I CAN’T GET TO RILEY’S CAR FAST ENOUGH. MAINLY because I practically have to carry Riley in my arm. She only took one hit, but damn if it wasn’t a long one. Her being a lightweight makes for a weighty getaway. I wait for the elevator to open to lead me and Riley to the ground floor. Peek over my shoulder to make sure Doug didn’t change his mind about us kissing his nunchucks.
“What kind of car is this?” Riley asks, poking at the elevator door. “One of them foreign, sporty things?”
I grab Riley’s hand just as the doors open to make her stop assaulting the elevator.
“Whoa, voice command, much?” she asks.
“Something like that. Come on.” We hobble into the elevator with her arm wrapped around my neck. I press the button to make the doors close behind us and the elevator chimes each time we pass a floor.
“Ay, this my jam,” Riley says, pulling away from me to pump her arms up and down. She shimmies like an old cat at a cookout, doing a dance my dad used to call “raising the roof.” I place my hand near her lower back, ready to swoop in just in case she loses her balance. I can’t believe she’d do something this crazy. That joint could’ve been laced with anything. She didn’t even flinch, though. She did what she had to do to get us out of there. In fact, that’s what she’s been doing since I told her about Nic. Sticking her neck out much farther than she needed to. Doug was right—her balls were huger than mine. I’ve underestimated Riley all this time.
The elevator door opens and we’re on the ground floor. I put Riley’s arm back around me and we trek toward her car.
“I see what you’re doing,” Riley says, poking her finger into my chest. Her and that finger, though. “You’re just trying to find an excuse to touch me.”
I stifle a laugh. “Come again?” I ask.
“I can walk just fine, Jay Murphy. Matter of fact, I can walk better than fine. I’m floating in air.”
“On air,” I correct.
“That’s what I said. On air.” She pauses then cracks up laughing. “You ever notice how weird that word is? AY-ERRR. Is that one or two syllables? You try.”
“I’m good,” I say. Thankfully, we’re less than a block away from her car. Riley gets quiet and I glance at her, make sure she’s still with me. I find her studying my face. “Are you, though? Good?”
She keeps looking at me. “Your lips,” she says.
“What about them?”
“They’re really . . . kissable.”
Okay, I can’t stifle my laughter anymore. This time it comes out. “Okay, you need to sleep it off.”
“I’m not even tired,” Riley insists as I dig into her pocket, pull out her car keys. I don’t have my license, but I have my permit. No point in going through with the deed when you have no car to drive. I unlock the door and gently place Riley into the passenger seat, buckle her in real cozy. I glance across the street once more at Doug’s complex. Thankfully, neither he nor his boys decided to follow us. Guess he figured we really were just harmless, doofy kids.
“Let’s get you home,” I say to Riley once I climb into the driver’s seat. Riley doesn’t answer. I look her way and her head is resting against the window, lightly snoring through her nose. I smile at her and pull out away from the curb. Drive slowly over all the speed bumps so I won’t wake her.
I feel empty once I spot the sign on the interstate that tells me we’re back in Newport News. I mean, on the one hand, I’m glad I’m getting us back home in one piece. Not bad for a guy driving in the dark with no license. But on the other hand, I have the same amount of info that I had when I left Newport News: Nic and Kenny blew town together and Javon was far from happy about it. It doesn’t make sense, though. Even if Nic suddenly fell hard for Kenny, she wouldn’t just leave me and MiMi in the dust like that. Yeah, she and MiMi got into it a few times, but Nic was the one who rubbed lotion over MiMi’s feet after a long day at work. The one who washed MiMi’s hair in the kitchen sink, then took her time detangling it, and greased her scalp to make sure it glistened the next day. The one who added too much pepper in Deacon Irving’s mac and cheese during the Easter brunch because he stared a little too long at Sister Gladys in her new dress.
And then there’s me. Nic and I may have drifted a bit after her hookup with Javon, but there was nobody else on this earth who lived what we lived through. Dad dying, Mom basically killing herself with dope. Getting herself locked up because she couldn’t handle the single parent thing. We could share a thousand words with one look. Nic could send a text with one or two emojis, and I could transcribe her whole side of the story to MiMi. We just got each other even when we thought we couldn’t. So for her to just drop off the face of the planet like that? Something isn’t adding up.
I slightly turn up the music on the car radio, let Kendrick Lamar drown out my questions—if only for a few minutes. Riley stirs in her seat and I quickly turn the volume back down. She rubs her eyes then peeks over at me.
“Sorry,” I say sheepishly. “You were just so knocked out that I figured a little bass wouldn’t bother you.”
“Where are we?” Riley asks, peering through the window.
“You’re almost home.” I sigh. “Not sure if I can hang out with you anymore. MiMi’s not too fond of me spending a lot of time with blissheads.” I smile over at her.
Riley groans and covers her face with both hands. “I thought I dreamed about that. Ugh.”
“Nope, you took that bliss to the head, for real,” I tease. “You did a little shimmy for me. Gave me a little compliment.”
“Compliment?” Riley drops her hands and looks at me again. “What kind of compliment?”
I feel heat rising to my cheeks. I crack the window some to relieve them. “I don’t remember. Something about my lips . . .” I peek over at her. See if the memory will wash over her face. But Riley frowns and shakes her head.
“I don’t remember any of that,” she says. “I guess that makes me lucky.”
A draft comes through the window and what the hell am I doing? It gets too chilly at night to crack the window open even an inch. “Yeah. Guess so,” I say. I close the window and shift away from her. It’s good that she doesn’t remember. It would make this car ride a hell lot more awkward. Still . . . maybe a small part of me liked Riley looking at me like that.
Ugh, stop, Jay. Stop! I roll down the window again.
Riley raises her eyebrows at me. “Can’t make up your mind, huh?”
I shrug. “I’m just as confused as Virginia’s weather.”
Riley smiles at me as I pull up in front of her house. “You really didn’t have to drop me off first. How are you going to get home?”
I swat my hand at her. “I haven’t been driving all my life. I always find a way to get around. Besides, I’m not sure I trust you behind the wheel yet.”
“Good point.” Riley rubs her eyes again.
“But thanks,” I say. For some reason, wanting to prolong these seconds in the car with her. “For getting the car. For driving me to Richmond. For turning into Snoop Dogg back there.”
Riley laughs.
“Really . . . not a lot of people have my back like that. So . . .” So what? I have no more words to express how grateful I am for everything Riley’s done for me. If she has some ulterior motive, I don’t want to know. I just like feeling about her the way I do right now—next to her in the car.
Riley locks eyes with me and she has tiny freckles of green in her eyes. I never noticed those before. Like tiny flecks of emeralds buried in sand. I blink and unbuckle my seatbelt. “It’s late. I should head to the bus stop.”
“Jay.” Riley’s hand is over mine again. Still soft, still the right temperature. “I . . . I remember.”
I raise an eyebrow.
“The compliment? About your lips? And . . . I meant it.”
My other eyebrow raises, too, along with my pulse. Holy shit. Riley Palmer thinks I have kissable lips. And I think I care about Riley Palmer thinking I have kissable lips. Soon, her body sways toward mine—like a magnet pulling her to me. And my body sways to hers, too, like they both know just what to do without us telling them. Like they were supposed to be doing this all along.
Her mouth comes closer to mine and—holy shit. Holy shit. I’m about to kiss Riley Palmer.
A thud on the window sends us both jerking back against our seats.