Crazy For You by Alexander, S.B. (best ebook reader ubuntu .TXT) 📕

to give them all the details. Colton’s nose had been bloody, but I was curious if he had black eyes. “I couldn’t agree with you more.”

“Aside from his split lip and bruised jaw, Colton seems different,” Georgia said.

“No black eyes?” I asked.

“None.” Mia sighed as though she was relieved for Colton. “And he’s different because of our pretty friend here.” She smiled at me.

My stomach hollowed. “What?”

Georgia leaned into me. “That’s what we want to tell you. Mia overheard Colton talking to Grady this morning. Your name came up.”

Oh, this I had to hear. My gaze burned a hole into Mia.

She scooted closer and whispered, “Colton said that if it weren’t for you, he might have driven into a tree last night.”

I scrunched my nose. “Come again?”

“Apparently, after his fight with his dad, he was so mad he couldn’t see straight. He told Grady you were the one who brought him down off the ledge,” Mia said.

“Huh.” I had no other words, but my stomach churned like a storm in rough seas, my pulse unsteady. If I hadn’t run out of the house to stop him from leaving… holy shit! What if I’d woken up that day and Colton was gone? Surely he hadn't been thinking of harming or killing himself. No. No. No.

Georgia’s gaze latched onto mine. “Don’t go there.”

“How can I not?” My hands trembled.

“Skye,” Mia said softly. “He’s here. And he has Grady and us.”

She rubbed my leg. “Mia’s right. He’s got us and you. What did you say to him?”

I eyed Colton, who was still chatting with Grady. They seemed to be in a serious convo. Maybe Grady was knocking some sense into him. “I asked him to stay at my house, and before I knew what was happening, I was in his arms. Then he said some things about his control being ready to snap around me.”

Mia’s expression lightened as she gave me a cheeky grin. “You need to make the first move. Sometimes guys don’t know how to.”

“Says my sex therapist.” I laughed, but it was laden with nerves.

Georgia giggled, followed by Mia, and just like that, the tension and despair snapped.

“She’s right,” Georgia said. “And sounds to me like he wants you badly.”

If he did, he had an odd way of showing it. In one breath, he’d told me to stay away from him. In another, he was ready to eat me whole.

Grady’s voice cut through my Colton problem as he and Colton finally drew near.

“We’ll talk later,” I said. My pulse was on a fast-moving train whenever Colton approached.

19

Bending over, Grady kissed Mia on the head, then whispered something in her ear that made her cheeks flush. I was speechless. I had never seen Grady so loving before.

In contrast, Colton tucked his hands into the pockets of his swim trunks and stared out at the Atlantic, not looking at me or anyone. He seemed as though someone had shocked him into silence, and I was silently pointing the finger at myself. Nevertheless, his bottom lip was swollen, and he did have a bruised jaw. The area around his eyes was pinched, but I didn’t see any discoloring.

The tension skyrocketed into the clear blue sky. Good thing we were out in the open air, where oxygen was in great supply. Otherwise, if we were in a closed room with no windows or a way out, I would’ve been laboring for breath.

Grady got comfortable behind Mia, kicking out his strong legs and big feet. The dude was a giant. “Lawson, where’s your skateboard?” His tone was nice and even and didn’t hold the animosity it usually did when he spoke to me.

If I hadn’t been with Georgia and Mia, I would have thought I was in some alternate universe. Or maybe Mia had trained him well.

I narrowed my eyes at the blond QB. “Not here.” My tone held a smidge of sarcasm. It was hard to shuck the snarky attitude with Grady. It didn’t help that I was on edge.

Grady glared daggers at me with those blue eyes of his. He went to open his mouth, but Mia clutched his thigh as though she could sense him about to spew a retort.

It didn’t matter if he did. I was ready to spar if Grady wanted to. Maybe that would jar Colton from his frozen state for good. He snuck a look at me for a split second before he resumed his soldier position, as though he was guarding Buckingham Palace.

My stomach twisted and twined in an overpowering need to shout at Colton, to fracture that wall he’d built around him. To hell with swapping words with Grady. Colton needed a jolt of something. Sadly, I didn’t have the nerve to be the one to shake him back to reality.

I couldn’t believe how he’d changed since the first day of school, when he’d been kind and nice. He hit you with his truck. He had to be nice. I knew the fights with his dad were one cause of his darkness, but I also believed I’d played a part in his crankiness.

After all, he’d said, “You need to stop getting under my skin, Skyler. I have a lot of control, but every time I look at you, I want to lose that control.”

It was clear by the tension in his shoulders that he was hanging on by a thread, and amid the host of emotions thrumming through me, pity stood out. But I didn’t want to feel sorry for him because I didn’t like when others did that to me. Mia and Georgia had been great in taking my mind off Dad and showing me how much they loved me. Colton needed someone who could do the same. I would gladly step up, and I’d tried, but he didn’t want a friend, and he wasn’t interested in me. His words, not mine. I took comfort in knowing he had Grady.

Georgia’s gaze darted to the ocean, then back to me as if she was trying