Between Us and the Moon - Rebecca Maizel Page 0,72

next rager at Summerhill, but I don’t mind the taste.

“Did you know it takes five ounces of CO2 to run a keg?” I ask.

Andrew laces his arms around my lower waist, drawing me to him. I try not to spill my beer when we kiss. Our mouths taste like the beer and in that moment it’s just us. No Nancy, no cupcake dress. No Mom yelling at me across a kitchen table.

“That’s why you’re amazing,” he says.

“Because I can remember nearly every scientific fact I have ever heard?”

“Yep.”

“No, no, she’s in New York!” Curtis says behind me, and this gets my attention. Andrew turns around and laughs.

“Give it up. Scarlett is done with you,” Andrew says, and the sound of Scarlett’s name from his mouth is a burst of adrenaline through my stomach. “Broadway ballerina and your fish market ass?” Andrew says, and laughter erupts around us.

“Scarlett?” I ask, trying to dig for information.

“Yeah. Curtis hooks up with her. Her family comes up to Orleans every year. I just like to give him shit. She’s way out of his league.”

So much for Scarlett thinking she’s at local status.

We lean against the kitchen breakfast bar.

“She’s a ballerina,” Andrew says.

“Oh,” I say, trying to sound like this is new information to me.

“But she’s a major bitch. She’s having this huge party at the end of the summer. We’ve never even been to her house, but we all have to go and get dressed up.”

We. He said we. Andrew is invited.

Of course he’s invited.

I want to cringe. Instead I grip on to Andrew even harder.

“What’s the party for?” I ask. I want Andrew to talk so he can’t tell my voice is weak.

He takes a sip of his beer. “Not sure. Her grandmother or someone is throwing it.”

Scarlett would never leave Andrew out of the party plans; he’s Curtis’s best friend. Andrew would have shown up at Scarlett’s party even if we never met. If I don’t say something before the party, he’ll see me in that horrendous cupcake dress and put it all together. My cup nearly slips from my hand and some beer sloshes onto the floor.

“I got it,” Andrew says, planting a kiss on my nose and crossing the kitchen to grab a paper towel. In the second he’s gone, I lean hard against the kitchen counter.

He’s been coming to Scarlett’s house all summer, he just hasn’t known it. He clearly hasn’t paid very close attention to his invitation. He will know the instant he pulls onto Shore Road. He’ll know the second he looks at the invitation.

When he comes back he wipes the spot on the floor and then the outside of my beer cup. He hands it back to me and it’s drier but no easier to hold. My hands tremble. Andrew leans into me again and continues, “Anyway, Scarlett bosses her friends around, talks to people like they’re idiots. And everyone lets her.”

“Not your favorite person?” I ask with a shake in my voice. I say it in my head again and again. Andrew is invited to Scarlett’s going-away party. Of course he is. Why didn’t I see it?

I am supremely stupid. I am absolutely going to have to tell him I’m Scarlett’s sister, there’s no way out of that.

“Scarlett’s okay,” he continues. “She’s just not my kind of person.”

“Who is?” I ask.

“Not you,” he says, but Andrew’s uneven smile tells me he’s playing. “Definitely not my type.”

The tips of our noses are just inches apart. Andrew kisses my lips but just barely. When he touches me like this I don’t think about the going-away party or the lies I told. His hands are so warm on my body and when he pulls away he keeps his eyes on my mouth. I don’t know what he finds so fascinating about my lips.

“You’re exactly what I want,” he whispers. I exhale. No one has ever said anything like this to me. Not until now. “And you smell so good,” Andrew says and inhales deeply. He kisses me again and his stubble pricks at my skin, but his lips are so soft. He runs his mouth over mine again and again. Goose bumps erupt over my arms.

Andrew’s lips press against mine and our kiss deepens. I’m completely engulfed in his arms. If anyone will understand why I kept my identity as Scarlett’s sister a secret, Andrew will. He’ll get what my family thinks of me and who they think I am. I will figure this out no matter what.