“Have you seen this girl before? She has the same name as you.” Aly shoves Mallory’s picture into her hands.
“Um…” Mallory is unsure of what to say but I finally catch on.
“Yeah, have you seen her?” I say.
“This is you,” says Officer Burton. He reaches behind him for a pair of cuffs.
“Are you blind, man? They don’t look anything alike.” I grab the picture out of Mallory’s hand and hold it up to her face.
“They’re the same person.”
“God, old people,” Aly says. “They think everyone looks the same. Does Mallory look like this person?” She takes the photo from me and waves it to the crowd. Everyone shakes their head, full of denial.
“Nah. Totally different. Our Mallory’s eyes are set farther apart.”
“The one in the picture has weird lips,” offers another.
“Get some glasses, man!” yells someone in the back.
“They’re not even the same person,” says Brad, the hacker. “I can do a computer analysis, but it’d only confirm what everyone else is saying. They aren’t even remotely the same. It’s like saying that I look like Carter.”
We all laugh at this since I outweigh him by about thirty pounds. Tim Burton’s cartoon face begins to grow confused. His confidence is shaken in the face of thirty-some teens telling him he’s blind.
“We should go,” his partner suggests quietly. “Captain Warner told you not to come out here.”
“Mr. Baker is on his way. He said that should the police be here when he arrives he will be filing the abuse of power suit first thing in the morning,” Felton announces.
I cock my head. “What’re you going to do?”
Burton angrily slaps his warrant papers against his pants leg. “I’ll be back,” he says finally.
“We’ll see,” I say. “Felton, show the men out.”
I take Mallory by the arm and march back down to the pool. “Turn the music back on,” I yell and the sound of Lizzo crooning about tossing her hair back and forth fills the air. Mallory shivers. I find a blanket and throw it around her shoulders. “You okay?” I ask.
“No,” she admits.
I tuck her against my side. “Let’s get you a beer. It’ll warm you up.”
“Ah, that’s not possible,” Aly informs me.
“Why not?”
“We poured it all in the pool,” Ben sheepishly informs me. “We didn’t know what else to do with it,” he cries when I stare at him in disbelief.
“What’d you do with the bottles?”
“Air ducts in the pool house.”
I smack a fist against my forehead. “JFC, you morons. Fine. I’ll hire someone to clean it out.”
“You’re having us back next week, right?” he says.
“Are you fucking kidding me? I’m never opening the gates again.”
“He’s having a party next week,” Mallory chirps.
“What?” I shout.
She looks up at me with a pleading expression. “It’s the least you can do. Everyone here stood up for me. We have to pay them back.”
“We?”
She nods shyly, gives me a tiny smile and then presses her face to my shoulder. We. Holy fuck.
“Okay, party at Carter’s every weekend until the end of time,” I declare.
Chapter 20
Mallory
I feel safe in Carter’s arms but when the door to his place closes behind us, safety engulfs me. I turn in his arms, wrapping my own around his neck as I pull him down to kiss me. I push my cold body into his. He’s all warmth and protection—something I’ve never felt from any other person in my life before. All the anger I’ve been holding on to melts away in this moment. I now know what Aly said is right. The reason that Carter offered me the money to stay wasn’t for me to sleep with him but because he cares about me. Tears are filling my eyes thinking of the way he went to bat for me. It is my undoing. It is the thing that breaks my resolve and has me giving in to what I truly feel for him. The push-pull game that we’ve been playing is only that. A game. I’m in love with this man.
I press my tongue into his mouth. He seems almost shocked for a moment before he begins kissing me back. His hand digs into my wet air as he lifts me off my feet. My ass meets some sort of surface but I’m too wrapped up to care what it is. I never want this moment to end. I don’t know how long we kiss but when I try and reach for his swim trunks his hands stop me. The need to be as close to him as possible races through me.
“Babe, wait.”
My breath catches. I stare up at him. Thoughts of him not wanting me cross my mind for one second before I shut them down. I can feel his want for me in the way he kisses me back. I can see it in his eyes. I can feel it in the deepest part of me. I knew his talk that first night was all lies about not wanting me. I can see now that some of his moments of acting like a jerk are because of the way he’s feeling toward me. All of those sarcastic things that he said to me were his way of expressing himself. He liked to get me worked up even if it made him out to be the asshole.