What if it wakes my brothers?
Shit. I scramble from the bed and go to the window. Outside, I can see a shadowy figure silhouetted against the bluing sky after dawn.
“Go away,” I hiss, but of course he can’t hear me. I unlock the window and crack it a few inches.
“What dawn outside yonder window breaks?” he says in a dramatic voice.
“Shhh,” I hiss. “And go away.”
“Let me in,” he says. “I just want to talk.”
“You gave up that chance when you ditched me in the middle of nowhere,” I say. “You’re as bad as the rest of them. Worse. They never pretended to be my friend.”
“I’m sorry,” he says, giving me some really fucking adorable puppy dog eyes. “Let me in, Fair Verona.”
I feel my resolve crumbling as laughter wells inside me. “You know that’s the city where they lived in Italy, right?” I say. “It’s not a person.”
“Whatever,” he says. “Let me in, Juliet, or I’ll stand out here until it gets light.”
“Or I call the cops on you for harassment.”
His eyes narrow. “Are you the one who called the cops on the fight?”
“What? No,” I protest. “I may be a bitch, but I’m sure as fuck not a rat.”
“I didn’t think so.” He pops the screen from my window in two seconds flat and sticks his hand through the gap.
“What do you want?” I ask.
“I brought your phone back.”
I pull open the window, and Colt ducks through and hands me my phone. I snatch it and then cross my arms over my chest, only realizing I’m still in Devlin’s shirt now that his cousin is standing in my room. “I figured Devlin would be the one to come busting into my room at dawn to torture me some more.”
“He’s sleeping off last night,” Colt says, eyeing my bare legs below my underwear and T-shirt.
I slip back to the bed, pawing some pillows behind me and sitting up with the blankets pulled up to my waist. It feels weird to be talking in the dark, so I switch on the lamp.
Colt glances around my room. “That’s a lot of pillows for one person.”
“What are you here for, again?” I ask.
“To say I’m sorry about last night.”
“Oh,” I say, too surprised to have a snarky comeback ready.
“I really do want us to be friends,” Colt says, sinking onto the edge of my bed beside me. “I think you’re awesome. And not one bit doglike in any sense of the word.”
I snort. “Is that what you tell all the girls the morning after you hold a knife to their face and threaten to permanently disfigure them?”
“You know, we really are like Romeo and Juliet,” he says, grabbing a handful of pillows off the floor and settling at the foot of my bed with them. “Betraying our families to have the greatest love affair ever known.”
“Is that what this is?” I ask. “I thought it was more like your family repeatedly assaulting mine.”
“You know that’s not what happened,” he says, crossing his arms over his chest. I notice he’s wearing the same jeans and polo he wore last night. Of course. He drove Devlin home and crashed there.
“You’re right,” I admit.
“If Devlin hadn’t pulled me out of the way, they would have permanently disfigured me,” he says. “Or killed me. Your brother wasn’t going to slow down just because a person was standing against that car.”