“No!”
Girlfriend or not, he wasn’t going to discuss Megan with his mother. He’d already heard more than he’d ever want to hear from her about “being prepared” and “lasting consequences.” How sometimes all the preparation in the world didn’t work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He got it. He’d been one hell of a surprise to both Joanne and Matt. And he’d decided a long time ago that he’d never be as stupid as his parents.
Joanne finally left for work and Hunter showered and got ready to bike over to The Drip and meet Megan. Week three of this challenge and he didn’t know what was going on in the world unless he flipped on the TV. Then all he heard was a bunch of old men yelling at each other. Getting all red in the face. Pointing fingers. Political shit. He liked to hand pick his news. How did people live before the internet? He had no idea who the current top scorer was in online “Halo” or “Call of Duty”.
Last week, he’d been watching a movie and recognized an actor he’d seen before but couldn’t remember the name of the movie. He couldn’t use Google to search his name and find out. His friends still couldn’t believe he was “going dark” by choice. He was working toward becoming a Marine with his first big and uncomfortable challenge. In the desert he would not have access to his phone or contact with the rest of the world for weeks at a time. He should have thought of it sooner. It was good training, and he had Megan to thank for it. Not to mention all the push-ups he’d logged at the exercise stations. He was up to one hundred now.
Now all he needed to do was find out why Megan had made the challenge. Unless maybe, as Trent believed, she was only doing this because she had a crush on Hunter. She’d figured out a way to monopolize his time and Hunter was so slow on the uptake that he hadn’t caught on to it yet. But he didn’t believe that. Megan had something else going on, and just didn’t trust Hunter enough to tell him yet.
No sooner had Hunter locked his bicycle outside The Drip than Megan met him with their coffees.
“Here.” She handed over his usual caramel macchiato.
It was iced like he liked it with plenty of caramel dripping down the sides. As usual Megan had put a straw in for him, only leaving the top part with paper so he could easily slip it off. She was super sweet like that.
Hunter fished a five-dollar bill out of his pants pocket and handed it to Megan.
She put out her hand to stop him. “No. It’s my treat.”
“Why?”
“To celebrate. Because you won.”
He must not have heard Megan right. “Wait. I won? What did I win?”
“The challenge, dummy! You win because I give up.”
“No way. You’re gonna let me win? Just like that?”
“It’s a long story, but I have to check on something and I need to go online to do it.”
So the challenge was over and he’d won. Why didn’t he feel like a winner? Probably because it was too easy. Megan was giving up on him.
“That’s bullshit. I don’t want to win like this.”
“Sooner or later, one of us had to win. Might as well be now.” She whipped out her phone and took a seat at one of the outdoor umbrella tables.
“This better be important.” He took a seat next to her and tried to look over her shoulder. “Important enough to lose.”
“I don’t know why you care.” She was flipping through Facebook. “Oh wow. It’s true. My friend Lily changed her status from ‘single’ to ‘it’s complicated’ because she had one date with Peter. One date!”
Great. So Megan had given up for something really important and life-changing. Good to know. “You never told me why you were doing this challenge.”
She put her phone away. “You never asked.”
“I thought—you mean all I had to do was ask?”
She slid him a look full of words, but didn’t say one of them out loud. Dayum. Girls were a mystery wrapped in an enigma all right. He was going to have to ask Matt to give up all he had on phase three.
“Okay. I’m asking. Why?”
She squirmed in her seat and wouldn’t look at him. “Because I like you. Okay?”
“Sure. I like you, too.”
“No. I mean—I like you like...a lot.”
He didn’t say anything to that, wondering if they were talking about the same thing. With girls, one never knew. She probably liked him as a really good friend. There was like and there was like. He was about to ask for a Webster’s Dictionary definition but she started crying.
Shit. Why would a girl tell him she liked him and start crying? He’d done something wrong, obviously. “Oh, hey, hey. Why are you crying?”
“Because I’m so stupid.”
“You’re not stupid.” I am. The first pretty girl tells me that she likes me and I can’t say a freaking word.
And it was weird, but even though another tear slipped out of Megan’s watery eyes, Hunter didn’t scoot away. Instead, his arm moved like it wasn’t even a part of his body and settled around her quivering shoulders.
“When I heard that you’d gone dark, I figured maybe we could do it together. So you wouldn’t be so alone and all. I was trying to figure out how to tell you that, and then I saw you online.”
“Yeah, I remember that.”
“Stupid, huh? Why would anybody do that on purpose?”
“It’s a challenge, and you did it. You didn’t even have to. It was really nice of you to do that.”
“Well, I wanted to help you. And you want to be a Marine. I’m pretty patriotic too, you know.”
“Yeah, and that’s...you know, that’s great.”
This had worked out pretty well for him because he really liked Megan. More than he ever thought he could like a girl. Should he kiss her now right in front of The Drip? Or maybe he should wait until she stopped crying, because if someone walked out they might think his kiss had made her cry. Maybe then he’d get arrested or something and what would that do to his military career?
Plus, Joanne would be pissed and he didn’t think Matt would be thrilled about it either.
This was his first kiss and he wanted to know what the hell he was doing. How was he to know he’d have a chance this soon? He should have been more like a Marine and planned better. Anticipated. Instead he just sat there and kept his arm around her shoulders, hugging her a little bit. Megan scooted closer to him, turned her face and pressed it into his neck, which made him extremely grateful that he’d hit the shower this morning. He thought he smelled pretty good, and dang, so did she.
“Do you want to kiss me?” Megan asked against his neck.
Holy shit, how did he ever get this freaking lucky? “Yeah, but you’re crying.”
Megan pulled back and reached into her backpack. She pulled out a packet of tissues and a mirror and set them on the table. She sniffed a couple of times into one of the tissues, and then grabbed her mirror. Holding the mirror, she rubbed at her eyes with another tissue. The makeup she wore on her eyes wiped off and all he could see were brilliant blue eyes the color of the ocean.
This was a lot of planning and effort for one simple kiss. He hoped he could deliver the goods.
She finally turned to him, smiling. Ready. He leaned in. She leaned in. They met in the middle and kissed. It was a sweet kiss. Megan’s lips were soft and smooth. His first thought was that she tasted like caramel. And he really loved caramel.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
HUNTER HAD JUST killed his second Nazi when he noticed Trent online again.
Jarhead2018: Hey. Not grounded anymore?
StarWarz: Yep. Was going crazy.
Jarhead2018: Me too, but it was a good challenge. I might do it again.
StarWarz: Sure, I would too if I got a girlfriend out of it.
Jarhead2018: Megan? Yeah, she’s cool. I guess she’s my g
irlfriend.
StarWarz: Dude, she’s so hawt. I would totally tap that.
Jarhead2018: Calm down asswipe.
StarWarz: Ha! Okay, I get it. You already totally have.
Jarhead2018: Shut. Up.
StarWarz: What does that mean? Yeah? No?
Jarhead2018: It means shut up.
StarWarz: I’m just saying hurry up before she hooks up with some other guy. I mean, Megan is pretty hot, so you know. She’s been around. Tommy told me.
What the hell?
Jarhead2018: Don’t talk about her.
StarWarz: Okay dude, but if she asks, are you going to say no?
Jarhead2018: Am I stupid?
It wasn’t like Hunter didn’t think about sex 24/7. Wondered what it would be like, and whether or not he’d be any good at it. Wondered what it even meant to be good at it. The problem was that his parents had drilled it into him that if he had sex he better be ready to be a daddy. And he’d better be a grown-up. His mother had never put it any other way. Want sex? You better be ready for a baby because accidents happened. He’d then sat through fifth grade class and found out all about how to have sex and avoid having a kid. But because his mother had also signed off on the class, she sat him down afterward and explained all about the failure rates of birth control.
As a result, Hunter felt like he knew more about sex than most of his friends and classmates. He didn’t giggle about it and make disgusting jokes about blow jobs like Trent did. It wasn’t this big and taboo secret to him. Sex was something he figured he’d do someday soon when he was a grown-up. He wouldn’t use just one birth control. Not two either but three. Maybe every single one of them. A little over two years and counting. If he could go to war at eighteen, he was sure in hell going to have sex. And he’d be good at it, too. Whatever that meant.
Hunter wrapped up this round of killings. In a minute, he had to get ready for Joanne to pick him up and take him over to Matt’s for the weekend. His cell phone dinged and he grabbed it, wondering if Matt was texting to ask what he wanted for dinner. But instead of a text from Matt there was an anonymous text from a number he didn’t recognize. A photo of Megan popped up. Her school picture, but someone had made a meme out of it. Text scrolled across the top of the photo: Head Ho of Fortune Valley High.
Jarhead2018: Did you do this? I’ll kill you!
StarWarz: Do what? What happened?
Jarhead2018: The photo of Megan! Don’t play dumb.
StarWarz: Dude, I have no idea. What photo?
Jarhead2018: You better not be lying.
Trent had made the meme of Chuck, so it made sense he’d make this one, too. Only problem was, Trent had created the one of Chuck to make Hunter laugh. And Trent had to know this one wouldn’t make Hunter laugh at all. Plus Trent was not a genius who would send it anonymously. And he couldn’t have sent it from his own phone, either, since Hunter would recognize the number.
A closer look showed that he wasn’t the only one who’d received this text. There was a string of numbers in a group text. Shit! He recognized Megan’s number in the bunch. Had she seen it yet? If she had, this would suck so hard.
Hunter texted Megan separately: Hey.
I can’t talk right now.
Why not? You busy?
Yeah. You know how busy I am. I’m the head ho.
Crap!
That’s BS. You’re not.
Everyone is going to believe it.
I don’t.
You will. Goodbye. And it was a nice kiss.
Wait. You going somewhere?
She didn’t respond, nor did she to the next ten text messages he sent. Hunter threw the phone down, wondering how he could get ahold of the coward who sent that text. But he had bigger problems right now. If Megan wouldn’t respond to his texts, he was going to have to find her.
He left the house before Joanne got home from work, grabbing his bicycle. She definitely wouldn’t understand the need for a slight delay in going over to Matt’s house. And if she figured out it had anything to do with a girl, she would ask so many questions he’d be sitting in his room answering them until next year.
When he biked over to Megan’s house she wasn’t home, but her little sister said she went to the lake. The lake was going to take him at least thirty more minutes on a bicycle. Which meant either way he looked at this, he was going to be late. Whatever. This was important. If nothing else, Matt would understand. Hadn’t he told him that he had to have a girl’s back? He headed toward the lake, and finally arrived as the sun started its slip down the horizon.
When he climbed off his bike and walked it toward the dock at the lake, he found Megan sitting there, her feet dangling in the water. Shoulders shaking. Great. Hunter ambled over, hands stuck in his pockets, wondering if his arm would magically make its way around Megan’s shoulders or if he would have to force it to this time.
Hunter squatted next to her. “Hey.”
“You found me.” Megan glanced up at him with red-rimmed eyes. “I really didn’t think you would.”
“Why wouldn’t you answer my texts?”
“Sorry.” She went back to looking at the water, and not him.
“It’s okay.” Megan had to be embarrassed about the photo, even if she had nothing to be ashamed of.
“I don’t know why people think I’m a ho. I made out with Tommy once and when I broke up with him he started talking crap about me. I thought Julie was my friend, but she got jealous when she heard about me and you. Remember I told you she likes you? I bet she sent the stupid picture.”
“I don’t care what she thinks, and believe me, she’s probably going to get grounded for sending that photo.”
“Yeah, but I’m going to have to tell my parents about it and they’ll freak out and probably ground me.”
Hunter thought about his mom, and how much it must have hurt to see that photo of the guy she was crazy about. That Hunter had anything to do with it had probably made it a thousand times worse. It would be like Hunter finding out that Trent, his best friend, had sent the meme of Megan.
Matt was right in that this was just not funny.
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
She nodded, a tear slipping down her cheek. “But I don’t know if they’ll believe me.”
He understood that. “Well, okay, then we can handle this.”
“We?”
“Yeah, of course I’m going to help you. I mean, you’re my girlfriend.”
“I am?” She smiled and wow, she had a great smile.
“Yeah, I mean, but only if you want to be.”
“Yeah, I’d like that.” A light breeze kicked up and she shivered next to him.
“You can’t stay here all night. It gets hella cold near the water.” Hunter shrugged out of his navy blue Windbreaker and laid it on Megan’s shoulders.
“That’s all right.” She shrugged into the jacket. “I just want to stay here a little bit longer and look at the water.”
What was he going to do? Tell Megan she should hurry up and look because he needed to get home before his own shit hit the fan? She would just tell him to go.
But he couldn’t leave her all alone.
* * *
SARAH WALKED TO the sliding glass door where Shackles waited patiently to be let out again. This time she followed him outside and opened up the shed. Her favorite place these days. Good memories here. She’d been painting minutes before she and Matt made love for the first time. There’d been a shift in everything since that day.
And she’d rediscovered a part of herself that for years she’d stuffed down.
She was fully capable of loving someone, even if she’d tried hard not to. It turned out that the man had to be someone who she could fully trust with her body. Her mind. An
d until Matt, she’d never found a man so deserving of her trust. Who would give her his undivided loyalty and always have her back. That he would be her brother’s best friend, a man she’d learned also had an over-the-top loyalty to his friends and family, shouldn’t surprise her.
Sarah couldn’t get Matt’s words out of her head. You could do this. It had been too many years since anyone had believed in her. Since she’d even considered making a living with her art. She understood that most artists had to supplement their income in other ways, and she thought she’d done that well enough with the forensic sketching. But she hadn’t pictured that it would slowly drain all the passion from her art. All the creativity. That she would no longer find the time, or crave it. That she’d doubt her abilities more and more each day, raising the standard to a place she could never hope to reach. Because maybe on some level she’d long ago decided she didn’t deserve to be happy.
But Matt believed she could do it, and it filled her with a small amount of hope that maybe she could find more time to do not just the work she had to do, but the work she loved to do.
Sarah fished out the canvas from where she had it hidden in the back for privacy. It was her first effort at people in too long. Real people, not just the alleged criminals she’d never laid eyes on but nevertheless had to put a face to. If she were going to start drawing people again, she’d decided to start with two of her favorite people in the world. She’d sketched out their profiles in pencil first, and would later add in the colors.
She spent the next several quiet minutes adding depth to Matt’s eyes. Then did the same with Hunter’s. Putting pencil to paper had driven home how much Hunter looked like Matt. Same eyes and lips. Same hairline. Only Hunter’s jawline was not as pronounced as Matt’s, at least not yet. And he had his mother’s Patrician-like nose.
Sarah worked until she lost too much natural light. The sun began to set which meant Matt was at least an hour late. Shackles nudged her leg, wanting back inside.
“All right.” Sarah put down the brush. “I’m sure you’re hungry.”
No sooner had Sarah stepped in the house, than Matt flew through the front door, worry etched in every angle of his face.
Airman to the Rescue Page 22