Lost King Piper Lennox (ready player one ebook .TXT) 📖

to doubt it. Money isn’t something I’ve ever had to worry about.”

Ruby sits against the couch and adjusts her hat with both hands, then clasps them behind her head. “What do you worry about?”

“Sleep.” I flip the cap back to her. She catches it in one hand without even looking. Damn.

“You don’t sleep well?”

“Understatement. I’m shocked I haven’t lost my mind yet, my insomnia’s gotten so bad.”

“You could try aromatherapy.”

“Got it. My nose is immune to chamomile now. Lavender’s doing okay.”

She smiles to herself, thinking. “Meditation?”

“Thirty minutes, every afternoon.”

“Weighted blankets?”

I reach up to the couch and drag one over to her, piling it in her lap while she coughs and laughs. “Tried it.”

“In that case,” she sputters, shoving it off and hefting it to the ottoman, “I think it’s time to try horse tranquilizers.”

“Does NyQuil count?” I gather up some more trash, mostly because I hate admitting this one isn’t a joke. “I self-medicated for a really long time. Sleep aids, cold medicine, alcohol...nothing helped. I’d get a few hours, then spend the rest of the day paying for it with headaches and shit.”

Ruby starts working again, too. Maybe it’s just as hard for her to listen. Maybe she’s just tired of all my rich-boy problems.

“Cutting caffeine could help.” She spins an empty espresso cup by its handle. On her delicate, glove-encased finger, it looks like a Christmas tree ornament. “I used to fuel my life on nothing but cherry Amps and Five Hour Energy shots. Trust me—cutting back to one cup of coffee a day will work wonders.”

“How do you even know that’s mine?” I reach for the cup, but she spins it overhead and leans away.

“You’ve got that caffeine-crazed look in your eyes,” she smirks. “Dilated pupils, shaky hands—”

I lean over her, pinning her free hand to snatch the cup, both of us almost toppling. Her laughter echoes through the living room. My face peers down into hers.

“Do these hands feel shaky to you?”

She quiets. “No. Steady as a rock.”

I kiss her.

A sound escapes her chest, almost like a sigh of relief. I probably make one too. This is all I’ve been thinking about for at least thirty hours straight.

“Theo.” She breaks away and shakes her head. I let her hands go, even though I know as soon as I do, she’ll push me back.

“Sorry.” I return to my spot on the floor at a close but respectful distance. “I promise, I’m not trying to be so...hands-on.”

Ruby wets her lips and snorts.

“You don’t believe me?”

“I think I’d be very stupid to believe you,” she says, walking away on her knees to clear off an end table, “given how…attractive you are. Girls must be begging you to be hands-on.”

I shrug. They certainly used to. But that data’s not exactly up-to-date.

“I haven’t dated anyone in a long time,” I confess. “My last official girlfriend was, like…shit. Over seven years ago.”

Under her stare, I feel my skin grow hot. I don’t want her to think I’m that messed-up.

“Mostly by choice,” I add. “I’m not interested in dating any of the girls I know.” As for meeting someone new, I socialize the bare minimum outside the same dwindling group of people, year after year. It’s just simpler.

Depressing as shit—but simple.

“Do you want to date me?” she asks suddenly, standing up and gathering some balled-up receipts from my dad’s shelves.

Her eyes comb the skulls slowly. I wait for her to ask what they are or why they’re here...but she doesn’t. She just stares back into their eyeless gazes.

“How insane will I sound if I say yes?”

She smiles, but doesn’t look at me. The skulls rattle like tiny, soft earthquakes when she walks away, moving on to the next mess in need of attention.

9

“Uh…wow. Okay.”

Ruby paces to the other corner of the infinity pool, hands planted in the beautiful dips in her waist as she frowns at the chair submerged in the water.

“Yeah,” I sigh, tearing my eyes off her to observe it for myself. “Between that and all the bathing suit bottoms I’ve fished out of here, I’m seriously considering a ‘no more pool parties’ rule. Not that I could ever enforce that.” A lot of my Hamptons friends just hop my gate and swim, without even pausing at the front door to say hello.

“Speaking of bathing suits....” Ruby’s eyes dart to the upper deck, where a collection of bikini tops paints the railing. “Impressive. That your trophy case?”

“Lost and Found.”

We grab the last of the outside trash, fling our gloves into her bucket, then drown our skin in sanitizer up to the elbows. When she rolls up her pant legs to put her feet in the water by the stairs, I join her.

“Girls put their stuff out there to dry, then forget about it,” I explain. “I have a box for all the shit people leave. That railing’s usually cleared off by the first of September, before I leave.”

Ruby looks at them again. In the early sunset, all we can really see are the neon or white tops. “Why didn’t you do that this year?”

“Same reason I haven’t gotten this damn chair out of the pool, I guess, or cleaned the living room...or left at all.” I study the glow around her profile. “I’m just tired.”

“I would be too, if I slept as badly as you.”

My smile takes a little too much energy to make happen, so I don’t force it to stick around.

Ruby’s hand covers mine on the coping around the edge of the pool. Her feet churn up some waves and send them in my direction.

“Can I say something offensive that shouldn’t be offensive, but nonetheless always is?”

“Sure.”

“I