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wrong with wanting it, or admitting to it.”
    Wait. “What? I never said I was into sex. Not that I’m not into sex… I mean…ugh! Stop laughing at me!” I bury my face in my hands. Why the heck does he get me so tongue-tied?
    When he finally stops laughing, I see his teeth chatter. He’s cold. And he should be. “Shut up,” I say again, and then I unwrap the blanket from around my right side, still keeping it around my left shoulder, and stretch it out to him. He pauses a second, watching me—no, dissecting me—like he’s trying to see everything inside me to figure out how I work. Then he takes it, scoots closer to me and wraps the blanket around his shoulders as well.
    We’re both quiet for a minute before he says, “Don’t worry about it. I think you’re beautiful, too.”
    Wow. Not hot. Beautiful . A shiver runs through me, even though I suddenly feel warm. He called me hot before, but hot and beautiful are two different things. When he moves even closer to me, I let him.
    He isn’t part of my plan, and I’m not good at change. I’ve always needed to be the one who decides what will happen to me, instead of letting things happen on their own. This guy came out of nowhere, and though my instinct is to walk away, I don’t. I don’t even know if I’ll see him again after tonight. There’s a quiet whisper, deep in the darkest parts of me. I don’t know if it was there before and I ignored it, but that voice wants to enjoy this night. I can go back to my plan tomorrow.
     

 
    CHAPTER TWELVE
    ~Ryder~
    If I were here with Drea, it would just be normal to share a blanket with her. I wouldn’t give a shit if she knew I was freezing my balls off. Hell, I’d even wrap myself in a blanket with Tanner and Cody if I needed to keep warm. Cold is cold, and they’re my friends. But when Virginia asked me the first time, the shock got pushed away by pride. I didn’t want her to know I was so cold I felt numb. I could handle it.
    When she held the blanket out to me a second time, there’s no way I could say no. I can’t even say it’s because of the temperature, either. This girl doesn’t go around sharing a blanket with guys on the beach. She definitely doesn’t do it with guys like me. I got the same feeling in my chest that I did when she gave me her number. I don’t get why a girl like her would care if I’m cold, or if I have wheels when I need them, but she does, and it makes this strange sort of happiness go off inside me—little firecrackers I’ve never experienced.
    It’s that unbalanced feeling she gives me that makes me ask, “Why were you out on the dock that night? You don’t do shit like that.”
    She takes a deep breath. I feel the fabric of her jacket against my arm. It’s warm, but I would rather it be skin. I wasn’t lying when I said she’s beautiful. She is. And the more I’m around her, the more I start to want her.
    “How do you know?”
    I don’t know… “Come on, Virginia. You’re stalling. It’s not like I’m going to tell anyone. Hell, it’s not like you can’t tell that everything about me is more fucked up than you doing a little exploring on a dock.” A part of me wants that last sentence back. People knowing who and what I am has never bothered me before, but with her, I suddenly don’t want to draw more attention to the fact that my life is screwed up. Because it is. Even though I’m cool with the life I’ve led, I know it’s fucked up.
    “What are you doing out here tonight?”
    Ah, so she’s going to respond to a question with one of her own. I don’t really have anything to hide, though. Scratch that. I have shit she doesn’t need to know, but this isn’t one of them. “I got in a fight with my brother. He’s an asshole.”
    “What about?” she asks.
    There’s a slight twitch in my chest at this question, but nothing too major. “I bought beer and a shit ton of food to celebrate my dad’s birthday. He got pissed and then accused me of