“No, we absolutely can.”

“We’re the embarrassing family that wants to tell everyone how proud of our little Kye we are,” Jax said. 

“I’m going to kill you.”

“Ha. You’ll have to get through Carly first.”

“Hiding behind your girlfriend again?”

“Always.”

I groaned, but Quinn continued.

“We can’t help that we’re proud of you and want to tell her. He’s amazing, Daisy. He’s going to be one of the best racers in the country, and that’s if he doesn’t become a professional stunt driver,” Quinn said, beaming at me. 

“Is she serious?” Daisy asked, looking at me as her eyebrows jumped up.

“We can only hope,” I said.

Quinn shook her head. “Fine, Kye. Since you are only going to talk less and less if we talk about you, I’ll ask Daisy questions.”

Daisy moved closer, her hand going down on the bench between us, and I realized it was because she wanted to touch me. 

And fuck my life that I wanted her to.

I moved my hand the smallest amount closer until our pinkies were nearly touching. I ignored the way my heart rate picked up and tried to focus on the conversation again.

“Tell us about you, Daisy. What are you doing out with Kye tonight?” Carly asked, leaning back against Jax and looking at me with a smile.

“Oh, and what do you think of Kye and all of us now?” Scout asked.

Daisy let out a hard breath and leaned the smallest amount closer to me, her hand sliding across the bench until we were touching.

“Honestly, I just spent the day with my so-called friends and my ex-boyfriend, who threw me off a boat. And really, if you would have asked me a few weeks ago which group was more likely to try to get me killed, I would have said you guys without a doubt, but obviously I was wrong, so there is now zero judgment of you all from me. I literally went death warp speed a bit ago, and that still felt safer than being on a boat with my friends. At this point, I literally know nothing about how to read people, so even if you all sucked, I may not notice, but I don’t think you do. And besides that, I was hanging out with Kye because he was the only one I thought I could call that would one, actually show up, and two, not judge me to no end for what happened.”

They all stared at her, silent and mouths open, until Carly got up and walked to the cooler. “Honestly,” she said. “It sounds like you could use a drink.”

“Or maybe ten,” Scout added, her eyes wide as she looked at me.

Carly handed her a drink, and for the first time since picking her up, she relaxed, letting me relax right along with her.

In the mess of my doubts, I couldn’t shake the feeling that bringing her tonight wasn’t the smartest move. But deep down, I knew it was the one I wanted.

THIRTEENDAISY

Kye was so close to me now that I could feel the heat rolling off of him. I still couldn’t understand what was happening. We were fake dating, using each other for outings and meetings, but then here we were. He had invited me back here tonight and seemed content sitting by me.

He did not seem all that interested in making out, though. The guy had been a statue when I kissed him, and I almost died of embarrassment.

I kept throwing myself at him, and he kept kindly reminding me he wasn’t interested.

But then he was asking me to hang out more and sitting as close as he could without touching me.

Although now his hand was up against mine, and I was trying to figure out if that was on purpose or not.

I thought Kye would be uninterested or way too interested. This strange middle ground was confusing.

“Having fun yet?” he asked before taking a swig of his drink. He seemed so relaxed and calm. It was such a difference to the guy I always saw stalking around school and parties.

“I really can’t believe you are all so nice,” I said quietly. “And you would fight your friends before letting them get away with being an ass to me?”

“Absolutely. Honestly, though, I would fight for a lot less,” he said with a smirk.

“I don’t believe it. The fighting friends part. Obviously you’re happy to fight.”

“Do you think none of us have ever got into a fistfight? These guys would kill me if I was honestly rude to the girls.” He shook his head and looked around, his eyes falling on Ransom. 

“Alright, honest question for you all. If I was mean to any one of the girls, would you hit me?” Kye asked.

A round of yes’s echoed, but Chase spoke up.

“I don’t think it’s the guys you need to worry about hitting you, though. If you insult one of them, I’m pretty sure they all take it personally.”

“All vipers,” Fox said to me. “And they will go for the throat.”

I looked at each of the girls, each one smiling and laughing. None of them looked particularly scary, but they weren’t disagreeing.

“Obviously, her ex-boyfriend’s friends were assholes. I’m just trying to prove my point that while we can be assholes, she is fine here.”

“You’re more than fine here,” Ash said. “These guys love us. They aren’t going to be mean to you in any way.”

“Come on,” Kye said, his arm moving to rest on the bench behind me. He still wasn’t touching me, but it felt close enough. “Just relax. You don’t have to keep up any appearances here.”

I was supposed to relax with him this close? The guy who had both beat a guy up in front of me and drove nearly an hour to come pick me up when I needed him.

“Fake dating appearances or all appearances?” I asked.

“All the fake appearances. Including the I’m a perfect prom queen appearance you seem to think you have to do.”

“You’re one to talk. You are sitting awfully close for someone who doesn’t need to keep up appearances on fake dating me.”

He shrugged. “Maybe I just want to? If I want to sit close, I sit close. Do you need me to move?”

“No. Do you always just do whatever you want?”

“I mean, yeah, do you not?”

“No. Not at all. Not even a little. There are rules and expectations. Won’t your friends think something else is going on?”