Tangled Up in Blue Read online

  I’ve twice typed out a reply to her texts: I can’t believe you actually hooked up with Hunter. And twice I’ve deleted it. I’m not quite sure how Megz will take it.

  When Kendra texted me that afternoon to tell me Blue had raced toward Fort Peace like a knight charging into battle to defend his lady’s honor, it sent a thrill all the way through me. I think Kendra meant to cause trouble between me and Blue, but it had the opposite effect. No one’s ever gone to bat like that for me. Well, except for my dad. He tries, anyway, although he doesn’t always succeed. But that’s part of the Dad job description. Blue did it because he wanted to. And that really turns me on.

  I spent most of the day in the newsroom, catching up on emails, preparing for tomorrow’s editorial meeting, just trying to get my brain to focus on the job at hand. We only put a paper out on weekdays, so Saturday’s usually my time to catch up and plan for the following week. And today, I realized that I was also using the newsroom to hide out. I just didn’t want to face Blue at the Embassy. But by the time I got Kendra's text, I was wishing I hadn't run away from him. I’d impulsively invited him to meet me on the roof. Then I’d stayed at the newspaper until almost 8 o’clock, wondering what the hell I’d been thinking. When I finally got the nerve to go home to the Embassy, Blue wasn’t there. And it did not feeling good, wondering if he’d changed his mind.

  I’d been so tempted to write in my journal before creeping out on the roof. I’m itching to get it all down, work through the last two days’ events in writing like I always do. Megz always makes fun of me for it. “Goddamn, Kee Kee,” she’s said more than once while I scribble away while she’s trying to get to sleep, “you writing a fucking novel over there in that stupid diary? ‘I woke up, I went to school, I came home, I’m going to bed.’ What more is there to say? Turn off the fucking light!”

  I know Megz thinks my journal writing is stupid. But it’s like a close friend to me. I can’t end my day without spilling everything into it. I slept in Blue’s room last night, so I haven’t had a chance to write in the journal for Friday. I want to stick to my rules and wait until Saturday is completely over before catching up with it. And I’m hoping I’ll have some really juicy details from the rooftop to add.

  So there I am, waiting for my knight in shining armor. I want to reward him. And I want to wipe away the memory of Tyler.

  I twist around to stick my head in the window and call “Come in” just as Blue opens the door. The light from the upstairs landing cuts into the room and illuminates Blue’s white T-shirt. He’s carrying his guitar. He grins when he sees me. His face is in shadow, but I can see his teeth gleaming. I smile back at him, hoping I look alluring in my cami and cutoffs. It’s been another hot day. At 9 o’clock at night, it is still warm, even though it’s the first of November.

  “Hey there,” I say, scooting away from the window so Blue will have room to climb out. “I've been waiting for you.”

  He crosses the room quickly, and I watch him stick one muscular leg out the window. He’s wearing gym shorts. I swallow hard and look away for a second. When I look back, the arm clutching his guitar is outside, and he’s just pulling the rest of his body through the window. He settles down next to me, still grinning, just as lightning lights up the horizon, followed several seconds later by the distant rumble of thunder.

  “You do realize,” Blue drawls, “that sitting outside under a tree in a thunderstorm might be considered kinda crazy.” He plays a few chords on his guitar and begins to sing.

  Come and listen to the story of Keegan and Blue

  Struck by lightning, left behind just a shoe.

  Old folks said they were crazy in the head

  And all it got ‘em was good and dead.

  I bust out laughing. “Yeah, okay. I guess it is pretty crazy. But I don’t care. Crazy is what I want to be right now.”

  “All right, bar girl. I’m in. We’ll ride the crazy train together.” His smile deepens and melts into those unbelievable eyes, and another flash of lightning makes them glow. I swallow again. I want to be playful and seductive, but I don’t really have a clue how to do that. Blue is pulling at the sleeve of his T-shirt and seems to be trying to subtly sniff it. He looks sheepish when he realizes I’ve noticed.

  “I went to work out after I got back from Fort Peace.” He runs a hand over his close-cropped hair. “I showered at the gym, but I didn’t have any other clothes with me so I had to put these back on. And when I got back here, I was, um, kind of distracted by the thought of what might happen up here on the roof tonight. You weren’t back yet, so I went for a run to kind of. . .calm myself down.” That big, wide grin again. “And then, when I got back from running, I forgot to change. Sorry if I’m smelly.” He rips his shirt off in one movement and sends it sailing into the air. “There, takes care of that.”

  “You smell just fine to me." I try to put a little growl in my voice and allow myself to openly ogle Blue’s chest and abs. He seems to like that. He gets up on his knees and slowly pulls at the waistband of his shorts. “I could take these off too, if you’d like?” He’s teasing me.

  I close my eyes, wondering if I have the nerve to tell him to take it all off. That’s the point of our rooftop rendezvous, after all. But I can’t quite do that. “Do you know,” I say to cover up my nervousness, “that the first time I met you I thought you were wearing contacts to make your eyes match your name?”

  The last part of my sentence is drowned out by the sound of thunder that’s a little closer now. Blue sits back down on the roof and leans in toward me. “Say that again. I don’t think I heard you right.” He looks amused.

  “I thought you were wearing contacts to make your eyes match your name.” This time, I say it too loudly.

  Now it’s Blue’s turn to laugh. “That’s what I thought you said. Seriously? You seriously thought I was wearing those colored contacts?”

  I nod, a little embarrassed. “It just seemed too much of a coincidence: your name is Blue and you’ve got these unbelievably blue eyes. I wondered if they were fake.”

  Blue slaps a hand to his forehead. “Ouch, bar girl, that hurts. You really thought I was that kind of phony? These eyes are natural, I promise. They are the same color as my mother’s.” His mouth twitches up on one side. “But I’m glad to know you like my eyes.”

  I blush, then trail a finger down his face, feeling very brave. Blue stops smiling and holds my gaze with an intense look that’s hard to read. But then he looks down at the slate roof tiles. “So,” he says a moment later, still looking down, “you know that I look like my mother. Who do you look like?” He glances up at me with a knowing half-smile.

  I sigh and stare at the tree. Then I shrug. “Everybody always says I look just like Virginia, but I don’t see it.”

  He nods, still smiling. “Yeah. Actually, I already knew that.”

  I turn to stare at him. He drags his thumb just under my bottom lip. That’s all it takes to get the loins leaping yet again. I close my eyes for a second.

  “I saw that big-ass sign in Fort Peace, the one with your grandma’s picture on it. Don’t go and knock me off this roof for saying so, but you do look like her. A lot like her.”

  I groan. “I forgot about that stupid sign. I don’t even notice it anymore when I go home. I think I’m blocking it out. Such a waste of effing. . .” I remember our conversation in the kitchen the day before. “...such a waste of fucking money!” I shout the last two words. It feels kind of liberating, using the F-word like a little kid getting a thrill out of breaking the rules. It’s not that I am such a prude I've never said that word before. I don’t say it very often. It does make me kind of uncomfortable. But mostly, it’s because I’m just really tired of hearing it. The word is way overused.

  Blue starts laughing. “There you go, bar girl. Let it out.”

  “I think I’m done for now.” Now I have Virginia's disapproving face in my mind. Not what I was aiming for. “But seriously, it’s just like her to make ev
eryone who drives into Fort Peace look at her face, as if she’s taking credit for the whole eff…fucking…the whole motherfucking town, the whole fu…” I’m fumbling to find a different F-word variant to use, “…the whole fuck…tastic state!” I’ve tried to step out of my comfort zone and ended up just sounding like an idiot. “Now I am definitely good for awhile on my F-word usage,” I add, lamely.

  Blue’s face softens. He purses his lips, shakes his head slightly and looks down at his guitar. “I shouldn’t have goaded you into using the word, Keegan. It doesn’t really suit you. You’re too classy. You're too sweet.” He looks up at me. “Too. . .innocent. I love that about you. It makes you so different.”

  No tears. No. Tears. Seriously. No. Effing. Tears.

  Naturally, tears are swamping my eyes. Everything Blue Danube says, everything he does, seems to turn me into a weepy, goose-pimply mess. It’s mortifying and utterly wonderful all at the same time. So I do the only thing I can think of. I throw my arms around him and start kissing him, urgently, wildly, passionately. I’ll show him I’m not so innocent. Even though, technically, I pretty much am.

  Blue gasps and moans as he kisses me back. My eyes are closed, but I feel him shift the guitar out of the way. Then he grabs my face with both hands and devours my lips with his, thrusting his tongue inside my mouth and running it along the insides of my cheeks. Blue kisses my lips again, then my chin, my nose, my forehead, and then swoops down once more on my mouth as he presses his body against mine, pinning me to the roof.

  I can hear myself moaning. My hands find their way down his shoulders, over his arms and then along his back. It’s crazy-train kissing, up on the roof, out in a storm. I want it to go on forever. I open my eyes in time to see lightning blazing above me, and Blue’s eyes lit up with lust. He trails kisses down my neck and chest as thunder answers the lightning. Blue’s hand cups my breast, and his mouth swiftly follows, his tongue tracing a pattern along the top of my cami until I surprise myself by frantically yanking the cami off with both hands. I throw it in the direction of the tree. I’m panting and arching my back, pulling Blue closer and closer, driven by a sensation I’ve never experienced before. It’s as if my entire body is on fire, and only Blue Danube can quench the flames.

  Blue’s hand is behind me, unlatching my bra with one practiced move. I look down in wonder at my newly freed breasts as another flash of lightning tears across the sky, then cry out and arch my back again as Blue’s dark head blocks my view and his tongue finds my nipples. I’m deep into the romance novel arena now, and I think I’m beginning to understand, finally, just what all those books were trying to tell me.

  I open my eyes again just as Blue lifts his mouth to mine. His kisses are harder this time, rougher, more insistent. After a few moments, he stops kissing me and holds his body just above me, his arm muscles flexing as I trail my fingertips over them. My lips are burning. I moisten them with my tongue, then lift my face toward Blue. I want him to kiss me some more. A lot more.

  But Blue breaks into a soft smile, still holding his body slightly away from mine. He’s breathing heavily, the guitar still on his back. “You okay, bar girl?”

  I nod. I don’t really want to talk. I want him to press his body hard against me, plunge into me, consume me. I want to find out, right there on the roof, what I’ve been missing all this time. But then a bolt of lightning, followed by an ear-splitting crack of thunder, seems to explode right above us. I scream, and Blue scrambles to grab the windowsill, reaching out for me with his other hand just as the sky opens up, and it begins to pour.

  “Keegan, take my hand!” he shouts. “We gotta get inside.”

  I sit up, looking around in vain for my cami before remembering I flung it off the roof. And my bra is nowhere to be seen. I take Blue’s hand, screaming again as another lightning bolt and its corresponding thunder threaten to put us in the news: Topless lovers on a rooftop fried to a crisp by lightning. Details at 11.

  Blue helps me through the window, then climbs in as well. He’s bending down to tenderly kiss my wet breasts when my bedroom door is flung open. The hallway light shines on us like a spotlight. Hunter stands there, his eyes adjusting to the darkened room. I can see Kendra right behind him, peering over his shoulder.

  Before I even think to grab another shirt, Hunter fixes his eyes on my boobs and smiles sarcastically. “We heard a scream and thought our new roomie needed help,” he drawls. “But I guess it’s just the fuck factory getting cranked up, huh, soldier boy?”

  Before Blue can answer, Max pushes his way past Kendra and Hunter and makes a beeline for Blue, pressing against his leg and whining. The dog is shaking. Blue puts his hand on Max’s head. “He’s afraid of thunder,” he says. When Max whines again, Blue squats down next to the dog and puts both hands on his body. “It’s okay, boy, it’s okay.”

  A gust of wind blows rain through the window, and I look down at the drops on my skin as if I’m watching someone else. Then I come to my senses with a jolt and lunge toward the crate that holds my clothes. Grabbing a pajama top, I struggle to put it on; it’s like I’ve never done that before. My face and neck are burning with embarrassment.

  “Need any help there, Keegan?” Hunter leers.

  I intend to give him a withering stare, but then I’m distracted by the fury on Kendra’s face. If she could have killed me right then and there, I think she would have. She spins around on her heel and stalks away. I hear her heavy steps on the wooden floor even over the storm. A moment later, her bedroom door slams shut.

  Blue is next to Hunter now, shoving him out the door. “Get the fuck out of here, Hunter.” His tone is low and level, but with that same flat, dangerous note I heard before when he was talking to our obnoxious roommate. It doesn’t seem to faze Hunter, though.

  “‘Night, Keegan,” he calls out mockingly, pushing back against Blue’s hands. Then his voice changes. “Get your goddamn hands off me, Blue! I’m tired of telling you that!”

  The hall light throws a harsh glare on Blue’s face, and I see his jaw tense as he gives Hunter a final push and closes the bedroom door. The room’s suddenly dark again. I hear Blue take a deep breath and blow it out slowly. The door rattles as he leans against it. “That douchebag has no idea how close I’ve come to killing him on more than one occasion,” he says quietly. His words make me shiver.

  Another flash of lightning lights up the room for a second and the dark outline of Blue’s guitar reminds me he still has it on his back. “Oh, crap, did your guitar get wet?” I move toward him. “I’m sorry. I wanted you to play that song for me again, the one you sang to me on the roof before, but then I, um, kind of jumped the gun. Things didn’t exactly go according to plan.”

  The guitar jangles as Blue sets it against the wall; then I hear his footsteps. The next flash of lightning shows him walking toward me. “There was a plan?” He puts an arm around my waist and runs his fingers through my wet hair with his other hand. I turn my face into his palm.

  “Oh yeah,” I say, enjoying the feel of his fingers on my scalp. “There was a plan. But I’m not very good at this kind of thing.”

  He cups my face with his hands. I can feel his breath on my cheek. “What kind of thing, Keegan?” His voice is soft, seductive. My lips had parted, waiting for his kiss. I reluctantly put them back together to answer his question.

  “The seduction thing. That’s what I was trying to do. I mean, I know I’m not very good at it, but, that’s what I was, that what I wanted to do. Seduce you, I mean.” I am babbling now, my cheeks tingling with the touch of Blue’s hands, my lips still waiting.

  “Not very good at it? Are you kidding me? You’re a natural.” His lips finally find mine, and I wrap my arms tightly around his neck, pulling him against me as he kisses me over and over. But he’s not quite done talking.

  “So. . .” Another kiss. “Wait a sec. . .” Kiss. Kiss. “What I want to know is. . .” Kiss. Kiss. Kiss. “Why, Keegan?” Now he pulls back out of kissing range. “
Why now, Keegan? What changed your mind? And why on the roof?”

  My lips are still open, waiting for him to start kissing me again. “Because,” I sigh, “I wanted to thank you for going to Fort Peace, for trying to find the stalker, for wanting to be. . .my. . .my hero.” I feel a little silly saying it, but it’s true. “No one's ever done anything like that for me before, Blue. And the roof is kind of our spot. It’s where you climbed up the tree to find me, like, like Romeo coming to get Juliet.”

  Blue’s face crinkles into the warm, flirtatious smile that made my insides flop around the first time I met him. “I hope I’m the only one you try to thank like that, Keegan,” he whispers fiercely, grabbing my face again and covering it with his kisses. “And I hope I’m your only Romeo, your only hero.”

  That’s crazy-train talk, coming from a guy I've only known for about a week. Cautious Keegan would shut that down right away. But I don’t want to be Cautious Keegan right now.

  Suddenly, Blue pulls my pajama top over my head and starts setting my breasts on fire with his lips. But then it is me who can’t stop talking. There is something else I want him to know. I speak to the back of his head and try to finish a sentence while he brings the girls to grateful attention. “And, also, because I wanted. . .” I’m panting, “. . .because I wanted to make a new memory of. . .I wanted to wipe away the memory of Tyler, and I wanted to do that with you.”

  Blue’s head snaps up. So stupid. Why couldn't I just keep my mouth shut? “Yeah, you know, I wasn’t going to say anything. . .” He looks out the window a moment. The rain has stopped, and the storm’s moving on. I see a flash of lightning behind the tree, miles away now. “. . .but what the hell were you thinking? I just can’t see you with that dweeb.”