“You won’t even give it a shot?” he asks, taking my hand and giving me those puppy dog eyes that even now are hard not to meet with a smile and reluctant surrender.
I squeeze his hand. “I hope you find your Juliet,” I say, giving him a gentle smile before drawing my fingers from his. “But it’s not me.”
“Yeah, okay,” he says, slouching back against the lockers. “I just thought maybe this time I’d be the best. But once again, I’m the fuck-up.”
“How are you the fuck-up?” I ask, remembering the way he moved on that football field. It reminds me of the way my quiet, soft-spoken uncle Vinny turns from a lamb into a vicious wolf in the courtroom.
“Devlin’s the favorite here,” he says, gesturing vaguely to our surroundings. “And Preston’s the favorite at home. I was supposed to get you, Juliet. I took you to homecoming. But then you took off with my cousin…”
I roll my eyes. “Devlin told me you were supposed to fuck me to destroy me. I know none of you actually wanted me.”
Colt grins and shakes his head. “You really think that? Trust me, Devlin’s no whore. He wouldn’t fuck a girl he didn’t want for all the money in the world. Not even his own inheritance.”
“But you would?” I ask with a smirk.
“I’d totally fuck you, Crystal Sweet,” he says, raking his blond hair off his forehead and offering me a roguish grin.
“So, how are you the fuck-up?” I ask. “Because you ended up with Dixie instead of me?”
“I’m notwithDixie,” he says, making a face. “But yeah, it should have been me in that room with you that day.”
“That would have left Devlin with Dixie,” I say. “She’s a little young for him.”
“Nah, I would have nailed you both,” Colt says with an arrogant tilt to his chin.
“You really know how to charm a girl.”
Colt’s smile slips away, and he shrugs. “I’ve been a fuck-up since the day I was born,” he says, “And they found out I wasn’t Devlin’s brother.”
“Why would you be Devlin’s brother?”
“We have the same mom,” he says, looking at me strangely, like I should know this.
“You’re half-brothers?”
“And cousins. ItisArkansas.” He adds a wink, but I mull over his words. That’s exactly what Devlin said. It strikes me how close these boys are—more than cousins. More than brothers, even. In truth, I envy their closeness. I wish I was part of something like that, facing the world with my brothers, as equals, as ourselves, against any threat. Devlin and Colt went through that long, messy divorce and custody war that Devlin said took up most of his childhood. They formed a united front, right down to the line they recite when people bring up their family drama.
“I didn’t know that,” I mutter, feeling stupidly jealous and hurt that Devlin didn’t tell me that.
“Devlin doesn’t like people remembering that,” he says with a shrug. “Not that he’s got anything to be ashamed of. I’m the bastard child.”
“I’m sorry,” I say. “But out of the three of you, I think Preston’s the fucked up one. Everyone loves you.”
“They do, don’t they?” Colt says, tossing his hair out of his eyes and grinning. “But trust me, Preston is the golden boy in the family. He’s just like his dad, and his old man’s just like Grampa Darling. You know, the guy’s literally gotten away with murder. He can do no wrong.”
“The guy at the construction site,” I say, my heart picking up speed.
“Nah,” Colt says, waving a hand as if that’s nothing. “But your family’s going to try to make it look that way, aren’t they? Because he tried to take the property out from under your dad. That’s why they framed him, right? And when they see that he was tried for murder before… I mean, he might have been acquitted, and they’ll tell the jurors not to take that into account, but they will.”
I’m not touching that topic. But this guy is no fuck-up. He’s too smart for his own good.
“I’m not the girl, Colt,” I say, closing my locker. Time to close this conversation, too. “Not for you. There’s a girl out there who’s dying to be with you. Dixie worships the ground you walk on. That’s what you deserve. Not someone whose heart is already taken.”
“I know,” he says. “It’s kinda fucked up I even asked you.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “It kinda is.”
I open my bag and pull out one of the necklaces, but Colt holds up a hand. “Keep it,” he says. “I meant what I said. You’re the only girl who deserves it. You took us all by surprise.”