Page 15 of Intolerable Bishop

That didn’t make me feel any better.

“Wow. Is this a picture of you,” Blake asked, changing the subject as he picked up a frame on the desk. I pushed the conversation about Myles and Owen out of my mind for now. We were in another country, so for now, Myles was safe.

“Yeah, that was when my hair was still dark.”

His eyes glanced back and forth between me and the photo.

“I still love the color you have now.”

“Come on, don’t say that. I’m still hoping she’ll let me dye the ends. It would look so pretty,” Lizzy said.

“She isn’t wrong. It would look amazing on you. You could totally pull it off, and Myles would drool no matter what you did,” Blake said.

“See!”

“You’re not helping Blake,” I said and shook my head at Lizzy, who was pouting. I hadn’t seen Ivy laugh this hard ever, and it was great to see. After the phone call with her father yesterday, she’d been so quiet that I was starting to worry.

“Oh, that’s a great idea. You two get over here and squeeze in.” Ivy and I shifted around so that Lizzy could take more pictures. She was worse than the paparazzi.

“Do you have any more photos,” Blake asked, and I groaned as Lizzy shot up off the pillow on the floor.

“You want to see pictures? I have pictures.” Lizzy marched away, knocking over the bottle of nail polish, and I scrambled to get it picked up before it made a huge mess. Lizzy didn’t even notice that her cream carpet was almost ruined, making Ivy laugh even harder. I grabbed a wipe and began cleaning it off my fingers.

“Here, check these out.” I watched in horror as she dropped a pile of photo albums down on the desk in front of Blake. I shook my head. Next, she was going to pull out naked baby photos or something.

Ivy jumped up to see as well, and I was left sitting on a pillow in the middle of Lizzy’s bedroom. I took a moment to stare around at the soft, buttery walls and sunflower border that suited Lizzy’s personality to a T. Her room had been the same for years, other than updating her pictures and calendars. Every corner was filled with memories, as many, if not more than my house. The two of us laughing and talking about random things or plotting out our futures right down to who we wanted to marry. I’d claimed Ryan Reynolds, and she’d taken Ryan Gosling like we were doling out cards.

Something my mum told me for whatever reason was hitting me now. “Some people will be in your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. It’s not until they have come and gone that you know which group they fall into.” Lizzy was my lifetime. I didn’t have a single memory without her, and no matter how freaking crazy my life got, I promised myself that I wouldn’t let the friendship we shared slip away.

The roar of a motorcycle pulled me out of my thoughts, and I glanced over as Blake, Lizzy, and Ivy looked out the window.

“Who the heck is that,” Lizzy gushed. “Talk about making a girl’s panties wet.”

I smacked my hand off my forehead, but I was up and looking out the window with the rest as my father’s car pulled into her driveway. I spotted the shiny silver and black bike that looked like a bullet and the guy sitting on it in a matching outfit, and I had to admit that it was hot. Myles got out of the driver’s side of my dad’s car, and my mouth fell open as the guy straddling the bike pulled his helmet off. Holy shit. I bit my lip, my body getting hot all over as Theo looked up to the window at us and winked.

I swear Lizzy fainted. “Slap me stupid and fuck me sideways. I’ll take him. Can I have your brother? Damn, he’s hot.”

Blake crossed his arms over his chest. “We’re identical.”

“Yeah, but he’s on a hot bike. He can ride me any day.”

It hit me at that moment that if I removed the accent and the fact that he was a guy, I was basically dating my best friend. Lizzy was the female version of Myles. If that didn’t screw with your head, I didn’t know what would.

“So what? It’s just a bike. Anyone can buy one. I can play the guitar and do other stuff,” Blake argued, looking totally put out.

“But would you look that hot on a bike?”

“Yes. We’re identical. I give up,” Blake mumbled and walked out of the room. I left Ivy and Lizzy gushing over Theo from the second-story window and chased Blake down. I wrapped my arms around his waist, and he stopped walking.

“I love that you play the guitar,” I said and kissed his back.

He turned around and smiled. “I know. I’m not really upset, and I mean, he does have that thing when he’s on a bike.”

“And you have it when you play.”

“See, this is just another reason why I’ve fallen so in love with you. You’re always right there to make sure that I don’t get lost in the weeds of what doesn’t matter,” Blake said and then kissed me, his lips soft and tender like his embrace.

Blake wasn’t wrong. I’d seen Theo almost every day since I first arrived at Wayward, and there was something very different about him on the bike. He was giving off a vibe I never expected. Who would’ve guessed that under the button-up guy, obsessed with beating me academically, was a speed demon who rode motorcycles?