“Are we taking your bike?” she asked.

No. The last girl who had been on my bike had ruined it for me with anyone else. I didn’t like the idea of anyone other than Blythe being wrapped around me when I rode. “Let’s take your car,” I said, and walked toward her silver Camaro.

Chapter Eleven

BLYTHE

I had almost backed out of going to the party. Hearing Krit and some girl going at it when I went to his apartment earlier had made me ill. I wasn’t ready to face him just yet. Knowing the sounds he made during sex made me feel funny. I admitted to myself that I was insanely jealous of whoever that was screaming his name.

His text that he wouldn’t be able to have dinner with me was thoughtful. He hadn’t had to say anything. It wasn’t like he had said he would be there. I hadn’t wanted to respond to him, because I was aware that he was texting me after his wild sex. Ignoring him was rude, though. He was being nice, so I couldn’t be rude. I had typed my reply three times and erased all three, finally settling on something simple. Friendlike.

I was sure that Trisha had told him I would be at the party, and so he would expect to see me there. Backing out now would also be rude. Trisha had been so nice today and had even refused to let me buy my meal. She insisted that she had invited me to lunch and she was paying. I reached over and picked up the gift I had wrapped in glitter paper. It had taken me an hour this afternoon at the toy store to decide on something for this little girl I had never met. I didn’t want to arrive empty-handed to her birthday party.

After much debate, I had settled on a jewelry-making kit. It even had supplies so she could paint the stones with designs of her own. I would have loved something like this as a kid. I hoped I had bought the right thing for a nine-year-old girl.

A tap on my window startled me, and I turned to see the porcelain perfect face of Amanda Hardy. Her friendly smile eased my anxiety some, and I opened my door and stepped out.

“I’m so glad you came. Trisha said she’d invited you. She really enjoyed lunch today. I’m so coming to the next lunch,” Amanda said as I closed the car door behind me.

“It was fun. Trisha is really a great person.” I glanced back at the large house. “It was really nice of her to invite me.”

“You’re Krit’s friend. He doesn’t have many of those . . . of the female kind, that is. In all honesty, we were curious, but now that Trisha has spent time with you, she sees why her brother has grown attached to you.”

I had to clear this up before we walked into that house and Krit showed up. “Oh, he’s not attached to me. That’s not it at all. He’s just being nice. I’m new in town, and he’s a nice guy,” I explained. If Krit walked into this party and everyone acted like I was anything other than his friend, he might take off on me again. I didn’t want that.

Amanda nodded, but a smile stayed on her lips. She wasn’t getting it.

“No, I mean it. Really, I swear, he is just a friend.”

Amanda started to say something, when a silver Camaro pulled into the driveway going a little too fast and doing a perfect U-turn to fit into the last parking space. I glanced back at Amanda, who was looking at the car, frowning. Apparently, she agreed that they had been driving a little too fast in a driveway.

The driver’s door opened, and two long legs exited before the rest of a tall model-thin body came with them.

I heard Amanda mutter something, but I couldn’t focus because the sight of Krit getting out of the passenger door wearing a pair of sunglasses and looking like the sex god he obviously was took my breath away. Not just because he wore his jeans better than any man on Earth or that he reminded me of every childhood fantasy of a bad boy with his aviator sunglasses on, but because he was getting out of a car with her. I never saw him with the same girl twice, but I’d seen him with her before. The first time I’d been in his apartment, she’d been in his lap.

Was she who he was doing in his apartment earlier? I tore my gaze off him and looked back at her. The smug smile she wore on her face said that yes, she was in fact who I had heard screaming his name and begging him to do it harder. My face heated, and I turned to look at the house. I had to deal with this. It was life as Krit’s friend.

“Blythe?” Krit’s voice called my name, and I tensed up. Crappity, crap, crap. I didn’t want to talk to him just yet. My stomach still felt sick and knotted up. I was sure my face was red too. Why was my face red? It wasn’t like I had anything to be embarrassed about. I hated the fact that I acted like an idiot in situations I wasn’t familiar with.

Amanda’s hand touched my arm, and I knew that if I was going to salvage this friendship with Krit, I had to turn around and act like nothing was wrong. Like seeing him with this girl I had heard him with earlier wasn’t hard on me. Forcing a smile onto my face, I turned back to look at him.

“Hey,” I replied as I watched him walk toward me in big purposeful strides, like he was afraid I was about to bolt and he was getting to me before I could. The pink-and-white-striped gift bag in his hand caught my attention. It looked so girly and out of place with him. That made me really smile.

“What are you doing here?’ he asked, and that snapped me out of my moment. He sounded angry. Oh no. Was coming here stepping too far? I should have asked him if this was okay. I assumed he wouldn’t mind, but he hadn’t asked me to come with him. He had asked the tall goddess with him instead.

“Uh, Trisha invited me. We had lunch today. I, uh . . .” He still looked upset. This was bad. I had messed up again. And this time I knew what I had done wrong. “I’m sorry. I should have asked you if you were okay with me coming. I thought your sister would have told you. I didn’t think.”

Krit ran his hand through his hair as the frustrated look on his face only intensified. I needed to leave.

I turned to Amanda and handed my gift to her. “Take this in, will you? Tell Trisha I said thanks so much for inviting me, but I have something I forgot that I can’t miss. A study thing for one of my classes,” I blurted out, and shot Krit an apologetic smile. “I really am sorry,” I said, hoping the tears suddenly clogging my throat weren’t obvious.

“Who are you?” the girl who was now clinging to Krit’s arm asked in a bored tone.

Yet another situation for Krit he hadn’t been prepared for. He kept me neatly in a certain part of his life. He didn’t invite me into other parts of it. I should have thought about him and asked him. “I just . . . I’m his neighbor. Uh, okay. I’m gonna go,” I replied, unable to look at her.

“No, you’re not,” Amanda said as her hand clamped around my arm firmly, surprisingly firmly for someone as small as she was. “This is my friend Blythe. She is also Trisha’s friend, and she’s here for the birthday party because we want her here. Now, if you’ll excuse us.” She turned and headed for the house, pulling me with her. I wasn’t sure I could get my arm free of her tight grip even if I tried. “Don’t look back. Just come on,” she whispered.

What? I needed to leave. She did not understand. “Really, Amanda. I need to go. He doesn’t want me here, and this is his family. I should have asked him.” I was pleading now. If she didn’t let me go, I was going to start begging.

“Krit is an ass. He has always been an ass. And Brittany has a thing for singers. She’s been after Krit for years. Why she is with him, I have no idea, other than to tell you he is an ass.”

This was wrong. Krit was not an ass. I had blindsided him by showing up here. He reacted the way anyone would. “He’s not an ass. I am. I should have asked him if this was okay. I don’t think sometimes.”

Amanda opened the front door and pulled me inside. Then she turned to look at me. She stared at me for a minute, then a sad smile touched her lips. “You are so not an ass. And I love Trisha, but you’re too good for Krit,” she said, then nodded toward the sound of people. “Come on in. This is my mom’s house, but make yourself welcome. Let’s go see the birthday girl and give her this sparkly present she’s gonna love,” she said, handing the gift back to me. “Then we will get you—and me—a drink. I need one after that.”

We rounded a corner and came into a large kitchen that looked like something out of a magazine. Balloons were everywhere, as was the color pink. A tall three-tiered cake sat on the bar with pink and white stripes on one layer, and pink and white polka dots on another layer. Then the top layer was white and had the number nine and the name Daisy in pink. A pink sparkly crown sat on the top. It was the birthday cake of little girls’ dreams.

“That is one fabulous cake,” Amanda said as we entered the room. Trisha spun around, and her smile brightened when she saw us.

“Isn’t it? Can you believe Rock ordered this? He went to the bakery and everything two weeks ago. I told him to get her a princess cake. He sure is an overachiever,” she said with a laugh. “I’m glad Amanda found you and helped you find your way in here. I was going to call Krit and see if you could just ride with him, but then I forgot.”

Oh no. Not a good thing to say when Krit would be coming in behind us at any moment.

“Probably good you didn’t. He came with someone. I’m pretty sure Blythe wouldn’t have wanted to ride with them.” The distaste in Amanda’s tone didn’t go unnoticed by Trisha. She stopped and looked at Amanda. The questions were there in her eyes, but she wasn’t going to ask them with me standing there.

“If I had known she needed a ride, I would have driven myself,” Krit said as he entered the room. There was a hard edge to his tone as he shot a glare at Amanda.

I couldn’t look at him. I jerked my head back around to stare at anything but Trisha or Krit. I didn’t belong there. I didn’t belong anywhere. I knew that. I had always known that. Being there was wrong.

“Didn’t know you were bring a guest,” Trisha said in a tight voice. Just what I needed. For her to get upset with him too. They were all jumping on him like he had done something wrong. It wasn’t fair. I ruined everything. Mrs. Williams had told me that more than once. I had wanted to believe she was lying to me, but I could see that she had been right.

“Didn’t know you had invited Blythe,” he repeated in a clipped tone.

I winced. He was angry about that. Why hadn’t I asked him about it first?

Trisha took a step toward him, her eyes slanted, and she looked ready to slap him. “This is Daisy May’s birthday party. Not a place you bring an uninvited guest. One I should have been told about.” Trisha had raised her voice. This wasn’t good. They were about to fight. I could see the look on Krit’s face, and he wasn’t going to back down from this. Trisha’s husband was huge, and I didn’t imagine he would be okay with Krit raising his voice to Trisha.

This mess was my fault. I had to fix it.

“Don’t. Please. I think that y’all have the wrong impression here, and Krit is being treated unfairly.” I looked at Trisha. “What I told you today was the truth. I wasn’t trying to keep a secret. I was being honest. Krit and I are friends. That’s it. He also wasn’t expecting me to be here. I didn’t ask him if he was okay if I came. I should have.” I waved a hand over to where he stood with his date. “As you can see, he brought someone. Someone of his choosing. And that’s okay, because he is just a friend. He isn’t doing anything wrong. I’m the outsider here. I’m the one who doesn’t belong. And if you invited me because you thought that Krit would want me here, then I am so sorry I gave you that impression.” I took a deep breath, then looked at Krit. “I really am sorry. I didn’t think. I told you I would mess up, because I don’t always know the right thing to do.” I set the gift on the counter. “Thanks for inviting me. I really enjoyed spending time with you today. But this is a party for friends and family. I’m making it tense and awkward with my presence,” I said as I looked at Trisha, willing her to understand.

Then I walked to the door, making sure I didn’t get too close to Krit or his date. I just wanted to go back to the safety of my apartment. I heard whispering, and I walked faster. They were talking about me, and that was something I was used to.

Luckily, I got outside and to my car before Amanda could decide to keep me from leaving again. I had left the door unlocked, which I never did. The shock of seeing Krit with that girl had made me forget all about it. I climbed inside, thankful for the security of my car so that the tears burning my eyes could fall now in peace. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my keys and fumbled with them through the tears now freely flowing and hindering my sight. Once I had the key to the car, I managed to shove it in the ignition. The car cranked.