Four Letter Word (Love Logic #2) - K.M. Neuhold Page 0,21

He left for work,” he says. “Did you not like him? Is that why you left?”

“He seems cool. I figured you didn’t need me cock blocking you.”

“Thanks.” He reaches for the remote and turns off the TV. “Let’s go somewhere.”

“Sure. Where do you want to go?”

Bishop hops up off the couch. “You’ll see.” He smiles mischievously, and I grin. Whatever he has planned, his excitement is intoxicating.

I’m still in my sweaty gym clothes, so I make quick work of changing, smirking to myself at the feeling of Bishop’s eyes on my back while I change. Then I slather on the deodorant to make sure I’m presentable until I have a chance to shower.

By the time I turn back around, Bishop has his shoes on and is ready to go.

Sitting in the passenger seat of his car, I lean the seat back a little and get comfortable. Within seconds he has Good Charlotte blaring through the speakers.

“Whoa, whipping out the high school nostalgia playlist. We must be going somewhere interesting.”

He grins but doesn’t give anything away. My stomach gives a small flutter as I study him quietly. If I’m being honest with myself, I always had a small crush on him in high school. Have I missed any chance I could’ve had with him? Should I have come home sooner?

In all the plans I made, figuring out how to tell my best friend I want to date him never made it onto the checklist, and now I wish it had. Is it too late?

I chew on my bottom lip, remembering the way he looked at me the night before I left for college. We laid on my back lawn, looking up at the stars, and he tilted his head, our faces only a few inches apart. He licked his lips, and the air between us felt charged. I thought…

But then he made up some excuse and said he had to leave. We hugged each other and promised we would stay in touch, and all I could think about after he left was why I couldn’t find the courage to kiss him.

Eventually, we pull into a familiar parking lot. A laugh bubbles past my lips.

“Holy shit, I forgot about this place,” I muse, taking in the poorly kept skatepark stretching out in front of us.

Bishop parks the car, and we both climb out, making our way over to the edge of the cement playground we haunted as young teens.

“How could you forget about this place?” he asks, sitting down and letting his legs hang over the edge of the downward slope. The concrete is all cracked, grass growing up between the fractures. I follow suit, sitting down beside him and looking out over it.

“I don’t know. Isn’t that strange? It’s all rushing back to me now, but I literally haven’t thought about this place in at least a decade.”

“Do you remember the summer we spent something like ten hours a day here? You and Hudson were constantly trying to one up each other with the new tricks you practiced,” he says wistfully.

“I remember racking myself on that damn rail at least half a dozen times,” I joke, pointing to the grinding rail on the other side of the half pipes.

Bishop laughs. “I remember that. And I remember in middle school, the three of us covertly checking out the high school boys who were always here.”

“Oh, yeah,” I remember, grinning at the memory. None of us were out to each other at that point, but in hindsight I think we were all a bit obvious about it.

“Time is a son of a bitch, huh?” he muses.

“It really is,” I agree. “Things didn’t really turn out how I thought they would.”

“Me either,” he agrees with a laugh. “In good ways too though.”

He looks over at me, and my gut tightens, my heart beating a little faster.

“What’s the best thing that’s happened to you in the past ten years?” I ask.

“That’s easy.” His smile turns soft, and he leans closer, pressing his shoulder against mine. “You moving home.”

“Really?” A warm feeling wraps around me, and just like when he hugged me at the airport, I feel more at home than I’ve ever felt before.

“I understood why you wanted to leave, but it sucked. Nothing was the same after you were gone.”

“Come on, you still had Hudson,” I point out, jealousy coiling inside me. All those years I was all alone, thousands of miles away, and the two of them were here together. They got to