from the pocket of his shorts. He placed one of the twisted ends between his teeth and pulled the other, exposing the soft purple cylinder as he leaned in close to my face and wagged his eyebrows. “I have no reason to exaggerate, Miss Kelsey.”
I stepped closer to him, a smirk stretching across my lips as I flicked his taffy to the ground with my thumb and middle finger. “You’re gross.”
“Aw, Kelse! That was a good piece!”
I rolled my eyes and dug around in my bag, producing a piece the same color. “Here, take it. Besides,” I said as David plucked up my offering, “if I really wanted to know, I could ask Amy Heffernan.”
While Eric and I barely spoke anymore, Amy and David had hooked up on and off for most of freshman year. Her name came out much harsher than I’d meant it to, like a bad piano note.
A huge grin spread across David’s face, and he let out a hearty laugh. “Whoa! Am I sensing a little jealousy here?”
“Like hell!” I meant it, though for some reason the sun felt especially hot on my cheeks at that moment.
David leaned back against the railing, still grinning, cocky and braces-free. Without them, he had a killer smile. As he twisted his palms over the railing, I couldn’t help but notice all that baseball training had been kind to him too. His shoulders were broader, his arm muscles more defined. No wonder girls like Amy had sat up and taken notice.
“Let’s just walk,” I said, hoping to drop the subject.
“What even makes you think anything happened between me and Amy?”
I rolled my eyes so hard, my whole head rolled with them. “Oh, I’m sure you’ve been the perfect gentleman.”
I tried to give him a playful shove, but he looped his arm around my neck and crushed me against his side. “You’re doubting my intentions?” he said with mock indignation. “I’m not feeling the love here, Kelse.”
His grip tightened, and I shrieked as my nose squashed against his shoulder, suffocating me with the scent of cologne and deodorant and taffy. Under different circumstances, I might have liked that combination. Or I might have liked it right then and there. But I didn’t have time to think about it, because David’s lips were suddenly right against my ear, his voice low as he said, “Know what sucks?”
The tingle that rippled down my body took me completely by surprise. We’d hugged plenty of times before. So what the hell, exactly, was that about?
I pushed him away, my hands flying up to fix the Miranda-like mess he’d probably made of my hair.
“What sucks?”
David paused dramatically. “That a gentleman never tells.”
My hands froze midsmooth and my eyes opened wide. “A gentleman? Where?” I looked frantically in every direction, and while David’s laughter told me I got the last word, I wasn’t happy. On the one hand, I didn’t want to know what happened when a good-looking guy and a girl nicknamed Hoover were left alone for indefinite periods of time. On the other, I didn’t want David feeling like there were things he couldn’t tell me. I’d always scoffed at the idea that guys and girls couldn’t have uncomplicated friendships. But that was before outside relationships had created any lines in the sand between David and me.
We’d reached the rocky part of the Cliff Walk when David rubbed his nose and squinted up the sky. “My nose is frying,” he said. “I can feel it.”
“Come on.” I nodded in the direction of an out-of-the-way boulder and started toward it. “I have sunblock you can put on. It’s too frickin’ hot for rock climbing anyway.”
David snorted. “You always find an excuse to turn around here.”
I ignored him, even though he was right. Every time I even thought about going farther than where we were now, my blood pulsed in my ears and my head felt swimmy. Hopping boulders just didn’t seem like a wise choice for someone who bruised as easily as I did, unless I wanted to look like a topographic map by the time the trail picked up again.
I sat on the sun-warmed rock, and David settled next to me, resting his arms on his bent knees. I had my trusty mini bottle of sunblock in my bag, and I put a piece of taffy between my teeth, letting it dangle like a coach’s whistle as I fumbled through the contents of my purse.
That’s when I felt hands slide around either side of my