Play With Me (9 page)

“I’m coming,” he
said.

On the way to
our bikes, we crossed Ryan’s path. He cut a brief glance to my leg and winced
at the color. “Put ice on that ankle. I want you fit tomorrow.”

The thought of
more torture coming at me in just a few hours rendered me silent.

“What does he
mean? There’s no training with the girls tomorrow. Just us guys,” Tony pointed
out as we walked on.

Okay, I figured
it was time to spill. “Ryan is doing some personal training with me.”

Tony could have
said many things then, like asking me why, or where, or even when it happened I
was insane enough to agree to that. But he chose to say the most stupid thing
of all.

“With
you?”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Sorry, I didn’t
mean to sound like an ass. But…are we seriously talking about Hunter?” He
snorted, and I should have kicked him in the butt for it.

“What’s your
problem with that?”

“No problem.” He
mounted his bike, waiting for me to get the number-combination of my lock
right. “Just thought you were grounded.”

“I am.”

“And you get out
of the house for the training how?”

Now I avoided
his gaze, stand-kicking into the pedals to get ahead of him. “Same way you get
in.”

He had no
trouble catching up with me. “You’re sneaking out? For
Ryan Hunter?”
If
Tony was implying that I never did it for him, he let that leak from every
syllable.

“So what?”

Tony cast me a
sideways glance, his lips tight in a weak attempt at hiding a grin. “Here I’m
gone for just a few weeks, and you turn into quite the
Kinder surprise.”

Hell, yeah. And
I couldn’t even stand those goddamn chocolate eggs.

“So, now that
you’re acquainted with the exclusive way in and out of your room, want to come
to Charlie’s for a drink with the others?”

“I’m not doing
this during the day, Tony. My mom isn’t
that
ignorant. Hunter picks me
up at five in the morning.” I whined. “He makes me run at the beach.”

“Ah, fun
guaranteed.”

“I swear the man
is Satan in the flesh.”

We reached my
house, and while I got off my bike, Tony placed one foot to the pavement and
studied me with those intense blue eyes. “You know I still don’t get it. Why
are you torturing yourself for sports you loathed all your life?”

“I never loathed
soccer.”

“You said it was
the fifth, never mentioned plague that would bring the world down.”

Did I really say
that? Wow, the man was good.

As I wheeled my
bike into the shed, Tony’s raised voice drifted to me. “Is Hunter the reason?”

I froze, staring
at Dad’s fishing rods for an infinite moment. A piss-glare on my face, I finally
walked outside, slowly, then leaned against the doorframe with my arms folded
over my chest. “What in the world makes you think that?”

Tony had propped
his forearms on the handle bar of his bike, leaning forward in a casual way. “Well,
you two are pretty close lately.”

Okay, I was
almost seventeen, had never been kissed, and I had all I was going to take from
my best friend. “Are you really that ignorant? I’m
not
doing this for
Hunter.”

“Then why?”

Christ forgive
me, I was going to slap him in a moment. “I’m doing this because of you!”

My heart stopped
the moment I understood my slip.

Tony’s mouth
hung open as he stared at me. He gripped the metal of the handle bar, closing
his fingers so hard the white showed around the knuckles. Not quite the
reaction I had prayed for the past five or so years.

His gaze
dropped, his eyes trained to the ground in front of him. That was an eerie
moment. Heck, I didn’t think something could shock Tony so much. Anything.
Especially me. Okay, the hope that he would be all smiles and kiss me for my
close declaration of love had slipped with his look, but his stunned silence
made me feel very uncomfortable. I wished I was a snowman and could melt right
now.

“Come here, Liza,”
he finally said.

No.
I waited a couple of seconds, struggling to get rid of the panic
setting in. When I didn’t obey, he stepped off his bike and came toward me, the
slowness only adding to my anxiety.

“Look—”

I shook my head,
begging him to stop. “Please don’t give me that shit of
you’re like my
little sister
now.”

“I won’t.
Because we both know you’re far closer than that.”

Oh my God, this
was going downhill, and there was nothing to stop the avalanche I had kicked
loose. My knees shook all of a sudden, my mouth went dry.

Tony reached out
but stopped before he would touch my cheek. His lips pressed together, he
withdrew his hand. “I’m dating Cloey.”

What? No. Not
that girl. Not
any
girl!
No!

In deliberate
movements, I backed off then walked into the house, not saying a word. With the
screaming pain inside my soul, I quietly closed the door. It was all I could do
not to break out in tears in front of Tony.

I couldn’t
breathe. My stomach knotted, making me sick. As the first tears started to fall,
I flew into my bathroom and dry-heaved into the toilet.

Tony shouldn’t
see me like this, ever. I wished I could say he understood and that’s why he
didn’t follow me. But with everything that happened, it probably was he didn’t
want to face me after my declaration of my feelings for him.

It took hours
until I could breathe again without my throat constricting and aching. I sat on
my bed, flipping through the many photo books I had made of us over the years.
Each time I turned a page, I wanted to rage and cry again about the loss that
ripped my insides apart. But I had shed all the tears I was capable of. I felt
completely empty. Hollow. Alone.

When Mom called
me to dinner and I told her I wasn’t hungry, she tried to make me talk in her
understanding way. I had a hard time convincing her that I just wanted to be
left alone. In the end she let me be, and I locked myself into my room. In my personal
realm of misery.

As the sun set
and I slumped on my bed with some heavy rave music on the iPod, I faced another
problem.

I wasn’t going
to play soccer anymore. Ever. And I needed to cancel on Hunter’s training the
next day.

I called Simone
and got his cell phone number, but I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone, so I
sent him a text message.

DON’T NEED TO
TRAIN TOMORROW. AND I WANT OFF THE TEAM. LIZA

But then, as far
as I knew, he only knew my last name, so I added MATTHEWS in brackets.

It didn’t take
long for my message to be answered. DOES IT HURT SO MUCH?

What kind of
question was that? The pain eating my insides killed me. I slammed the phone on
the nightstand and dropped onto my pillow with a snort. Seconds later, I realized
he actually had no idea what happened. He must mean something else. Of
course—my leg. Palm pressing to my brow, I breathed deep.

Then I texted
him again. NO, LEG IS FINE. I’M JUST DONE WITH SOCCER. THANKS FOR YOUR HELP.
BYE

I expected him
to accept that and leave me alone. He did…for fifteen minutes. Then the next
message came in. OKAY. TALKED TO MITCHELL. SO THE CAT’S OUT?

The cat’s out?
Seriously? What the hell—Ryan knew about them dating and he didn’t tell me. But
then, what reason would he have had? We weren’t really friends, and he didn’t
know about my love for Tony.

Or maybe he did.
M&M. Everyone knew it. I felt so terribly exposed right then. The entire
town knew about my obsession with this boy, while he dated this bimbo. The urge
to cry again persisted, but no tears fell. So I turned up the volume of the
music and tried to blast my brains into oblivion with it.

The phone
vibrated on the mattress next to me. New message from Hunter. CAN YOU SLIP OUT
AFTER DARK?

I PROBABLY
COULD. BUT WHY WOULD I DO THAT?

DISTRACTION. And
this time he added a winking smiley face.

I wasn’t in the
mood to be distracted. Not in any mood at all, actually. I only wanted to wallow
in self-pity. REALLY, I’M NOT UP TO MORE TORTURE.

God, if only the
world could leave me alone for the next few hours. But no such luck. As soon as
darkness fell, a low voice carried up to my room. “Get down here, Matthews!”

I choked on the
piece of chocolate I’d just shoved into my mouth. I rubbed my tears-sticky eyes
and rushed to the window. “Why did you come? Can’t you read? I said no.”

“You said
no
torturing you
. I’m not going to. Now get into some nice clothes, wash your
face, and come out.”

“I’m not in the
mood—”

He jumped and
climbed onto the roof of our shed then stalked toward my window with this evil
grin on his lips.

CHAPTER

10

“MAY I COME in?”
Hunter didn’t wait for my reply but ducked through the window frame and entered
my personal domain.

I sucked in a
breath and stumbled backward. The bed stopped me, catching my fall.

“Nice room.” Hands
braced on the edge, Ryan sat on the sill. “
You
look miserable.”

“Gee, thanks for
the news update.”

He lifted his
ball cap and raked a hand through his hair, his lips tightening. “Listen, I
totally suck at this whole
want-to-talk-about-it
crap.”

“Then why are
you here?”

He shrugged. “Perhaps
because I’m good at having fun and taking your mind off certain things. So what
do you say? Want to come party a little?”

Another party
with Ryan? Images of lying in his bed, my leg wrapped around his, flashed up in
my memory. “I think I’ll stay home and listen to some music instead.”

He grimaced.
“Don’t do this to yourself. No guy is worth it.” Then he did something I least
expected. He walked toward me, took both my hands, and gently pulled me off my
bed. “Come on,
Liza.”

My name from
Ryan Hunter. That was a first. And it sounded incredibly nice.

“I really don’t
know—”

“I do. And now
stop arguing.” He gave me a few seconds in which I could stare in his deep
brown eyes and make up my mind.

I released a
long breath. “Can I shower first?”

“Oh please, do
that.” He dropped onto my bed and found the photo books that still sat there.

I grabbed them
before he could and shot him a warning glare. “Don’t touch anything.”

He quirked his
brows, lifting his palms in surrender. “Nothing,” he promised. Then he added,
“Apart from your diary and maybe your lacy underwear.”

God, I prayed I
heard that wrong.

It took me
twenty minutes to get ready to leave my room with Ryan—through the window.

This time he
gripped my wrists in a tight lock and lowered me from the roof. He let me drop
the remaining three feet, but that was okay. While he climbed down the tree
Tony-style, I adjusted my snug-fit tee with the deep neckline. Dark blue jeans
covered the bruises Tony’s new girlfriend had left on my shins.

Ryan led me to a
dark metallic gray Audi something parked on the curb. I didn’t know much about
cars, but enough to understand that his was custom-made. There was a lot less
space between the low-slung car and the street. When I looked at its front with
the strange headlights, only one word would come up to describe the appearance.
Furious.

Damn, that car
looked hot enough to melt ice.

“Nice car,” I
offered.

“Thanks. You
have your license?”

“Yeah, got it
last summer.”

“Want to try her
out?”

“Why?” I laughed.

“Fun. And
distraction.” He shrugged, leaning an arm on the open door. “Unless you’re
chicken?”

Grinning, I got into
the driver’s seat. “How fast does
she
go?”

A smirk tugged
on his mouth. “I promise you’ll never find out.” The keys jingled as he tossed
them into my lap.

I first had to
adjust the seat to my much smaller stature.

Ryan climbed in
at the other side. “Think you can handle the manual?”

My dad was
driving a stick-shift, so that wasn’t a problem for me. I grinned, started the
engine, and reversed out of the lot. The steering wheel was smaller than ours
and took a few moments to get used to. But then we were off, and I raced the
baby down to the beach in record time.

“Is that all you
can do?” Ryan teased with a look at the speedometer.