Page 48 of Hating On Riot

“Good.” Mesmerized, I cup his stubbled jaw with one hand and run my fingers through his messy black hair over and over with the other.

We used to do this. We’d lie just like this, with my legs stretched out and his head on my lap, his feet pointing the other direction. He said he liked our bodies this way because it formed an L, and only one word starting with that letter came to mind when he thought about me. It was our senior year of high school, when things were becoming more serious between us. L is better than him lying with his legs going the other way, forming what looked like an I. He’d gently remind me that there’s no I in we.

He was so smart and so proud of himself for coming up with all of that on his own that I didn’t have the heart to laugh. He would’ve thought I was laughing at him rather than laughing with happiness at his cleverness. I did the next best thing. I brought his hand to my mouth and kissed and ran my teeth across his knuckles until his eyes fluttered closed and he groaned with longing.

He reaches up and cups my face. “What are you thinking?”

I blink. Those were the carefree days, when Tony and Cameron were too busy with their house flipping business to keep a watchful eye on me.

“How we used to spend summers in the shade under the big tree by the school track.” The school track was at the far end of the school. The tree sat atop a steep hill. The climb to get to the tree gave anyone a workout. Riot used the hill to build up his stamina, carrying me fireman-style. He wasn’t even out of breath when we reached the top.

“We could again. The track is still there. So is the tree. Just different kids now. Some of the kids we went to school with now have their own kids.”

I shake my head. “We’re just kids ourselves.”

“Our moms had their first kids before they got their driver’s licenses,” he reminds me.

“That’s crazy.”

“But we love them,” he says.

“Yes, we do.”

He takes my hand, the one not in his hair, and drops a kiss on my palm. My heart melts. My insides quiver. Needing a distraction, needing to remember what Cooper said to me when he was drunk, I glance up from Riot’s handsome face and stare at the bathroom door.

It’s nice being in his room. I can use the large master bathroom whenever I like, without worrying I’ll open the bathroom door and find one of the house guys with his hands down his pants, a serene look on his face, or plucking hair from his pubic area.

Gah! It’s so awkward. It’s even worse when I run into them in the house afterward, but they blow it off like it’s nothing. College boys! Can’t live with them. Can’t live without them.

“I think Coop and Hope were seeing one another.” I mindlessly swipe a strand of hair off his forehead.

“Highly doubt it. Those two are so alike that they’ll repel one another. They’re both competitive, mouthy, persistent when they want something badly enough, and tactless.”

Annoyance zips through me. “How would you know? You barely hang out with them.”

“It doesn’t take long to get a sense of what they’re like. I mean, am I wrong?”

“No.” I sigh in resignation. “Can I tell you why I believe they were seeing one another?” I caress his bare arm. The muscles flex. Goosebumps rise.

“Shoot.” His voice is gravelly.

“I have to give you context first.”

“Context is good and appreciated.”

He’s grateful now, but wait until he hears what I have to say.

I swallow my hesitation about talking about Coop and me. It’s important that I be able to talk about other guys without Riot going into a jealous rage.

“At the beginning of my friendship with Coop, he didn’t like to show affection through physical touch or acknowledge that we were friends in public until he was certain we were. His love language isn’t physical touch but acts of service.”

Riot goes completely still.

I hurriedly continued. “‘Were he and Hope dating when you saw her at the games you played against Montgomery, Coop would’ve treated her as though she didn’t exist.’”

“That’s a shitty way to treat someone.”

“He probably realized that, too, but it was too late. Hope can be pushy and annoying because she’s so meddlesome, but she has feelings too, and what Coop did must’ve hurt her if she didn’t understand him well enough at the beginning to know that about him.”