to take another sip, she snatches the bottle from me, denying my need to self-medicate, and turning my near pout into a full-blown sulk.
“My turn,” I announce when she takes her own little sip. “Why are you here, Stone?”
“To play a game with you, pretty boy. See how annoying it is to only get half an answer? That one should get me to see your toes, at least.” She winks teasingly.
“Cute,” I grumble, taking off my T-shirt instead.
She eyes me below her long, dark lashes, taking a swig of tequila, even though the game didn’t call for it. I’m about to ask if my bare chest is to her liking, since she’s sporting a cute little blush on her cheeks, when she stops me dead cold with her next question.
“Why did your dad kick you out?”
“You know about that, too, huh?”
“Yep. Now answer the question.”
“You already know the answer, Stone. He kicked me out because he’s an asshole who wants to live his past youth vicariously through me, and he can’t.” I shrug, frustrated with her line of questioning, pulling a few strands of grass beside me.
Stone leans in and covers her hand over mine, making my chest expand, and my throat dry up with the innocent touch.
“I’m sorry he did that to you, Finn. You deserve to live your life how you want to,” she whispers tenderly, making the beating organ inside me thrash out in violence, demanding I tell her that the life I want is with her at my side.
“How’s your mom?” I ask, instead of laying out my bleeding heart at her feet.
Stone’s green eyes soften at the mention of her mother, making me tuck my hands under my legs just to keep them from reaching out to her.
“She’s good. In high spirits because of you.” She smiles genuinely, the first true smile I’ve seen on her pretty face since she arrived.
“I didn’t do much.”
She lets out a long sigh, looking up at the sky for a minute before her eyes land on mine again.
“This game has always been about us telling each other the truth. Don’t lie to me now, Finn. We both have to recognize that your friend Lincoln wouldn’t even know of my mother’s existence, nor my father’s situation, if you hadn’t had a word with him.”
“I would have paid for it myself, but my father cut me off. That’s why I went to Linc,” I confess, ashamed.
“I’m sorry,” she replies saddened.
Such words feel awfully wrong coming from her lips. She shouldn’t be speaking them, even if only to console me. I should be the one showering her with a million apologies, but I know none of them will make right what I’ve done.
“Going against your father’s wishes like that was a brave thing to do, Finn. I’m proud of you.”
Fuck! She’s killing me.
“Stone, please don’t say shit like that. Don’t be proud of me. I’ve done so many things not worthy of it. Especially from you.”
“Like being tested positive for steroids, you mean?” she asks without a single hint of disapproval in her sweet voice.
“I never did that. I’m not a cheat,” I reply steadfastly.
“I know.”
“You do?”
“Yes. You may have many faults, Finn Walker, but you are not a cheater,” she adds, and there is such tenderness in her green eyes, such unconditional belief that it makes me want to be the man she sees in me.
“Stone,” I choke, my hand already finding its home against her cheek.
She leans in and cups my hand in hers, closing her eyes to take in the warmth of my palm, everything around me suddenly seeming to play in slow motion. I hear birds singing above us as the heat of her skin scorches mine. The racing of my heart, threatening to leap out of my throat, is too poignant to ignore, and yet I do. Let it explode inside me if it has to. As long as I can stay like this forever, just cupping her cheek in my palm, feeling her skin next to mine, then nothing else matters.
“Stone—”
“You’re not a cheater. But you are a liar, aren’t you, pretty boy?” she asks, no judgment in her words.
“Yes,” I admit, forlorn.
She grips my hand and pulls it away from her cheek just to kiss my open palm. The erratic beating of my heart only increases when her lids open, and those green jewels stare into my eyes as if coaxing my soul to kneel in submission.
“Have you ever lied to me?”
“Yes.”
“Because you wanted to?”
“No,”