by Dawn Klehr
Survival Tip #2
“The most innocent situations can be the most dangerous. Always, always be ready to protect yourself.”
Rebel
She waited at the tree by the parking lot. Once she noticed exactly where she was standing, a smile teased her lips. It was the same place she’d been when Justice arrived. Hard to believe that was only three weeks ago.
Man, she’d given him a hard time.
The easy feeling didn’t last long. Dad pulled up in his Infinity, and guilt slammed into her. She’d been trying to push those feelings out of her head, because…well, she was selfish and wanted Justice so, so much.
But when he got out of the driver’s seat, she was relieved. He looked like his old self. His shirt was intact, so there was virtually no possibility of a nip slip. Thank you! His hair looked to be perfectly productized, and as far as she could tell, his clothes were clean.
She reached up to wave to him, when… Ohmygod!
Stephen appeared from the passenger seat.
Standing there in mid-wave, she tried to process what was happening. Her dad was with Stephen. Stephen Brody. Justice’s dad. Then the questions came at her so fast it made her head ache. Questions like: How could her dad forgive Stephen after everything he did? When did this happen?
And what did it mean for her and Justice…
Though the smile on her father’s face told her how happy he was, this new development totally complicated an already complicated situation.
“Dad.” She called him over, but all she could think about was telling Justice about what she just saw.
Dad and Stephen separated quickly, maybe trying to keep their new reconciliation a secret? It was hard to say.
“Ahem,” she said when he approached. “Who exactly did you carpool with?”
“Oh no,” Dad said, gathering her up in a gigantic hug. “I should’ve known you’d be waiting for me, but I’m not saying a word until I get my Rebby fix. I’ve missed you so much.”
“Me, too.” She squeezed him tight. She missed him just as much as he missed her. “But you can’t mosey in here with your ex and try to blow it off. Are you and Stephen back together?”
“We’re working on it.” He put her down. “That’s all I can tell you right now. Is that okay?”
She nodded, understanding that more than he could possibly know.
“Girls, and young ladies,” Nancy called out then. “Join us. We’re gathering over here with all of your guests.”
Rebel and her dad walked over to the group arm in arm, and she decided she needed this time with her dad. She could hold off on all the questions about the future for a few hours and just let herself enjoy the day.
Unsure if Stephen also shared the news, she didn’t want to make a big scene at camp, so she stayed as far away from Justice as she could. They would have to deal with all of this later. So she let her father smother her with attention for the rest of the day while they did the stupid activities and had their picnic, and she tried to enjoy it. She really tried. Yet all she could think about was how her father’s relationship might be destroying her own. And that was so messed up. Her dad, more than anyone, deserved to be happy. But she was beginning to realize that maybe she deserved it, too.
…
When her dad and the other parents said their good-byes at camp that afternoon, she ran at top speed to their spot to meet Justice—and she didn’t make a habit of running. That explained why she had to stop halfway up and catch her breath.
Crap! There were voices coming from their spot. Apparently they wouldn’t have the place to themselves, and she so needed the privacy with Justice right now. But as she approached, his voice rang out.
It didn’t make sense.
Who was with him, and why was he so pissed off?
His fists were tight at his sides. That’s the first thing she noticed before seeing the argument going on between him and Gray. What did that idiot do now? It was nothing new; they’d been at each other’s throats all during camp, and she understood why. Gray wasn’t happy unless he was getting under somebody’s skin. He was miserable and wanted to bring everyone else down to his level.
She stopped to listen, assessing the situation to see if she should step in, but once she really listened to Justice’s words, she wished she could go back to her oblivion.
“She’s not my girlfriend, so would you just back off?” Justice said.
Rebel listened harder if that was even possible. She was so focused, watching his mouth, but none of it made sense. What—who—was he talking about?
“Dude, it’s a little Game of Thrones.” Grayson laughed. “We should call your families the Lannisters.”
She took a step back and gasped for air. This time, it had nothing to do with her run up the hill. He was talking about her…and her dad.
“Look, whatever,” Justice said. “I can’t control what my dad does, and it really doesn’t concern me.”
So he did know what was going on.
“Okay, but you’ve been sniffing around Rebel ever since the first day, cockblocking me at every chance.” Was Gray serious right now? She wouldn’t go for him in a million years.
“It’s not like that,” Justice lied. He had to be lying. “I’ve been sniffing around a lot of girls if you must know.”
Her vision started to blur. It took her several seconds to realize it was tears. It was like her body understood what was going on, even if her mind didn’t.
“That means Rebel’s unattached?” Gray asked. “Good to know.”
Pain flooded every cavity in her body. She choked on it. She couldn’t move. She stood there frozen in place. Watching. Listening. And all the while her heart was breaking.
This couldn’t be happening. Not again. She’d been through this before, but this time she would not run or slink away. She stepped out from behind the trees, now in full view. She closed her eyes just for a second, to pull herself together.
When she opened them, Justice was taking a step toward her.
No.
He took another step.
No.
He kept moving, until she put up her hand and said, “Don’t.”
That was the only word she said, but she hurled plenty more at him in her mind. Her glare spoke volumes and volumes. And he seemed to understand as she held him there with her eyes.
“Don’t you take another step, unless you can tell me—and tell Gray—what you meant by that comment,” she said, keeping her voice steady. She would not let him lie about everything they had, or make her out to be some random piece of ass that didn’t matter. She’d done everything to keep their secret, yet he’d sell her out like this?
No way.
She waited, hoping he’d redeem himself, hoping he’d be honest.
Unless…
He opened his mouth but quickly snapped it shut it again, and that’s when it hit her.
Maybe what he’d said was the truth.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Justice
Why was she doing this? He gave her a look. The look. Play along, Hart. For fuck’s sake, play along.
She ignored his signals, her face steeling right before his eyes.
And when he locked into those blazing green pools, they hardened, too. This wasn’t going to end well, and it was clear she didn’t care. About him, or his future. It was just like when she outted his dad at the campfire—his dad—without any care of how it would affect him. This was Rebel’s world, and he was just visiting.
Well, he sure as hell wouldn’t let her bully him into saying something that could cost him his college football career.
“I thought you were different,” she whispered when he didn’t answer her question.
He wanted to tell her he was, because it was true. He wasn’t like her ex, or Gray, or whatever stereotype she’d cast him into. But when he glanced at Gray, who was completely riveted watching this exchange, a barrage of scenes began playing in his brain like a football highlight re
el: Coach shaking his head as he turned him away from tryouts; Mom refusing to leave the house now that he’d created another scandal for the family; guys on the team joining Gray in the hilarious incest jokes.
He couldn’t do it.
He couldn’t take another year of it.
And there it was…that was the truth.
He didn’t just say what he did to Gray to throw him off their tracks. He did it because he was scared. Because he didn’t want to return home with yet another freak flag flying. He wasn’t as strong as Rebel, and he did care about fitting in.
“I guess I’m not different,” he said, and the hurt he saw in her eyes was nothing compared to the hellish tug-of-war he had going on inside.
Rebel nodded, then she turned and walked away, and his heart bottomed out. His instinct told him to run after her; he’d easily catch up. But what could he possibly say now? And how could anything happen between them now that their dads were back together? It was a lost cause.
So he watched her walk away, and it was the most difficult thing he’d ever done. But it wasn’t just for himself. It was for her, too. She deserved more than he could give her. Rebel Hart shouldn’t be anyone’s secret.
Regret and pain burned in his chest, until Gray opened his mouth again.
“Well, that was awkward.” Gray chuckled. “Get used to it. Sisters can be the worst.”
“Shut up, Gray,” he growled, as more highlights played in his head. Images of the guys in fourth grade shoving him into that locker and shooting ketchup packets at his shirt morphed into his team razzing him about Rebel on the field. The word freak echoed in his brain over and over again.
His fingers tingled and fists clench.
Don’t hit him.
Gray’s face, that smirk—the freaking smirk—taunted him.
Don’t hit him.
“Okay fine.” Gray held up his hands. “But seriously, since you’re practically related now, would you be okay if I hit that?”
That did it. Gray cleared Justice’s mind of all common sense, logic, and every vow he made before he came to camp. It was wiped clean, and the only thing left was instinct.
Justice didn’t even feel it when his fist connected with Gray’s jaw.
Actually, he didn’t feel anything until Gray got one punch in. Justice had no idea how they ended up on the ground, but he assumed he was the one who got them there because he was sitting on Gray’s gut…beating the shit out of him.
“Hey,” a deep voice called out, but it didn’t stop him and Gray from beating the piss out of each other.
The large hand that clasped around his neck and yanked him off Gray did stop him, however. He struggled in his hold, swinging his arms and pumping his fists, wanting more of the asshole who made Rebel leave. The hand tightened, and his brain started working again.
Shit, what did I do?
Gray had blood streaming down his face as he pulled himself to a sitting position. Justice winced as he turned to explain to the counselor. Reality began to set in, and he knew this would make it directly back to Coach. Man, he’d have to come up with something really good.
But when he looked up, he realized that wasn’t going to be a problem.
It was Coach’s hand that pulled him off his son.
He didn’t have time to blink, and Coach didn’t say a word as he marched him back to Fozzie’s office. The next moment, he was at his cabin packing. Fozzie called Dad, and Justice was on his way back to Atlanta. That was it.
His life was FUBAR.
And he lost Rebel, too.
It was all for nothing.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Tip #1
“The key to survival…is right between your ears.”
Rebel
She told Aubrey that she was sick and went straight to bed that night. But she could still smell him on her. On her clothes…and skin. It was inescapable. When she couldn’t take it any longer, she went to the showers to get rid of it. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be washed away as easily.
The next morning, she found out that he was gone. Left camp. There were plenty of rumors about how and why, but she tuned it out. She had too many things swirling around in her head as it was.
“I’ve been sniffing around a lot of girls,” Justice had told Gray. The words made her sick, and not just for herself but for any other girl he pulled into his web of lies.
Right, who was she kidding? She couldn’t think about anyone else when her heart currently felt like it was being ripped from her chest.
You’d think her skin would’ve thickened after it happened the first time. But it didn’t. It hurt even more a second time around. Loss was not something she dealt with well. When her dad died, there was such a void left in her…and her other dad. Their hearts never quite healed right. And though she was so young when it happened, she would never forget that hollow feeling.
After her dad, the losses kept coming. There was her favorite piano teacher who moved away—she never touched a single key after she left. A few poorly chosen friends in middle school, and Ryan—which took months for her to even warm up to the idea of dating. Point was, people made a habit of leaving, some in more brutal ways than others. She never expected for Justice to fall into the brutal category.
But here she was.
She was nothing to Justice after all. Just one of many girls he was “sniffing around.”
God, why couldn’t she get his voice out of her head?
“Do you want to talk about it?” Aubrey asked her after lunch, while Rebel paged through Wolf Wilks’s book. But where it usually gave her comfort to flip through the guide, finding new survival tips to apply to her life, it no longer had the same effect. She already knew there was nothing in these pages that could help her get over this.
“Not really,” she told Aubrey, knowing that her friend most likely had all the details of what happened already.
“So we hate him again?” Aubrey knew better than to use his name.
“We do.”
“Okay, so onward and upward.” Aubrey wiped her hands and picked up her binoculars, pulling Rebel out to the deck with her. “The pickings are slim, but there are a few guys who might interest you.”
Rebel sat in the chair and buried her head in her hands. She was so not ready for this. “God, no,” she mumbled. “That’s the last thing I can think about.”
“But it’s exactly what you need,” she insisted. “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”
“Where do you come up with this stuff?” She looked up at her friend, unable to stop the tiny smile forming on her face. Sometimes Aubrey said the most ridiculous things
“It was one of my Gran’s famous sayings, but it’s true, Rebby. You can’t let yourself stew on this and get all depressed over Justice.”
She winced at the sound of his name, and Aubrey mouthed, “Sorry.”
“I’m not stewing.” She lied. “Or, I won’t be for long. But another guy is definitely not what I need. I’m just not cut out to live my life in a pair, you know?”
“What I know is that you’ve never seemed as happy as you did this summer.”
That much was true. She was happy, but it so wasn’t worth the price she had to pay. “Either way, I think I’m better off as a lone wolf, like him.” Rebel pointed at the cover of the book.
Audrey raised her brow. “Really? You do remember how that worked out.”
Rebel shrugged. At the moment, being eaten by a bear didn’t sound like such a bad way to go.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Justice
Whoever said that time heals all wounds was a moron. Time had done nothing but compound the pain, the uncertainty, and the overall shittiness of his current predicament. He was stuck in limbo, unsure what to do.
Coach had left him with his dad without a word that last day of camp. So what did that mean? Was he allowed to try out or not? Did he have any hope of a future left?
And his dad wasn’t any better. He sent him stra
ight to his room when they got home, and they hadn’t talked about what happened since, though he did hear the argument between his parents about the whole thing through the thin walls.
He was driving another wedge in his family and giving his poor mom more reasons to be stressed out. He’d been staying out of her way, trying not to give her any trouble because he was sure she’d need the Dalai Lama himself to get the bad juju out of the house this time.
He thought that’s what she was there to talk to him about when she knocked on his bedroom door.
“May I come in?” she asked, a soft smile on her lips.
He waved her in, sitting up on his bed.
“You know, I’ve been wondering,” she said as she rolled his desk chair over to the bed and took a seat. “Are you ever going to tell me what happened at camp?”
“Why I was kicked out, you mean?”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “That’s what I mean. I was hoping you’d come to me, but it’s been two days, and you’ve hardly left your room.”
In his mind, he’d already prepared a mom-friendly version of the story that he could tell her. He just wasn’t sure that she’d wanted to hear it.
“I didn’t want to worry you or make you upset…you know, with everything. I heard you and dad fighting about it.”
“Justice, I’m your mother. It’s my job to worry about you, not the other way around.” She gave him a look then that he hadn’t seen in forever, her signature mom look that said, “I will mess you up if you don’t listen to me.” God, he’d missed that look. “And your father and I always seem to be fighting these days, it’s true. I’m sorry about that, but trust me, it’s better than not communicating at all.”
“Do you hate him?” The words flew out of his mouth before he realized it.
She waited before answering, and he swore he could hear her thinking.
“At first,” she finally said with an uncomfortable laugh. “Yes, yes I did. Or I thought I did. At first, it felt like my entire life for the past twenty years was a lie. Not to mention our family’s lives. It felt like a real betrayal.”
He knew that feeling all too well.
“What about now?” he asked.