The Enemy - Kelsey Clayton Page 0,76

I'd like, and before I know it, Lennon blinks her eyes open and looks up at me. I smile down at her, trying to ease her nerves and cover up the fact that I barely got an ounce of sleep last night.

"Do you just lay there and watch me sleep?"

I chuckle and bop her on the nose. "You're cute when you're dead to the world, and at least then you don't call me a creep for staring."

She looks totally fed up with my shit, but in a good way. "Eh, you're definitely still a creep, whether I'm calling you one or not."

"Fair enough," I cave. "But if I tried getting up, I might have woken you, and I didn’t want to do that."

"And you're suddenly such a gentleman, right?"

I shrug. "I have my moments."

She hears a car door close outside, and she gets up to go over to the window. When she finally looks back at me, she relaxes.

"My dad just left for work, but I think your mom's still here."

Of course, leave it to Ken to go to work today, even though technically they're still on vacation. Maybe, if I'm lucky, he's already getting sick of my mom. Or maybe he's getting sick of having her kids in his house. Obviously he doesn't think so highly of me anymore—not if he told Lennon to stay away from me.

Speaking of Lennon, she walks over and sits down on the bed next to me. "What are we going to do?"

"Whatever you want," I tell her. "If you want to listen to your dad, I'll try to make it easy for you. But if you want to give this a shot, sneak around behind their backs, I'm game for that, too."

She looks down at her lap and fiddles with the bottom of her shirt. "Do you think it could work?"

"I think if we both want it to, yeah."

"And what happens if it gets serious?" she digs further. "They're bound to find out sooner or later."

I take her chin in my grasp and turn her head to face me. "We deal with that when the time comes."

It's obvious, just by looking at her, how torn she is with this decision. Going against her dad's wishes isn't something she does often, or even at all, but she's thinking about it. If I try to push her one way right now, it's bound to backfire in my face.

"Hey," I dip my head down to meet her gaze. "You don't need to have an answer right now. Just take some time to think about it. I'm not going anywhere." I pause. "Well, other than the skate park with Bryce and Jayden."

That gets her to laugh. "Such a boy."

"Psht." I give her a cocky grin. "I'm all man."

She rolls her eyes. "Sure you are, Cadence. Sure you are."

I poke her in the side and watch as she squirms. Taking advantage of paying her back for using my full name, I grip her waist and proceed to tickle her until she's fighting to push me away.

"Stop, stop," she begs. "I'll pee."

I take mercy on her and bend down to press my lips to hers. It's not anything as X-rated as I'd like, but it renders her speechless. As I climb out of her bed, I wink and commit the smile she gives me to memory.

Now I'll spend the day with the guys, hoping that by the grace of God, Lennon chooses me over her dad. Everything is relying on this. Literally, everything.

No pressure.

THE SKATE PARK IS FILLED with a bunch of twelve-year-olds who think they know how to do real tricks. Personally, I would have preferred to leave after the first ten minutes, but Bryce insisted we stay. He's always been better at skateboarding than he is at surfing, which is strange because we don't do this nearly as much.

"Let me get this straight," Jayden says. "You finally got her at least somewhat where you want her, and her dad comes home and fucks it all up?"

"Just about, yeah."

"Dude, that sucks!"

Bryce finishes landing his trick and shakes his head at me. "Nah, that's just your luck."

I kick his board out from under him and laugh as he falls. "Serves you right."

Sitting down on the railing, Jayden takes the spot beside me. "Do you think there's any chance of her choosing you?"

I shrug. "I mean, I hope so, don't get me wrong. But her dad is her whole life. I'm not even sure she has a mom, because I've