“Don’t show your pain.” The words trailed behind him. Another reminder. Another warning.
On shaky hands and legs, I rolled onto my knees and slowly stood. By the time I was upright again, he was walking back toward me with my purse in his hand. Pulling his keys out of his pants pocket, he walked out the front door only to come back a minute later.
“I’ll give it all back in two days,” he crooned, and kissed my cheek with deceptive softness. “Come on, let’s eat. Dinner looks amazing.”
Placing his hand on the small of my back, he walked us toward the kitchen. He pulled my chair out for me, and held my hand on top of the table as we ate. He ate—I sat there staring at the shards of glass and forgotten roses on the tile, wondering again how the boy I’d fallen in love with had turned into my monster.
Chapter 2
Harlow
Summer 2008—Seattle
I WAS ABOUT to see Knox for the first time since meeting him a week and a half ago, and I could barely sit still, I was so excited. We had ended up staying outside for the rest of the concert, sitting on the wall and talking about everything: Thatch, his move to Seattle, and his plans to go to the University of Washington here in the fall. I’d told him about my family and life as a high school student who didn’t fit in—the story of most students’ lives.
The more the night of the concert wore on, the more I’d felt myself slipping into a place where Knox was all that mattered, and I wanted to be that for him as well. When the shows were all over, I could’ve sworn he would kiss me good night.
But there’d been no kiss, and no words. His body had been pressed close to mine, and one of his large hands had come up to cradle my cheek. For minutes we stood there as I silently begged him to kiss me. As if a switch had been thrown, that conflict from earlier had come back into his eyes and he’d taken a step away from me.
The connection was broken, and I was sure I would never hear from him again even though I’d given him my number. But the next day he called, and the next, and it was just like being back up on that wall. Even over the phone I could feel the intensity that drew me to him, and that husky tone had me wanting to listen to him talk forever.
Yesterday was Knox’s birthday, and tonight we were all hanging out at Neil’s house to celebrate. And Hayley’s car wasn’t moving fast enough! I could have run faster. Okay, that was a lie, but couldn’t she drive just a little faster?
I nearly sighed in relief when we pulled up to the house. Not waiting for Hayley, I threw open my door and took off for the guy standing on the other end of the lawn with a couple of guys I’d never seen before.
As soon as Knox saw me running toward them, a bright smile covered his gorgeous face, and he stepped away from the guys with his arms open just in time for me to launch myself at him. I’d planned to try to look cool walking up toward him—but there’d been no time for that once I’d seen him.
A soft grunt sounded before he laughed and tightened his arms around me. “Hey, Low.”
I could hear the guys talking who had been standing with Knox. They were trying to figure out if I was “the girl,” and something about that made my smile widen.
“Happy birthday,” I mumbled against Knox’s chest.
Pressing two fingers under my chin, he tilted my head back so his dark eyes could meet mine. “Thank you.” He studied my face for a while before asking, “Is it weird that I’ve missed you?”
Heat rushed to my cheeks. “You missed me?”
He gave me a look, like I should have known. “Yeah, Low.”
“Good,” I teased.
Knox laughed softly, and when I blinked against the drops that began falling from the sky, he quickly wrapped his arm around me and walked us toward the house without another look at his friends. And like we had every day on the phone, we picked right back up on our conversation from the day before. Only this time he was here again, in front of me. And this time my hand was in his, and every now and then he would cup my cheek and just stare at me—like my eyes held answers he was looking for.
“We’ve got some jailbait in here!” someone said loudly almost an hour later.
I wouldn’t have paid them any attention if Knox’s face hadn’t suddenly hardened as he looked over to the guys he’d been with at the beginning of the night, and then over to whoever had yelled.
“Hope you look good in orange, Knox!”
This time my head whipped around. What are they talking about?
Out of the two dozen people all smashed together in the basement of Neil’s house, almost everyone was cracking up as people started throwing around the word jailbait like it was a catcall or something.
Knox’s hand tightened around mine, and I watched his face pale.
“What are they talking about?” I asked so only he could hear me. When he didn’t answer, I looked around for Hayley and Neil—two of the other people not laughing besides us. She looked sad; he looked livid—I just wasn’t sure who his anger was directed at.