could open my mouth, Lorna suddenly appeared in the doorway. “There you are!” She reached out to grab my wrist and hauled me inside.
She slammed the door shut behind us. “What are you wearing?”
Taking in the strapless minidress and five-inch heels she wore, I reluctantly understood her accusatory question. I was wearing skinny jeans and a Red Hot Chili Peppers T-shirt. And ballet flats. Don’t forget the ballet flats.
I threw my hands up. “This is me, Lorna.”
“Yeah, hiding your hotness, like always.” She turned my hands palm upward. “Paint. You’re covered in paint.”
I wasn’t covered in paint. I had speckles of paint on my hands.
“More ways you cover your hotness.”
My best friend confused the hell out of me. Anytime she thought someone was paying me more attention than her, she freaked out. But anytime she thought I was “hiding my potential,” as she called it, she got in my face. There was no one more complicated than Lorna McKenna.
For example, after she kissed Chris Cruz, Chris attempted to win me over at school. A tough senior, Dana Rogers, known for slapping other girls around when she decided she didn’t like them, had a thing for Chris. When she got word that he had a thing for me, she jumped me in the girls’ restroom and busted my lip open.
When Lorna found out, she rounded up her friends and jumped Dana off school grounds. She broke Dana’s nose.
Skye was furious.
Jamie was impressed.
And my loyalty to Lorna re-cemented.
No matter how she hurt me, she had my back.
I didn’t know how to walk away from that and didn’t know if I could. Sometimes it felt like the only person in the world who truly needed me was Lorna McKenna.
“I had a feeling you might come dressed like this. You’re borrowing a dress from me.” She eyeballed my shoes. “The flats will just have to do, I guess.” Lorna and Skye both wore a shoe size bigger than me.
Still holding one of my wrists, Lorna maneuvered us through the very crowded living area. I searched for Jamie. I saw Skye and gave her a wave, but no birthday boy.
“You came.” I heard his deep voice seconds before I felt the heat of his hand on my lower back.
I tugged on Lorna, who stopped as I turned toward Jamie. The movement meant he dropped his hand from my back. A pang flared across my chest as the fluttering in my belly intensified. He wore his usual uniform of casual T-shirt and jeans, somehow always looking like a broody Calvin Klein model.
“Happy birthday.” I grinned and held out the wrapped present in my hand.
Lorna snatched it before Jamie could. “It goes on the pile.”
Jamie raised an eyebrow at her. He held out his hand for the gift. “Isn’t that up to me?”
“Nope. Now, go back to your harem. Jane needs to change.”
Harem? I frowned, suddenly realizing there was a group of college girls standing behind Jamie. One girl with champagne-blond hair glowered like she wanted a black hole to open behind me.
My heart sank.
“Change?” Jamie’s voice brought my attention back to him.
His staring made me shiver.
“Into something more party appropriate.”
“I keep trying to tell her this is me.”
Jamie’s gaze drifted down my body and back up again, and a flush of heat between my legs made me take a step back. He flicked an annoyed look at his sister. “There’s nothing wrong with her.”
“Says the guy who wouldn’t know what tailoring was if it bit him in the ass.”
“Jamie.” The champagne blond suddenly pressed her chest against Jamie’s arm. She flicked me a catty look before gazing at him in open invitation. “Why don’t you show me that book we were talking about it?”
“Now?”
She shrugged and trailed a fingertip over his heart. “Now.”
His eyes dropped to her mouth and my heart dropped out of my body.
I was such an idiot.
Lorna tugged on my wrist, and I followed her without knowing where I was going or what was happening. I was vaguely aware of her putting my present with a pile of other presents. It wasn’t until we dashed upstairs that I realized I needed to take that gift back.
Jamie would know what it cost me.
A huge chunk of my savings.
That gift was splaying my heart to him and asking him to punch a hole through it.
“Ugh, those college girls,” Lorna complained as she hauled me into her bedroom. She slammed the door shut and reached for the hem of my shirt.