Two Blue Lines (Crossing The Line #1) (23 page)

“Do you want another girl?” she interrupted me.

“What?” I snapped a surprised glance her way.

Her gaze was riveted out the windshield. She wouldn’t even look at me. “Do you want another girl?” she repeated as if I hadn’t heard the stupid question the first time.

“No! Why would you even ask that?”

She faced me, shadows of uncertainty and pain crossing her face. “Well, if you have . . . those
needs . . .
I don’t think I can right now, Reed.” Her eyes dipped to her belly. “I’m so sorry. I love you, I do, but I just don’t think I can.”

Jesus.

I yanked the car to the side of Burnett Road and threw it into park.

“Mel.”

I waited until she looked up at me. “Melissa, I will
never
need another girl. Never. Do you understand?”

She didn’t respond, just stared at me, her coffee-colored eyes swimming with uncertainty.

Tell her. Tell her. Tell her.
The mantra began to pound like a bongo drum in my brain. But would she understand or would it push her further away from me?

“Melissa,” I whispered it like a prayer, hoping this was the right decision.

She blinked up at me.

“I need to tell you something.”

“Oh, God,” she said, as if she already knew what I was about to say. “What?”

I squeezed my eyes shut and poured out my confession.

Silence.

I finally slid my eyes toward her to see the tears quietly leaking down her face. “Babe.” I reached out, grateful she let me take her hand. “I’m sorry. Please believe me. I know it’s no excuse, but I was drinking and missing you and—”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“What?” Of course it mattered. If the roles had been reversed I’d have been obliterated.

She squeezed my hand as her tears picked up in earnest. “Well, okay, it
does
matter. It matters that we were broken up and you had the chance to get with another girl and you didn’t do it. Because you love me.”

“But . . .”

She wasn’t ragingly pissed at me? It was not computing. This was not the old Mel.

She smiled through her tears. “Okay, I’ll admit I’m a little jealous of whoever this Robin girl is, and if I ever saw her, I’d probably claw her freakin’ eyes out. But the point is, you stopped, Reed. You could’ve had her and I would’ve never known, but you didn’t. For me.”

I nodded dumbly. I certainly hadn’t expected this.

“Now,” she rubbed her thumb over my knuckles, grounding me. “That still doesn’t change how I feel about . . . you know.” She blushed adorably.

My head swirled as wasps stung my stomach. “Don’t worry about it, Mel. I’ll be fine.” I’d have to be, wouldn’t I?

We pulled up to Chloe’s, to a melee of kids in the front yard and a street full of cars. Our little “discussion” had made me and Mel fashionably late.

She peered up at me, looking suddenly nervous when I opened the car door for her.

I grabbed her hand. “What’s wrong?” Surely we weren’t still back on the sex thing.

Her gaze darted to the noisy mob behind me. “It’s just . . .”

“Just what?”

She stood, pulling her little T-shirt down, straightening the tiny handprints on her belly. “I don’t really know anyone here.”

“It’s fine.” I tugged her fingers. “They’re cool.” I studied her anxious face. When had Mel become so shy? “If they make you uncomfortable, we’ll go. Okay?”

She nodded. “’Kay.”

She had nothing to worry about. My friends were way cooler and more accepting than her stuck-up drill team snobs. Mike, Aaron, and Dean from work greeted her without glancing down at her baby bulge once. But Mike and Dean’s girlfriends, Mackenzie and Sierra, huddled around her and tittered and squealed, their hands pressed to her tummy like she was just the cutest thing they had ever seen.

I knew the feeling.

She turned shocked eyes up to me, obviously not used to being treated this way. I simply smiled. She deserved it.

‘You okay?’
I mouthed.

She nodded as the girls started asking if we knew if it was a boy or girl and if she had a baby shower planned yet. Girly stuff that was way out of my league.

I left her to her adoring fans and moved on, through the slightly inebriated crowd that smelled heavily of beer and the swinging Halloween decorations of skeletons and pumpkins, in search of Jonah. I finally spotted him, huddled in a quiet corner by himself looking sullen, nursing a red Solo cup.

I grabbed a Pepsi from a cooler—ignoring the bootleg beer and liquor because we all knew how well drinking worked out last time, plus I was driving Mel and Peanut tonight—and made my way over.

“Hey.”

He glanced over. “Hey.”

“How’s it goin’?”

He shrugged, sipped from his cup that smelled strongly of alcohol, reminding me of our Vodka binge on Homecoming. I cringed.

“And your family? Your mom? Is everything okay? I haven’t heard from you, I was worried.”

He twisted the cup in his hand, his thumb tracing the edge. “As well as can be expected, I guess.” He met my eyes. “Sorry I didn’t return your calls. It’s been pretty crazy.”

“Hey. I understand.” And I really did. More than most.

He nodded.

“Anything I can do?”

“Nah. I’ll be fine.”

God, I hoped so. Because the haunted, empty look in my friend’s eyes was downright scary. Would he ever get over the guilt for not feeling more over his brother’s death? I nodded and took in his totally lame vampire costume. The same one he’d worn for the past three years. “I see you’re as creative as ever with your costume choices.”

That made him smile. “Yeah, you, too.”

Hey, I may like zombies, but I always changed it up a little. Masks, makeup, blood, no blood, guts.

His eyes roamed the room and landed on Mel. “She looks good.”

I followed his gaze. “Yeah.”

We were silent for several minutes, sipping our drinks, me unsure what to say, Jonah probably not feeling up to saying anything at all. But he finally broke the silence. “So, Chloe dumped me.”

My gaze snapped to his. “What! When? Why?”

He smiled into his cup with a self-depreciating half-grin before taking a drink. “Tonight. When I got here. Seems chicks want your undivided attention 24/7 and she wasn’t getting mine, so she was over it.”

My mouth slacked open in shock. “But . . . but, your brother just died.” The heartless bitch.

“Yeah.”

Unconsciously, my eyes sought out Chloe. I finally found her blond head bobbing on the makeshift dance floor of her living room with about half a dozen guys flanking her in a grinding dirty dance.

I glanced back to Jonah. His eyes were studying his drink. If he’d seen her, he wasn’t giving anything away. “Why are you still here?”

His eyes snapped up to mine, the pain of a million wounds evident. “I was invited.”

I swallowed. My poor friend. He was martyring himself, trying to feel pain—any pain— since he couldn’t feel it where he thought he should.

Jonah did eventually get his fill of misery and left Chloe’s party. Then I was able to relax and try to enjoy the rest of the night. Melissa looked like she was enjoying herself, surrounded by a gaggle of girls, all giggly and rubbing on her belly. It was sad to me that she’d apparently not had any real, positive love and attention other than from me.

I smiled and winked and moved on to hang with some guys. God, it felt good to be somewhat normal again. Hanging with kids our own age. Minimal drama, other than the Jonah thing. Talking smack, sports, and even a little bullshit.

“Dude, you seen how big Joey’s gotten since last year?” Dean asked, pointing his beer can toward the school’s massive quarterback.

I glanced over. “Shit.” Joey had always been big, but he’d obviously been eating his Wheaties this summer.

“Shit’s right. I hear Texas A&M and even Alabama and Oregon have been in to scout him.” Dean sipped his drink. “Lucky prick.”

Aaron and Mike mumbled their agreement then moved on in search of more drinks that they didn’t need.

“Hey, you want anything?” Dean asked as I studied Joey with clearer eyes. I shook my head and he headed off behind our friends, leaving me alone. Yeah, Joey was lucky all right. But he was earning his way outta our small beach town. Could I do the same now that I’d have a kid to support? Would I ever see my way out of the movie theater popcorn bin and to the Engineering degree I wanted so bad I could taste it? Could Mel and I make it even so far as U of H or Rice University? I swallowed my doubt with a big chug of Pepsi.

I looked at my watch. We’d been there over two hours now. Mel was really hangin’ in . . .

“Hey, there. Great costume.”

I glanced up at the slurred words and swirl of perfume into Chloe’s glazed, heavily made-up eyes. I took in her skimpy gypsy costume that bared her pierced belly button, and was instantly taken back to Homecoming and Robin’s diamond stud in the same spot.

I swallowed. “Hey.”

She leaned in close, the liquor fumes wafting off her in waves. “You having fun?”

“Uh, sure.” I tried to casually step away, but she only stepped closer, her eyes on my lips. Alarm bells started sounding in my brain like a fire drill. Not only had the bitch dumped my best friend, she was drunk and quickly inching into my grill.

I took another step, but she had me practically pinned between a bookshelf and TV cabinet. Shit.

The music from the stereo began to pound out another dance beat, the bass rattling my chest and racing my heart for a gold medal.

“Reed?”

“Look, Chloe—” we spoke at the same time and she reached out and gripped my arms.

I glanced down at her pink fingernails wrapped around my forearms, her face leaning in, obviously hoping I’d kiss her. What the hell was up with this girl?

Calmly, I pried one of her hands away. “No.”

A pout scrunched her face. “Why not? You’ll nearly do it with my skanky cousin but you won’t even
kiss
me? You seemed to enjoy it the first time . . . What’s wrong with you?”

I reached for her other hand, which had tightened like a vise, ignoring her stinging words. “Chloe—”

“He said
no
, bitch.”

We both turned toward Mel’s thunderous face. She was practically vibrating with anger. I’d never seen her like this. She was like a warrior princess. And she was freakin’ glorious.

She took two steps forward until she was in Chloe’s face, her belly nearly bumping into her. “Get your hands off him.”

Chloe’s mouth dropped open. When she didn’t comply, either from shock or drunkenness, Mel reached over and yanked her hand from my arm, gripping my hand and pulling me away with a pissily arched brow for Chloe. “Let me give you a word of advice, Chloe. Keep your slutty paws off other people’s men. It could get you your ass kicked.” She started to head away with me in tow, the room now totally silent, then stopped and tossed a snide glance over her shoulder. “You know, I forgave that stupid kiss on the boat. Gave you the benefit of the doubt because you didn’t know he was taken. But this? Not cool. Don’t let there be a next time, because pregnant or not, I won’t be so nice about it.”