was impossible not to imagine what it would feel like to have his teeth on my body.
“That.” I looked away. “And I’m ready.”
“Ladies, we gonna play or we gonna talk?” Jason stepped up beside us and grinned.
“Play,” we said in unison.
I flinched. Colton moved his hands, I flinched again and slapped with my right, then my left, but missed on the third time around.
“My turn.”
Colton got me once. Twice . . . three times. We usually went three rounds, and Jason decided who won based on how many slaps we got in within the first ten seconds.
“Missed,” I taunted, jumping up and down.
A few minutes later, Jason sighed. “Sorry, bro, she’s got six slaps to your four, one more round and I’ll declare the winner.”
With a triumphant grin, I began again. I should have realized my lucky streak wouldn’t continue.
I went for his hands and made the mistake of looking at his face, just as his lips formed a mocking air kiss.
I missed.
“WHOA!” Jason shouted. “Missed on the first round, sorry, little sis, but you lost.”
“He cheated!” I wailed.
“Don’t be a sore loser,” Colton scolded, putting his hands down. I didn’t even realize I had that much pent-up anger until my hand went flying across his cheek.
“Damn it!” He stumbled to the side.
Jason’s mouth dropped open. I covered mine with my hands.
“What the hell, Milo!” Colton kept swearing.
“I, uh . . .”
Jason covered his face with his hands as if I were a supreme embarrassment to the family name and chuckled. “I’ll go get you some ice, bro.”
“Thanks,” he snapped, then looked at me. “Well? Care explaining, Rocky?”
“You made me mad?” I scrunched up my nose and then burst out laughing. “I’m sorry! I shouldn’t laugh. It’s just, you have a me-size handprint right here.” I reached out and touched his cheek. He placed his hand over mine, sealing it against his skin.
“You branded me,” he joked, his voice hoarse.
“Yeah, well, now there’s no escaping me.” I tried to keep my voice light—tried and failed. I really needed to stop staring at his lips. Bad things were going to happen. A girl could only last so long without the opposite sex before she just jumped whoever was in front of her.
“Who says I want to?”
“Want to?” I shook my head in confusion.
“Escape.” His eyes went completely black as he took a step toward me, making any space between us nonexistent.
Something shifted in the air. My hand was blazing underneath his. With a curse he grabbed the back of my head, and our mouths met in a violent kiss, one that I knew I’d never forget.
His mouth plundered mine. I arched under his touch and then crumbled under the sensation of the feelings he was creating in me.
“Here’s your ice!” Jason called at the top of the stairs.
Colton released me as abruptly as he’d grabbed me. Adrenaline surged through my body, making it impossible to act normal. Breathing was nearly impossible because I was afraid if I inhaled I’d make too much noise and if I exhaled he’d know that what he’d just done to me had physically altered every single cell in my body and left me defenseless and wanting. I stared at him, waiting for him to say the words I’d longed to hear my whole life.
I mean, I didn’t expect him to propose or say that he was in love with me. Just admitting a mutual attraction would have been nice.
But he didn’t say anything. Instead he looked down at the floor. His face was a mask of indifference, his eyes, once piercing, weren’t even looking at me, his mouth was set in a grim line as if he was disappointed.
“Yo!” Jason made it to the bottom of the stairs and set the ice and towel on the table. “Dad needs help with the TV again. I’ll be right back—don’t kill each other in my absence.”
I laughed weakly and waved him off.
Colton still said nothing.
With a huff I walked over to the table, grabbed the ice and slammed it against his face.
“Shit, Milo. Could you be less violent? Please?”
“Sorry.” My voice was small. I felt small. There was a damn elephant in the room!
“So.” Colton took a step away from me. “I, uh, I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”
“Sorry,” I repeated, my heart dropping all the way to my stomach. “For?”
“Look . . .” Colton swore and rubbed his eyes. “I shouldn’t have done that. You’re my best friend’s little sister—shit, you’re like my sister, you know?”
My mouth dropped open. No. Freaking. Way. No way was he pulling the sister card again! One day I was going to find that card, rip it to shreds, put a hex on it, and bury it next to his body. Okay, a little harsh, but I hated that card. Hated it more than peas and that’s saying a lot. Peas shouldn’t exist. Period.
“No, no.” He shook his head. “Not like that. I’m just saying, I’ve known you forever and I’m sorry. I just . . . I overstepped my boundaries. That should never have happened.” He cursed again. “If I could take it back, I would.”
If he could take it back he would? That was worse than saying sorry! I would have preferred getting run over by my own car—or dying in a bull stampede.
My throat felt thick.
I tried to keep the tears in, I really did. Instead they streamed down my cheeks so fast I didn’t even have time to wipe them away before Colton saw.
“Milo, shit.” He pulled me into his arms. “Don’t cry.”
I tried to pull away, but he kept me firmly pressed against his chest.
“No, it’s not you.” I was finally able to wrangle myself free. “It’s, uh . . .” Think, Milo, think. “It’s just that I’ve never cheated on anyone before, and I feel bad.”
Gold star for Milo.
“Cheated?” Colton’s eyes pinched together in confusion. “What do you mean cheated?”
“Max.” Yeah, he was going to murder me. “We’ve been dating on and off for years and, well, we’re kind of back on, and . . . I’m going to have to tell him . . . You’re right, Colton, it should have never happened.” Yeah, the bitterness in my voice was unmistakable. And the Oscar goes to . . .
“Milo—” Colton cursed and started pacing in front of me. “I’ll tell him, give me your phone.”
“No!” I shouted. “I mean, um, no, it should be in person. I feel bad enough.”
The dog bark ringtone went off.
Damn it, Max!
“You should answer that.” Colton nodded to my front pocket.
“Voice mail.”
“It’s your guy.”
“How do you know?”
“Same ringtone, an unlucky guess.”
“So?”
Colton rolled his eyes. “Be mature, Milo, just answer the damn phone.”
With shaking hands I pulled my phone out of my pocket and clicked “Accept.” “Hey, baby.”
“Uh-oh . . . what did you do?”
“Yeah, I miss you too!”
“Milo, say my name if you did something really stupid and unforgiveable like the time you told me I wouldn’t get a splinter in my ass for using a wood sled.”
“Max . . .” I purred, trying to sound sexy. Colton leaned in like he was trying to listen to our conversation. I glared at him, hoping he’d back off and give me space.
“Shit balls. Oh, look, a bus! What? What was that? You want to throw me under it?”
“So listen . . . you know I love you.”
“I hate you so much right now.”
I forced a smile. “But I may have done something really stupid . . .”
“Shocked. Really. My heart almost stopped.”
“. . . and kissed another guy. But to be fair he kissed me.”
“Do you want me to yell?”
“Yes!”
“The pain!” Max shouted. “The misery in my heart! It’s dying, I’m dying, you’ve killed me! You’ve killed us! Do we mean nothing to you? I bought you an aloe vera plant, Milo! Do you even know what those mean?”
“Uhhh.”
Colton held out his hand. “Give me the phone. I’ll explain.”
“No,” I argued.
“NO!” Max yelled. “Well, let me tell you. Aloe vera means healing, it means love, and I gave you a piece of my heart, so you would heal me, not run me over with your Mercedes!”
Colton won the war and jerked the phone out of my hands. “Listen, it’s my fault, yeah.” His eyes narrowed and then he started laughing. “Well, yeah, that’s true. Yeah. Oh, man, you should totally come down. Yeah, that would be great.”
No. No. No. No. I tried to snatch the phone as Colton walked off with it. “Sure, dude, yeah, and again I’m so sorry, bro, apologies, I just, I don’t know what came over me.” He smiled in my direction. “Yeah, she sure is. Okay, I’ll tell her.”
He hit “End,” his face still set in a firm smile. “Nice guy.”
It was official. I hated all men.
Colton handed me the phone. “Oh, and he said to call him. He said he was surprising you for the wedding, was gonna show up and be your date, now that things are . . . awkward.” He coughed. “I told him it was a good idea. Besides, you’re probably still pissed at me for mauling you like that—you should be able to have a date for the wedding.”
Damn the man for continuing to march all over my heart like I was dirt and he was the freaking army storming some other girl’s castle!
“Right.” I forced the word out of my mouth, and promised myself I wouldn’t cry again.
“Yeah.” Colton nodded and looked away. “I should, uh, go help Jason. Thanks for . . .” He stopped talking. “’Night, Milo.”