Rich Prick – Tijan Page 0,31

point me at things you want carried to your car? I can do that much to help.”

So that’s what we did.

I finished packing up what was left, and then pointed.

He carried everything to Maisie, and after I had a hard time getting something to fit, he took over packing her up too. His phone went off the entire morning, but he ignored it. There was one last coffee, and I was grabbing the last bag when I saw him duck into Maisie, putting it inside for me.

Then he held his keys in the air, grinning at me, and I felt all sorts of heat between my legs. He watched me come over to him, his eyes darkening as he looked me up and down.

He whistled. “You do camping good.”

A stifled a laugh. That was funny.

“Thank you.”

He grinned, bending down to press his lips to mine. “Wanna race back to Fallen Crest?”

Fallen Crest. I felt a sudden wave of nerves. “Uh…”

His grin faded. “What?”

“About Fallen Crest—when we get back there…” I swallowed over a lump in my throat. “What’s the plan? Because your friends scare me.”

He shrugged. “They scare me too.”

“Blaise.” I was getting frustrated. “This isn’t a joke to me.”

“I know.” He tipped up my chin. “I pretty much gave you the one promise I can give. Can we see how things go? I won’t let anyone mess with you.”

I tried to ignore the sudden burst of tingles in my chest, but dammit—he was in there, and making me feel things I wasn’t ready to feel. I never thought I would feel stuff like this, or have someone like him wanting to kiss me. And that’s all he was giving me, I reminded myself. We were more than friends, and he wouldn’t touch someone else, but relationships took more than that.

I’d have to go back to my same existence and what? Wait for him to show up? Make visits?

Then again, maybe that’s what friendships were like?

“Okay.”

His eyebrows darted up in surprise. “Okay?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I mean, I don’t have friends in Fallen Crest. I’m out of practice for this stuff. All my friends at Hillcrest lived in the same building as I did, so it was different.”

He frowned. “Okay then, I guess.”

I’d started for Maisie when he caught my hand and pulled me in. His head dipped, and his mouth was on mine. A full minute later, he let me go, and my knees were shaking.

“That’ll last me a while. I’ll call later.”

He’ll call.

Okay then.

He’ll call.

I could do this… Couldn’t I?

But he said he’d call, so there was that. He was going to call.

16

Blaise

Zeke answered after the first ring.

“Yo! Where the fuck you at, bro?”

I grinned. Always the same from him. For some reason, that settled me.

“Hey, I need a favor.”

He belched into the phone. “Name it.”

“Nice.”

“Whatever. You missed the best rave last night.” He whistled.

I could hear voices, but they were fading, and a second later, they were gone.

“Talk to me. What do you need?”

“Where are you?”

He belched again, then laughed. “We had tacos earlier. Guess the peppers aren’t sitting right with me. But what do you need?”

“I’m not sure.” I explained about my mom and Griffith. “If he’s still there, I either need you to hold me back or be my alibi.”

I could almost hear him smiling. “Yeah, man. Anything for you. You want just me or should I grab Conway and Ashlome too?”

I paused, but there was nothing else there. “Hey, Zeke—”

“Water under the bridge, B. They never really liked me, so it’s all good. I can’t fault them since, you know, I love you too.”

There it was again, his unconditional bromance. “Right.” I was such a dick. All the shit I’d thought about him in my head…

“Dude, I can almost hear your wheels turning, so shut the fuck up. Okay? So you want both or just Conway? Or just yours truly?”

Christ.

If Griffith were actually there, I would try to beat the shit out of him. “Maybe all three of you.”

Zeke belched again. “On it. Oh, and Daniels was asking about you last night. Am I correct that your absence had something to do with the chick in the back of your very fine G Wagon?”

Crap. My stomach took a nosedive. “Mara was asking about me?” I was hoping to not deal with that whole scene, but I couldn’t if she was going to push it.

“Yeah.” He was quiet. “Should I avoid her?”

I barked out a laugh. “Nah, man. You don’t have to avoid her; just pass