I couldn’t stop laughing through her entire rambling tirade. A text came in from Jay saying:

If this is a joke u r in big trbl 4 wakin me up. Call me when u get home.

I tried to explain everything to Veronica in as much detail as possible without making it sound strange. She kept screeching in my ear.

“I’ll let you go back to sleep,” I told her after I was done gushing. “Do me a favor and tell Jay something for me, would you?”

“Sure,” she said, yawning now.

“Tell him Kai so wrote that single. I was right.”

“You got it. In your face, Jay, from Anna. Good night, girl. I’m happy for you. But I meant what I said about killing him if he’s playing you.”

“I know, sweets. Don’t worry.”

We hung up, and Blake was standing there with another drink. When I finished it, he yanked me into the water, making me go around and around the edges with him and all the other people to cause a whirlpool effect that dragged us around like a current.

We got hungry around three in the morning, and ordered a ton of pizza from an all-night pizza place. Afterward, Blake talked a guy into letting him borrow his skateboard, and he once again entertained all of us. If it had wheels, Blake could work it.

“Is he your boyfriend?” a girl behind me asked.

I turned to the group of girls watching Blake. They were all coifed and beautiful in their bikinis, not having gone in the water. My wet hair was pulled back in a ponytail by this point and I was wrapped in a towel. “No, he’s my boyfriend’s best friend. We’re watching his place while he’s . . . out of town.”

A pang of fear jabbed me when I thought about Kai.

“What’s your name?” asked a brunette with glossy lips.

“Anna.” I smiled.

“Hey. I’m Jenny,” she said. “This is Daniela and Tara.”

“Hey,” I said to them.

“So, your boyfriend lives here?” asked the blonde, Daniela. She had a cool accent—something European.

“Yes,” I answered, pointing up to his apartment.

The girls all shared looks, raising their sculpted eyebrows.

“Wait,” said Jenny. “Is he that guy in the band?”

The third girl, named Tara, gasped. “The drummer?” When I nodded, they shared awed looks.

“Oh my gawd, don’t get mad at me for saying this,” said Jenny, “but he’s a total piece of eye candy.” Her friends all laughed.

“Yum drum,” whispered Tara, and Daniela playfully shoved her.

Jenny got serious. “But don’t worry. He, like, never comes out or talks to anyone. Now we know why.” She winked at me. “You are so adorable. Where are you from?”

“Georgia.”

This was met with a round of awwws. “Hey, you’re a Southern girl,” said Tara. “You should like this.”

She held out a bottle of bourbon and I felt a tug toward it. My fingers reached out.

“Maybe just one drink,” I said.

Daniela grinned and turned up the music.

Fifteen minutes and three shots later I’d dropped my towel and was dancing with the girls and telling them how much I loved them, while they drunkenly swore to sabotage the efforts of any girl who tried to talk to my man. We’d formed a circle and were singing at the top of our lungs to a song on the radio. Blake threw a heavy arm over my shoulder and pushed his way into our group. The girls screamed with laughter when he started dancing in the middle. And then he accidentally kicked over the empty bottle of bourbon.

“My bad,” he said, righting the bottle. Then his head swung up to look at me. I grinned, swaying, and he muttered, “Oh, snap. Little girl’s been into the liquor.”

“Dance with us, Blake!” I said, clapping my hands. My new friends all cheered.

“No, ma’am. It’s time to get you to bed.”

He grabbed my hand, but I wiggled away. He chased me around the group of girls, me yelling about needing one more drink until he caught me and threw me over his shoulder.

“Don’t leave!” Jenny begged.

“Sorry,” Blake told her. “I promised her man I wouldn’t let her get too drunk. She gets all crazy and starts kissing random dudes.”

“Shut up!” I screamed, pounding his back. “That’s not true!”

At least, not anymore.

Blake smacked my butt. Hard. I screamed again, lifting my hands to protect my behind as he moved us away from the laughing crowd. “I’m telling Kai!”

He laughed all the way up the stairs and into Kaidan’s apartment as I flailed. He tossed me on the bed where I crawled to Kaidan’s pillow and buried my face in it, breathing him in.

Blake left and came back with a glass of water, setting it on the nightstand.

My hand fumbled to pull the phone from my pocket, so Blake plucked it out and handed it to me. I clutched it to my chest after reading the time. Six in the morning.

“He loves you, you know,” Blake said in an unexpected moment of seriousness.

“I know,” I whispered. And my heart melted with the sureness of that knowledge.

“Good. Now drink this water and go to sleep.”

With effort, I sat up partway and drank the whole glass. He took it from me.

“Thank you, Blake.”

“Nah,” he said quietly. “Thank you.”

He left me to go pass out on the couch, and I fell asleep without a single thought in my mind. Exactly as Blake had intended.