"Wait," Bailee shook her head. She glanced over at Andrew, who sat at the bar lining the kitchen. "You're her dead brother."

"I don't know about dead, but I am her brother," Andrew confirmed.

I had quickly explained that Andrew was the "strange, attractive boy" waiting inside my house even though it was clear that I was just seen kissing Ryder. Of course, Bailee began inquiring things and I thought that being truthful about Andrew was more of a priority than the drama-filled adventures of Ashlynn and Ryder.

"Well I'm happy you're not dead," she said, looking down, but then quickly looked between us two. "I mean, I'm sorry for your dad's loss, I just meant that I'm glad you're not gone too because I knew Ashlynn missed you a lot already."

Aw, you missed me, Andrew teased and I shot him a look.

"Well I missed her too," Andrew returned with a light smile. Bailee nodded at first, but the bobs became head shakes in disagreement.

"Maybe we are seeing him as a ghost though," she said to me. "I mean, my eyes must be tricking me already if I saw you kissing Ryder Ramon of all people."

"No...you saw correctly," I muttered.

"Okay, I'm out," Andrew dismissed himself with disgust and I rolled my eyes. Bailee moved couches and sat right in front of me.

"Oh my God, that means my ears are deceiving me too? Because I don't recall hearing any explanation!" she exclaimed as I heard Andrew walk through the house. I blocked him out through our mind link because I knew he would have opinions flying all over.

So I sat there and explained to Bailee all I could. Honestly, it sounded ridiculous having such faith within such a random relationship without the revelation of imprinting or family relations as the cause to the madness. I just tried my hardest to assure her that I did see something in Ryder Ramon and I wanted others to not only see the better side of him, but I wanted to be there to be a component of that better life.

She thought it was cute, but she was rightfully cautious. She still couldn't wrap her mind around how I described Ryder's character around me, but she figured that if he was able to change for me then maybe he wasn't so bad. She still worried though.

"This doesn't mean you're gonna ditch me when school starts to hang out and skip with his friends, does it?" she whined.

"No! Of course not," I answered. "I think it'll be awkward with Stella though. She probably hates me."

"I still think her judgment is clouded..." she mumbled. "And who cares what she thinks of you? She's still going to put up with you because she's still in love with Ryder and wants him to be happy."

It made me feel bad though. I didn't want to flaunt any relationship in front of anyone with feelings for Ryder. After all, she probably deserved him. She's loved him this entire time—the real Ryder; the Ryder who will fight and smoke and be rude. She loved that Ryder and no matter what I was to him, I would never get to experience and appreciate that side of him because he was trying to be the better person for me. I couldn't just put that in Stella's face every day.

"Granted...she's still pretty pissed right now," Bailee added. I frowned. The last time I talked to Stella, she was yelling at me and calling me nothing (which I agreed to) all because I guess her mom finally told her that I was in the car with Ryder the night he got arrested. Not only that, but she was there when I admitted Ryder bought me a car and she probably knows that I went to his house—a privilege most people apparently hadn't had in seventeen years. I needed to apologize to her. "But it'll be fine, I'm sure."

"I hope so," I sighed. "I'd hate to go into a new school with her and her friends hating me."

"I think you're good," Bailee laughed and I was confused. "I mean, being Ryder's girlfriend has its perks. He has a lot of friends, you know."

She didn't even know that those guys were probably in his pack. They were obligatory friend circles.

"Maybe I'm better off just being friends with you and Evan," I joked and she shared the brief laugh.

"You can be friends with anyone you want," she smiled and then we laughed together. "Just maybe don't be too friendly with Ryder in front of everyone..."

"Of course not," I laughed.

***

"I'll see you tomorrow," I told Bailee and she sent me off with a hug over the seats since I drove her home.

Hurry up, Ryder pleaded desperately for some reason. I questioned this since he hadn't come into contact with me since he left, but it still made me smile. He allowed me and Bailee to just hang out all day without "distracting me" or whatever, which was hard for him because he apparently didn't like to leave me in the first place, let alone have no telepathic communication with me either.

But then Cassandra called me and I answered it through the car's Bluetooth.

"Hey," I greeted.

"Hey, honey, how are you?" she asked.

"I'm fine," I replied. "I just dropped off Bailee; she finally got back in town."

"Oh, that's good," she said. "So about this morning...can I assume that Andrew and Ryder are still alive, or...?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked playfully.

"I'm hoping they didn't kill each other after I'm going through all this work to prove Andrew's alive to the state of Florida," she chuckled.

"No. They...compromised," I notified hesitantly. There was an awkward pause.

"So are you going to ask me if Ryder can come over or...?"

"No," I said, but then my face heated up because I felt as though I could predict Ryder coming over. Regardless of permission or not, I would let him come over too. I just...didn't want Cassandra to think I was rushing things. And even though I needed her to trust me, I still told her no.

"Does Andrew have anything to do with—"

"No," I interrupted and insisted that I was going to see Ryder tomorrow, and I was in no urgency to see him no matter how much she hinted that Ryder could come over or maybe that she wanted me to ask so she could purposely deny him access. It's as if she knew about imprinting. But I knew she couldn't because, well, she didn't have a mate.

But she still tried to be that active makeshift parent through the phone before she concluded with a goodnight and said she'd be back by the time the senior camping trip was over this weekend. That meant she'd be gone for at least three more days.

I got home and the first thing I did was find Andrew to relay the information, but he seemed to be more interested in the TV than me. Other than the occasional murmur, he pretty much dismissed me, which I was happy with while he was in his unfriendly funk.

As soon as I entered my room, my heart rate increased a fraction before I saw a beautiful boy take me by the waist and press his lips to mine. I wasn't stiff at first only because my body had recognized the gravitational force it had for Ryder...and because I loved to kiss him. So that's what we did. We didn't back into walls or hover to the bed; we just kissed. While his arms were still locked around my waist, he pulled away, but looked down at me.

"I'm sorry, I just...I needed that," he whispered as if he needed to apologize for taking my breath away. He was even nervous about it as if he made a mistake because he let go of me and started for the door.

And then I had reached out for his hand.

"Wait," I told him and he turned to look over his shoulder. I reached up and pecked his lips. "Stay."

"Ashlynn, I...—" I silenced him by pressing my lips against his since he liked to interrupt me that way. This time, he had made his body parallel with mine instead of angling for the door. He pulled away reluctantly. "Ash, I don't think—"

"Shh," I hushed by kissing him and pulled at his shirt in order to pull him away from the door and near the bed. Now, his hands had found my hips and one of his fingers had looped through the belt loop of my shorts. We had made our way across the room with consistent protests and stolen kisses. Then, we were sitting on the bed in the embrace and I grabbed his face. His hands then found my forearms and he pulled away from me.

"I have to go," he said. "Cassandra doesn't know I'm here and probably won't want—"

"Cassandra isn't here," I told him, dropping my hands into my lap. My eyes fell onto his lips and I didn't mind the intense desire I had for him right now. My body was acting off of its wants and that's why my mouth blurted out: "Just stay the night."

"You don't mean that," Ryder challenged with a glint in his eyes. Did I? What was wrong with me? I had never spent the night with any guy before and here I was trying to pull him into my bed not even a week after he first kissed me. But why didn't it feel foreign to me?

"But I mean this," I said before throwing my leg over his lap in order to straddle and crash my lips into his. Our eyes immediately closed and he leaned back as he kissed me back. That lower body discomfort was back and was worse when we were completely horizontal. He flipped the position when my hands had made it to the end of his shirt, and just like in his room, he stripped it off of him just like the first time we kissed. My hands found the heated skin of his torso and then he rolled off of me. He kissed my cheek and then my neck and shoulder as he positioned himself behind me, but by then my head was spinning despite my disappointment.

"Not tonight," he whispered in my hair as he held onto me from behind. I rolled over and faced him so he couldn't spoon me. I searched his face for answers. "If we do this, everything will change...I don't want to move into uncharted territory before..."

"Before what?"

"Before I even figure out if I like you or not," he immediately joked while sticking his tongue out at me and making circles with his fingers beneath my shirt on my stomach. We laughed briefly and his eyes rested on me so naturally. "I'll stay til you fall asleep, but I won't spend the night."

"Why?"

"I'm not going to do that to Cassandra or Andrew," he muttered. "Especially not to myself. Or you."

I narrowed my eyes at him.

"You said we weren't going to do anything, so I don't see a problem," I said, even though I was sure Cassandra didn't truly care and no matter what we did, Andrew would disapprove, therefore it made him irrelevant. I didn't know what Ryder meant by what it would do to himself.

"Just go to sleep," he said.

"No, I wanna know wh—"

"Shh," he silenced and then he rolled to face away from me.

"Ryder," I whined, putting my hand on his shoulder. He looked over at me like a child.

"Are you going to be quiet and go to sleep?" he questioned.

"Yes," I surrendered and then he positioned me to face away from him and pulled me close. I felt it to be much easier to oblige to him and come in harmony with what nature wanted...which was putting us together. That natural syncing together came quickly because as soon as our breaths matched and my heart beat slowed, I was falling asleep. My inner self was at ease and only stirred slightly when she sensed Ryder leave.