Love Storm (8 page)

"Yeah," I said.

"Nah," she replied, moving past me to the refrigerator. She took out some cold pasta from last night and began heating it up. "We wouldn't 'click' together as a couple." She fingered the quotation marks in the air, rolling her eyes. "He annoys the living daylights out of me. I can't see it, anyway."

I could
, I thought to myself. She and Zack would look good together. It seemed… they almost
belonged
. Eva and Zack, now that was a combination I never would have suspected. When the subject of Zack as a boyfriend had been brought up the other day, I had thought Winter was asking to see if I approved of her and Zack together. I definitely would have.

I didn't have any objections to Eva going out with Zack – not in the least. I could tell, even after our brief meeting, that he was a good kid; I already trusted him. It just seemed to me that he was chasing the wrong girl.

"Where
is
everyone?" Winter asked, hands on hips. The microwave was on and turning. The house was unnaturally quiet.

"Emily's at her friend's place until 8, Matty's got soccer practice and then he's going to Mike's house for dinner, Samantha's upstairs holed up in her room, reading most likely, and Anthony's fooling around at the tennis courts with his friends or something."

She looked at me, then grinned. "I knew you would be a good dad," she said, reaching over and hugging me.

"Come on," she continued. "We pretty much have the house to ourselves. We can relax for a while. Let's get pizza. My treat. We'll bring it back here to eat."

"You're heating up the pasta," I pointed out.

"Not anymore," she said decisively, stopping the microwave and replacing the pasta to its original spot in the fridge.

"Come on, let's go," she said.

"You're going out wearing sweats?" I asked incredulously. "
My
sweats?"

"Why not?" she shrugged.

Man, this girl was crazy. But I loved it. Everyone did.

xxxxx

"God, I am so
full
," Winter groaned.

"Tell me about it," I said without energy.

"Do you think we would get that fat if we ate a few more pizzas?" she asked me, pointing at the image of a sumo wrestler on the muted TV. It was the only source of light in the room. All other lights were off.

"I think the three pizzas we shared will start us off," I said.

"Don't forget the two boxes of buffalo wings."

"And the 2-liter bottle of Pepsi."

We moaned simultaneously. In all honesty though, I hadn't had this much fun in a really long time.

We were sitting on opposite ends of the couch, facing each other. My long legs were stretched out to full length, and Winter was sitting with her legs crossed Indian style. My feet were touching her shins, and she was absently playing with the toes of my socks.

"Tristan?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

I stared at her. "What?"

"As in, brother-sister love," she said quickly.

I relaxed.

"Winter?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you too."

She smiled. "Good. 'Cause I'd adopt you as my big bro any day."

I chuckled. "Good to know."

We sat in comfortable silence.

"Tristan?"

"Yeah?"

She frowned. "What do you think of Eva and Zack together?"

I cocked my head. "Well," I said slowly. "I guess it's okay with me."

She nodded, looking happy with my answer. I smiled at her – she was so adorable. "Come here," I said.

She clambered over my legs and settled in my lap like a little kid – relaxed in my arms and leaned back into my chest. She turned her head a little – the top of her head just grazed the bottom of my chin.

"You haven't shaved in a while," she said, tracing her index fingertip over the stubble.

I shrugged. "Too lazy," I grinned mischievously. "Besides, the ladies like it. Sexy and rugged and all that."

She laughed.

I sighed contentedly. At that moment I thought I could live the rest of my days like this. Screw college.

"You need to find yourself a girl," Winter said suddenly.

"Mmm," I murmured, closing my eyes.

"I'm serious," she said. I could feel her playing with the sleeves of her sweatshirt – actually,
my
football hoodie, yet another item of clothing she had stolen. She had this thing with picking my clean sports clothes out of the wash.

"You're the only girl in my life," I joked. "Remember all those hot nights?" I opened my eyes and gave her a fake smoldering look.

She smirked. "Yeah, or the time we did it in a broom closet?" She rolled her eyes and pretended to faint. "So heavenly. Too bad the janitor came and put a stop to it."

We both laughed.

"Really, Tristan," Winter said. "One day some lucky girl will catch your attention. Just… make sure she's worth it, okay?" She looked at me earnestly. "And bring her to me for screening first," she added as an afterthought.

I chuckled and closed my eyes again. I felt her pulling a blanket over us.

We had to have fallen asleep. It must have been maybe two hours later when my closed eyes were attacked by bright lights. Winter stirred in my arms – she must have sensed it too.

"Gee, Eva," I heard her saying. "Did you have to turn on
all
the lights? Oh, hi Zack."

I sat up a little straighter, pulling her up with me.

"Hey," Zack said to the room at large.

"'Sup," I said sleepily.

Suddenly, something in Zack's eyes flashed. He was watching Winter and me – her sitting in my lap, my arms loosely curled around her waist, our legs tangled together under the blanket on the couch.

"What have you two been up to?" Eva stared at us and the pizza boxes littering the floor.

"We had pizza, made out, then had hot, earth-shattering, mind-blowing sex, all here in the living room," Winter said seriously. "What'd you two do?"

She shrugged, knowing Winter was just jesting. "A movie, dinner, bowling. It was fun."

"Bowling?" Winter said, looking at Zack inquisitively. He refused to meet her eyes.

"Yeah," he muttered. "She beat me."

Eva looked at him happily. "By a lot."

"Oh, you know that Eva Westley, Bowling Champ of California," Winter teased.

"What're you two doing
now
?" I asked. This was pointless. Why had Eva invited Zack in?

"I just wanted to come in and say hi before I left," Zack said stiffly in that low voice of his. "Now that we're done, I guess I'll be going now." I almost thought I saw something like anger boiling in his eyes, but he hid it well. Was I the only one in the room perceptive of this? Perhaps I had simply imagined it.

Winter nodded. "See you," she said softly. "We'll eat lunch together tomorrow."

Zack looked at her, an unreadable emotion churning in his gold eyes. He didn't say anything.

"With Eva too," Winter continued, still in that soft voice. "The three of us. You can bring Brock if you want. Right, Eva?"

My sister nodded. Good old Eva.

He stared hard at Winter, and again, there was that quick, silent exchange of messages. Finally, he nodded.

"See you all tomorrow," he lifted a hand in a half-wave.

"I'll walk you to your car," Eva said quickly.

"See you, Zack," I said.

"Bye Zack," Winter said.

He turned one last time to glance at the two of us on the couch.

After I heard the door close, I turned to Winter. "Was it just me, or was Zack pissed off about something?"

She shrugged. "I don't think he was," she said, relaxing slowly as I rubbed her back gently. I hadn't noticed it until now, but she had been tense the whole time Zack had been here. "He shouldn't have anything to be mad about."

The room was quiet for a long moment. A minute or so later we heard the front door open and close again, and a half a moment after that, Eva's head poked into the living room. Her lips were slightly red and she looked rather breathless. Winter and I looked at each other, and we both nodded slightly; Winter had a bit of a smirk on her face.

"So, how was the sex?" Eva asked brightly.

I chuckled. "I believe it was 'hot', 'earth-shattering', and 'mind-blowing.'"

She laughed.

"What?" I asked in mock indignation. "Do you think it's not possible? Do we not look like
lovers
to you?"

Eva snorted. "'
Lovers
,' huh?"

"Come on, Tristan, let's show her how it's done," Winter said in a suggestive voice. She pulled the blanket over our heads and we made over-exaggerated moaning sounds.

"Oh, Tristan," Winter said in a high-pitched voice.

"Oh, baby," I pitched my voice lower. We shifted around a lot under there for the benefit of our audience.

"Okay, okay," Eva said. "I don't know whether to be amused or disgusted. You guys can stop now. I get it."

"How was the date?" Winter asked as we emerged from underneath the blanket. "Think it was better than our night here?"

"Nah, you guys had the real party going on," Eva grinned. "But it was lots of fun. He was really sweet."

"How do you feel? Shivery? Hot and cold all over? Like you want to maul him every time you see him?" Winter asked.

"No, I don't think it's true love yet," my sister smiled.

"Oh," Winter said, obviously disappointed.

"Maybe next time," Eva suggested. "So really, what did you guys do?"

"We ate three pizzas," I supplied. "And we slept."

"Together?" Her blue eyes were wide. "I thought you guys were only kidding."

"We were," Winter said hastily. "We
fell
asleep. Here, on the couch. Boy Eva, I'm not sure I even want to know what's going through
your
mind anymore."

Eva seemed relieved and ignored Winter's last comment. "Good. I don't think I could handle it if you guys were really having sex behind my back. And
don't
make another joke out of it."

I chuckled.

"I'm tired," Winter said, closing her eyes again. "Can you hook me up with a ride home, big bro?"

"Sure," I said.

"I'm going to go take a shower," Eva announced. "See you tomorrow, Winter." She got up to leave.

"Wait, Eva!" Winter said.

She turned in the doorway.

"I'm happy for you," Winter said. "I really am. I hope you and Zack work out together." She smiled sincerely.

"Aw, thanks Winter," Eva said.

It was another one of those girly best friend moments I'll never understand. Oh well. I don't think I need to, anyway.

I groaned. "Ugh, come on Winter. Let's go. The sooner we go, the sooner I can come back home and sleep off those pizzas."

-
Zack
-

She smiled against my lips and pulled back.

I gave her a puppy-dog look.

"Zack, it's late," Eva whispered.

"One more," I pleaded, leaning forward to kiss her. She didn't pull away this time. Kissing her was so enjoyable, amazing beyond belief.

"I had a great time tonight," I said after it ended, my lips right by her ear.

"Me too," Eva replied. "Will we go out again soon?"
"Very soon," I smiled.

A moment later, I drove off, watching Eva waving at me from my rearview mirror. Today had been great – Eva was easy to talk to, pretty, funny, smart. She was absolutely amazing, and I almost couldn't believe she would like me back. Almost. I mean, come on, this
is
the great Zackary Crowne we're talking about here.

But something felt rather unsettled in my stomach. I didn't have to think hard to know why, but I didn't like admitting it.

As soon as I had seen Tristan and Winter curled up on the couch like that together, something had dropped in my stomach. My first thought was that she had lied to me – that she was indeed going out with Tristan. Then I had second thoughts. Why would she lie to me? I had given her no reason to. And, no matter how much I probably annoyed her, I still didn't think she would be the type of person to lie to me.

And then she had gone on to say that they had made out and had sex – something about 'hot, earth-blowing, mind-shattering' – or
something
like that. Why did she want to tell
me
that she had been having sex, anyway?

And it seemed plausible too, I thought. She had been wearing clothes that looked like they could have been Tristan's.

I paused, realized I was pushing 70 on residential streets. I slowed down. Why was I so upset anyway? She wasn't my problem. Sure, she had been nice enough to set me up with Eva, but still, it wasn't as if I
liked
her or anything.