Ignite (19 page)

“Why did this happen to us?” I asked, groaning. I flopped onto the bed next to him.

“I don’t know,” he said, turning to face me. “But it’s the only time I’ve ever been excited about food poisoning.”

He leaned closer and I pushed him away.

“I literally just threw up,” I informed him gracefully.

“I
literally
don’t care,” he said, pulling me against his chest.

The world was still spinning, but less so.

My phone rang and I reached over him to grab it.

“Hello?” I knew I didn’t sound like myself.

“Lauren?” It was Kenzie.

“Mhmmm,” I shut my eyes.

“Where are you?”

“I’m in California,” I said softly.

Dean groaned as he turned over to pick up his own phone, which was Jenny checking in, no doubt.

Kenzie heard his voice through the phone and squealed.

“Oh my god. You’re with him, aren’t you? You sound groggy. Are you guys…”

I cut her off.

“Happy New Year’s Kenz, love you.”

I hung up before she could say anything else.

“Are they good?” I asked, setting my phone down to face him.

He nodded, his eyes still shut.

“I’m so sorry,” he said again. He’d been apologizing all night.

I shook my head slightly.

“How were you supposed to know?”

“Still,” he said softly.

“It’s okay,” I told him.

And somehow, it was.

We slept for most of the day until Chase and Emma were tired. Callie and Jenny were allowed to go watch the fireworks since it was New Year’s Eve, but only if they were back by five minutes past midnight.

With Emma and Chase asleep in the bed next to ours, we counted down the seconds until midnight. At one point he turned on the TV, but I couldn’t deal with Ryan Seacrest’s voice without wanting to throw up again.

When we heard the fireworks start, he leaned over and kissed my forehead. I kissed his cheek.

“Happy New Year,” I whispered. “I’m sorry it’s kind of shitty.”

He brushed my hair out of my face.

“This is the best New Year’s I’ve ever had,” he said, sounding like he was genuinely telling the truth.

He must have had some pretty bad ones, then.

Ten minutes later, Callie and Jenny came bursting into the room. I opened my eyes, squinting at the light.

“Um,” I heard Callie say. “Does this make anyone else uncomfortable?”

I knew she was referring to the way we were sleeping, but I could care less.

“We’re cold,” I said, burrowing closer to him.

Then Dean added, “Go away.”

Jenny laughed and pulled the blanket further up over us. I heard Callie scoff, and then the door slammed, which made both of us jump.

“Happy New Year’s,” Jenny whispered as she slipped out the door.

“THIS IS SO awkward.”

“Shut up, they’ll wake up soon. I hope. At least before Chase gets out of the shower. I don’t want to have to explain more than I already did. Chase makes a big deal out of anything remotely sexual because he’s a boy.”

“And you don’t think that’s going to be weird when they wake up? Because it totally will be.”

“Yeah, I guess it is. Before I never had to see any his man-whoring, I just heard about it.”

My eyes were still shut but I heard voices. I knew it wasn’t dark out anymore, but I couldn’t bring myself to open my eyes and experience the full assault of light that was now streaming in through the windows.

I heard another voice. “I’m hungry.”

My eyes shot open.

I didn’t dare move, because I subconsciously knew what was going on, and I didn’t want to move him. I realized how insanely hot I was. My fever had obviously broken, and I guessed Dean’s had too by the sheen of sweat that was all over both of us.

This definitely looked worse than it was. Somehow he had shucked his shirt overnight. I peeked down to make sure I was clothed.

Okay, that was a good sign.

The problem was that we were so tangled up that I literally had no idea where my body ended and his started. I was never going to get up without waking him.

I sighed softly, unsure of what to do next. No one had realized I was awake yet.

“Emma, no!” I heard Jenny’s voice, and then I felt Emma hit the bed.

Her movement startled me, and Dean reacted involuntarily by tightening his grasp. Seconds later, he woke up and had the same moment of confusion I did.

“Dean’s naked!” Emma squealed.

“Okay, thanks Emma,” Jenny said, lifting her off of us.

“He definitely has pants on,” I muttered, separating myself from him with less grace than I had hoped for.

“Thanks for the report,” Callie said sarcastically.

I couldn’t deal with her right now.

His hair was sticking up in all different places and I couldn’t help but laugh. Even like that, he was still breathtaking. I wished I was as immune to his charms as I let on when I first met him.

He was looking at me strangely, and if I didn’t know better, I would think he was checking me out. He nodded slightly, and I looked down. I wasn’t wearing my shirt. I was wearing the one he’d had on. I had no idea where my shirt was.

I didn’t say anything, and neither did he, mostly because we both knew that would make it worse for Jenny and Callie. I also wasn’t exactly sure how it had happened, and I wasn’t ready to face that yet.

We both showered in our respective bathrooms. I for one was just grateful to be a normal temperature and be able to stand without falling over or throwing up. Health was never appreciated until sickness struck, my dad always said. That statement had never been more true.

All of us repacked our bags and headed to the airport. No one said much of anything. I think Chase was still semi-scarred by the fact that he saw us sleeping in the same bed, and he was in that weird, adolescent-boy stage.

Dean didn’t try to hold my hand or anything at the airport as I expected he would, and avoided saying anything to me if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. I was starting to feel much more awkward about the past two days than I had before solely because clearly he felt strangely about it.

We all piled back into the Range Rover and he drove us home.

“Can we all pretend like this didn’t happen?” Jenny said, interrupting the silence.

“Which part?” I asked, when no one else said anything.

“Not the trip,” she said quickly for Dean’s benefit. “Just this whole awkward thing? I’m cool if you guys are together. I would actually like to thank you, Lauren, for turning Dean into a respectable human being.”

Callie gave her a look to that said she’d gone too far. I wasn’t entirely sure what to say.

“Thanks, Jenny.” Dean said, giving her a “we’ll talk when we get home” kind of look in the mirror.

I hated this. Whatever happened to him more than liking me? He was acting like that conversation never happened. Or, you know, the whole sleeping-in-the-same-bed-wrapped-up-in-each-other-for-two-days, thing.

When we arrived at the house, he got out and helped us take our bags inside. Then he said a curt goodbye, and he and Jenny drove off like we’d never been on a trip to start with.

The four of us stood in the kitchen, looking around.

“That was weird,” Chase said, stating the obvious.

“I knew this would happen,” Callie said.

“You knew what would happen?” I challenged her.

“That you would fall in love with Dean and he would break your heart. I know you’re new around here and all, but newsflash: that’s what he does. No one gets to
be
with him and then keep him afterwards. He has the emotional range of a teaspoon.”

I scoffed and leaned forward to grab her wrist as I led her out of the room.

“Excuse me,” I whispered harshly. “I don’t know what you mean by ‘
be
with him’, but to set the record straight, nothing ever happened.”

Callie crossed her arms.

“Uh huh.”

What on earth did she think was going on?

“Seriously, Callie,” I said more softly. “I never did so much as kiss him.”

I was surprised at myself for telling her something like that, but it felt like a very sisterly gesture.

Her expression softened and her eyes narrowed.

“You definitely don’t have to kiss him to be
with
him.”

I sighed.

“I’m serious, it’s not like that at all.”

“Oh my god,” she said, pulling her phone out of her bag. “You’re serious. This is so much worse than I thought.”

I was chasing Callie up the stairs to find out what she was talking about when Jenny answered.

“Jenny?” Callie said into her phone. “Code Red.”

I couldn’t hear what Jenny was saying, but she was clearly freaking out.

“I’m serious. You have to get back here.” She paused. “I don’t know, tell him you forgot your straightener in my bag or something!”

Within two minutes, Jenny was standing in the foyer and Callie was begging me to repeat what I had just told her.

“He didn’t even kiss her!” Callie was screeching.

Jenny covered her mouth and looked between us.

“Well,” she said. “Is this a joke or not?”

I shook my head, still confused.

The same look of realization dawned on her and she started jumping up and down with Callie.

“Wait,” she said. “This could work.”

Callie grinned. I had literally never seen her so happy in all of the time that I had known her.

“Can someone please explain what I’m clearly missing here?”

Jenny grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

“Can we sit down?”

“Lead the way,” I said to Callie, as we sat down in the living room. Emma was playing with a coloring book, and Chase was watching TV.

“Okay,” Jenny said as she sat down. “Dean has issues.”

I nodded.

“And that involves me because…why?”

“Because I’ve never seen him like this. When we found you guys this morning, we kind of assumed the worst,” Jenny explained.

“I got that by your judging looks, don’t worry.”

“Sorry about that,” Callie cut in.

Did Callie just apologize? What was this, the
Twilight Zone
?

“Anyway, he just sucks at relationships. He’s never really had one before. He just whores his way around.”