“Because she’s trying to break us up, the same way all the bitches would do to you. She keeps getting in Kaylah’s ear and dropping little hints so she questions everything I tell her. Like we were at a party last night and I walked out of the bathroom. This girl walked out of the same hallway right behind me, making it look like we were in there together, then she went and licked her lips while Kaylah was watching.”
“Shit. Surely, Kaylah must know it’s all bullshit.”
“I don’t know. That’s just the thing. She’s not from Broken Hill. She comes from Haven Falls where guys cheat all the time. All her past boyfriends have cheated on her and with my past, she doesn’t really have any reason to trust me. She probably just assumes I’m like all the other dickheads who treated her like shit.”
“Have you talked to her about this?”
“No,” he sighs, scooting down on the couch even more. “I just… I don’t know. I wouldn’t know how to even broach the topic with her without it looking like I’m just trying to cover my ass.”
“You love her, Jess,” I murmur, squeezing his hand. “You have to give it a shot no matter the cost. You’re going to lose her if you don’t do anything about it. You have a much better chance of moving past this if you talk to her like you’re talking to me now. Bare your soul to her. She’ll see that you’re the real deal and learn that she can trust you.”
“You think?”
“I know,” I tell him. “But listen, you can’t leave it at that. You have to do something about this girl because she won’t stop. You need to put her down and send a message to all the other girls to back off. I could handle the ones that came at me because Nate forced me to have a backbone, but Kaylah is soft-hearted, these girls will destroy her.”
Jesse leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees before hanging his head. “Shit,” he sighs. “You’re right.”
“Yeah,” I say getting up from the couch and pulling him up behind me. “Why don’t you go talk to her? I’m going to get out of here because just the thought of being in the same house as that prick makes me want to strangle him.”
“Alright,” he chuckles, though it’s completely forced and fake. “Let’s go.”
He grabs his keys off the coffee table and walks towards the door. “I’m assuming you’re going to Nate’s shop? Do you want a lift?”
I think it over for a second before realizing it’s not a bad idea. It’s Saturday afternoon and I assume we’re going to spend the rest of the day together anyway. I haven’t heard from him all day and to risk sounding like a love sick moron, I really miss him.
I hurry into the kitchen and scrawl out a quick note for Brooke, letting her know I won’t be home and possibly won’t be back until tomorrow. She’ll most likely scrunch it up and toss it before reading it, but at least she can’t say that didn’t let her know.
I grab my bag off the table and hurry out the door after Jesse, making sure to lock it behind me, you know, just in case Brooke doesn’t emerge from her room for the rest of the day. I’m assuming if someone was to break in, Lukas would probably scram and leave her defenseless. So, at least this way, she’s safe.
Jess drives me the ten minutes to the shop and I jump out of his Range Rover before looking back at him one last time. The poor kid looks sick, but he shouldn’t. Kaylah loves him and if he’s honest with her and lets her know exactly what’s going on, he’ll be absolutely fine.
I close the door and hurry into Nate’s shop.
My eyebrows pull down as I walk through the door. There’s no loud music playing and no sound of metal clinking against metal. I walk through the shop and search him out, hoping he’s actually here.
I follow the sound of a bouncing ball and find him leaning back in a desk chair, facing the wall as he throws a tennis ball at the wall. It rebounds once, bounces on the ground, and comes to a stop in his hand. Then he throws it again, and again, and again.
I walk up behind him and place my hands on his tight shoulders. “Hey,” I murmur.
He jumps and sucks in a quick breath before realizing it’s just me. My eyebrows pull down, concerned about what the hell is going on with him. I’ve never got the jump on him. He’s known for always being so calculating and on the ball. It’s like an unspoken rule, no one can sneak up on this guy, but I guess that’s not true after all.
“What are you doing here?” he questions, letting the ball fall from his fingers and roll across the floor until it comes to a stop under the Miura. He spins his desk chair around until he’s facing me and pulls me in between his legs, taking my waist in his hands.
“Just wanted to see you,” I tell him. “It’s been a while since we just… did nothing.” A softness creeps into his eyes as he watches me. “What’s going on?” I question. “Something’s on your mind.”
“It’s nothing,” he says. “I just miss you.”
I sit down on his lap and twine my arm around his neck, leaning into him and pressing my lips against his warm cheek. “I’m right here.”
“I know,” he says, running his fingers up and down my back. “It’s… it’s hard to explain.”
“Try me.”
He holds me a little tighter and presses his lips into a firm line. “I don’t like how things are between us at the moment,” he says, making me sit a little straighter as I begin to panic. He notices instantly and rushes to soothe me. “No, no,” he says. “I don’t mean it like that. It’s just, I’m always busy here and you’re always studying or in class.”
“I can’t help that,” I tell him.
“I know,” he says. “I’m not asking you to. I just… I think we need to find somewhere in between.”
I nod my head. “I’m not going to lie. I’ve been feeling it too,” I tell him. “If I didn’t have you sneaking through my window at night, I’d probably be a mess.”
“Not possible,” he says, running his fingers through my hair.
“I promise,” I whisper. “We’ll make this work. We always do.”
He watches me with those soft eyes for a beat before pulling me back into him. He rests his forehead against mine. “You know, I love you, right?”
A beaming smile cuts my face in two. “Oh, I have a slight inkling,” I tease. “Are you finished here?”
He looks around and I see from the cringe that rips across his face that the answer is no, but he goes and surprises me anyway. “It can wait,” he tells me. “I’d rather take you home. Mom is out with John for the weekend.”
“So, we’d have the place all to ourselves?”
“Well, apart from Jesse,” he says. “We could go back to your place?”
I shake my head. “Jesse is having girl problems. He’s with Kaylah and my place is a hard pass. Lukas is there, testing my self-control.”
“That guy is such a douche.”
“You can say that again.”
Nate gets up from his chair and places me down on my feet as he goes around and closes up his shop. He flicks the internal locks for the office and meeting room while flicking off the light and turning off the massive industrial fan above our heads.
A few minutes pass as we stand before both the Camaro and Mustang, playing a game of eeny, meeny, miny, moe. “I mean, which one are we supposed to take?” I ask him, feeling completely torn.
“I don’t know,” he says. “Is this what it feels like when someone asks a parent to choose which is their favorite kid?”
“I don’t know. I guess,” I wonder out loud. “I’m an only child.”
I dive under the Miura and search out the tennis ball as Nate continues studying his choices. “Hey, Nate,” I call. As his head whips around, I throw the ball as hard as I can between the two cars and watch his reaction.
His eyes widen as though he can’t believe I just threw a ball at his babies, but then he shuffles his body towards the Camaro, leaving the Mustang defenseless as he catches the ball.
“What the hell?” he grunts.
“We’re taking the Ca
maro,” I tell him.
“Huh?” he questions, scrunching up his face.
“You stepped in front of the Camaro,” I explain. “The Camaro is your favorite child.”
He rolls his eyes as he pulls the keys for the Camaro out of his pocket and starts heading for the driver’s door. “For the record,” he says. “I stepped in front of it because your aim sucked and the ball was going straight for the windscreen.”
“Uh huh,” I murmur, rolling my eyes. I mean, he’s just saying that out of respect for the Mustang. My aim was perfect and we both know it, but I let it go. Today isn’t about teasing his favorite child syndrome, it’s about making the most of being close with him until our two different worlds tear us apart again.
Nate pulls out of the shop parking lot and onto the road before he reaches over and weaves his fingers through mine. I look across at him to find his sparkling eyes staring back at me. “Just so you know, I’m still pissed you allowed Jackson to take you to another party.”
Shit. I should have known this was bound to come up.
Chapter 10
We pull up at the races on Friday night and I have to smile to myself. We’re in the Camaro… again. I mean, Nate can deny it all he wants, be he certainly has a favorite, and if I have to be honest, I’m glad it’s the Camaro. It holds so many memories for us, both good and bad. I still can’t believe Jesse had it rebuilt for him.
But I want it stated for the record that if in a few years when Nate and I have little dark-haired children running around, causing havoc, and he chooses a favorite, I’m going to be pissed.
I push my way out of Nate’s car and walk around the front to meet him. We haven’t been coming here as often as we used to. We used to come every Friday night for Nate to race, but after school finished and summer happened, it became more of a ‘for fun’ kind of thing, which just happens to be the reason we’re here tonight.
Nate finished everything he wanted to finish for the week, giving him the night and the whole weekend off. And I, well, as usual, I still have a shitload of studying to get through, but Nate convinced me to live a little, so here we are.
The sound of two cars on the track echoes throughout the whole property but I don’t bother looking down at them. Racing isn’t really my thing. It doesn’t get me hot the way it does for all the boys. I’m just here for Nate. Now, watching him on the racetrack is definitely something that gets me hot. Being in the car with him when he’s driving is even better, though it’s scary as hell.
Nate takes my hand and we walk towards our group of friends who have probably been here all night. Jesse catches me out the corner of his eye as we approach, and that eye becomes dangerously mischievous.
Crap.
He breaks away from the group and starts towards us with his eyes locked on mine as I try to work out his game plan. He steps up before us and if already knowing what he’s going to do, my bastard boyfriend releases my hand.
Jesse bends and my eyes widen in fear. I start to backtrack, but the kid is too quick. “Noooo,” I scream for everyone to hear as Jesse’s shoulder rams into my hips and lifts. His piercing cackle vibrates his whole body as I slam my fists down into his back. “Put me down, you big turd.”
“No way,” he laughs before slapping my ass and jogging back to the group. He spins me around while everyone else ignores my pleas for help, knowing just as well as I do that when Jesse is in one of these annoying moods, it’s best to just let him go. Even Nate steps up beside Puck and starts up a conversation while his beloved girlfriend is desperate for a way out.
That prick.
Jesse finally puts me down, but only because he’s laughing too hard that he literally has no choice or he risks dropping me. Jesse knows exactly what Nate would do to him if he actually dropped me, and let me tell you, it would not be pretty. It’s not a risk anyone in their right mind would be dumb enough to take.
I say hi to all the guys and wrap my arms around Courtney and Elle. These two have become a lot closer over the past few weeks with Brylee away at Yale. It’s clear in Courtney’s eyes that she’s still devastated over her not being here, but she’s torn because a part of her is so damn happy that Brylee is doing what she wants to be doing.
God, even though Brooke’s being a super moron at the moment, I’m so damn happy she applied to the same college as me. I don’t know what I would do without her. Through all the shit I’ve been through with Nate and the fire, she was my rock. Always has been and always will be. I swear, I’ll never find another best friend who knows me the way she does.
I come back to stand beside Nate and his arm curls around my waist, holding me close. I don’t even think he realizes he does it anymore. It’s more of a natural instinct to reach out and touch me in the same way that my body naturally curves into his. It’s as though we’re drawn to one another in the best, magical way. I wouldn’t change it for anything.
I look across at Jesse who has made himself comfortable beside Kaylah. I haven’t seen him all week, not since he told me about the whole ‘cheating’ issues. Though I’d say, from the way his arm is over her shoulder and she’s smiling up at him as though he’s the only guy in the world, it looks as though those issues are way in the past.
Jesse catches my eye and I raise my eyebrows, secretly questioning how things are going and the way he smirks and bounces his eyebrows, tells me exactly what I need to know.
I roll my eyes and watch as Jackson sneaks up behind Elle. He’s been MIA all night and Elle was starting to get worried. She hates that they’re apart so much, but what do you expect when your boyfriend plays college ball. Not that I know a damn thing about football, but I’d assume the season will start soon and that will eat up every last bit of his spare time. Those two are strong enough though, they’ll make it.
Courtney walks through our group and hands me a drink. “Thanks,” I smile as she pushes in beside me. “Where’s Brooke? She told me she was going to come tonight.”
At the mention of her name, a dark pair of eyes shoot our way. I don’t get why though, it’s not like anything Brooke does is any of his business anymore. I meet Maxen’s stare and his eyes instantly drop, reminding me of what he and Brooke did over the summer.
I put it to the back of my mind and turn back to Courtney. “I don’t know,” I tell her honestly. “Brooke hasn’t exactly been speaking to me.”
“What?” she questions, scrunching her face up in confusion. “How is that even possible? You guys are tied at the hip, and not to mention, you live together.”
“Haven’t you heard?” I grin. “I don’t approve of her new boyfriend.”
Understanding dawns on her face. “Ahhhhh,” she says. “Suddenly it all makes sense. You’re in shit. Remember when I kissed that guy she was crushing on in our sophomore year? She didn’t talk to me for like, two months, but I mean, how the hell was I supposed to know she liked the guy? She never told me.”
“I know,” I laugh. “That’s Brooke for you.”
“Why don’t you approve of his guy anyway?” she asks. “From what I’ve heard, she really likes him. She told me the other night she thinks she could fall for him. Hell, she might already be there.”
“Ugh,” I groan. “Don’t tell me that. The guy is a serious loser.”
“Why?” comes a sharp demand from the other side of the group. “What did he do to her?” I look across at Maxen, a little pissed off that he’s listening in on our conversation but ignore him. It’s none of his damn business, and why does he care anyway? He had his chance and screwed it up. Big time.
Courtney ignores Maxen just as I do and steals back my attention “He couldn’t be that bad.”
I raise an eyebrow at her. “The guy cornered me in my kitchen in the middle of the night and asked me to sleep with him just minutes after being with Brooke. You know, like a two for one special.”
Nate’s hand tightens on my waist as Courtney’s eyes widen in surprise. She’s about to say something, but my mind is swirling
as I suck in a horrified breath, realizing what I just did.
Shit. I knew I forgot to tell him something and here I am, blabbing about it to anyone who would listen.
“What did you just say?” Nate questions, sounding strangely calm as he turns me to face him.
I swallow as I look up at him with a cringe. “Nothing.”
“Nothing?” he demands, looking at me as though I’ve just grown another head. “The guy came into your house in the middle of the night and tried to get you in bed, and you didn’t think it was necessary to mention that?”
“No, I did. I just… forgot. I was going to tell you.”
“Bullshit,” he argues. “You’ve been telling me all week how you’re upset about Brooke not talking to you and telling me what a douchebag the guy is. You didn’t forget, you just didn’t want to tell me.”
I cringe and just like that, he knows he’s right.
I let out a sigh and rest my hand up against his chest, feeling that rapid rise and fall which helps to fuel his rage. “I’m sorry,” I tell him honestly, “It’s just that I knew you weren’t going to like it and you’d probably try to beat the shit out of the guy which would make things worse between me and Brooke.”
“So?” he scoffs. “The guy deserves to have his face kicked in.”
“I’m not denying that.”
“So, why keep it from me?”
“Because you can’t beat the shit out of him without making Brooke hate me, and besides, you have a business now and you’re in college. You’ll be risking it all by hitting him and I won’t allow you to destroy everything you’ve worked for before you’ve even had a chance to make yourself shine.”
“Tora,” he groans.
“No, Nate. You need to be careful. I can handle this on my own.”
He rolls his eyes and shakes his head, trying to calm himself down, but let’s be real, nothing on this green earth could possibly calm him down right now. He looks down at me with a firm, no bullshit expression. “I don’t want the guy in your house.”
“And how am I supposed to do that?” I snap. “I don’t want him there any more than you do, but he’s Brooke’s boyfriend and I won’t destroy our relationship over this guy. She already hates me. I’m not about to tell her she can’t have her boyfriend come over.”
Broken Hill Havoc: The Broken Hill High Series (Book 5) Page 9