Breaking Stars

by J. Sterling

  Brina sat up, her face filled with excitement. “Everyone drives their big ol’ trucks out to the middle of the field. There’s always lots of beer and dancing—”

  Then Celeste chimed in, “The guys usually do keg stands and act stupid. Someone always gets in a fight—”

  Brina cut her off. “But it’s entertaining and just some good old-fashioned fun out in the open with no one else around. I guarantee you’ve never seen anything like it in LA, sweetie.”

  She might have called me sweetie, but I knew there was a thinly veiled insult behind it. Before I could think up a response, Buster bounded over toward me with a stuffed toy in his mouth. “Buster, what are you doing here?” I looked around as I patted his head, knowing he had been at the shop with Tatum.

  Buster moved over to the girls and Brina shrieked, “Ugh, get away from me, Buster,” as she shoved at the oversized dog.

  “Buster, come here,” I said, and he jogged toward me.

  The leaves rustled and Tatum appeared in view. The smirk that appeared on his face as he eyed my bathing suit was quickly replaced with a sour look when he noticed the girls next to me. Buster sat at my feet as I continued to scratch him.

  Brina jumped up, her body barely covered in the tiny black bikini she wore as she moved toward him. “Hey, Tatum,” she crooned, pressing her chest against his and running her hand down his well-defined arm. His eyes looked past hers and locked onto mine.

  I swallowed hard and tried to force myself to look away, but couldn’t. My eyes refused to leave Tatum’s, and I stopped the smile from forming on my lips as I watched him step away from her and remove her arm. “You girls aren’t giving Paige a hard time, are you?” His voice was stern.

  Celeste glanced at me before looking back at Tatum with a smile. “No, sir. We were just telling her about the party tonight and insisted she come along.”

  Tatum dropped his chin as he kicked at the ground. “Is that so?”

  “It sounds like fun,” I said, and he raised his head to look at me.

  “So you want to go?” he asked, almost as if he couldn’t believe it.

  Brina moved toward him again and he put up a hand to stop her. She placed one hand on her hip and said, “You don’t have to come along, Tatum. We all know how much you hate socializing these days. She can come with us. We’ll take good care of her. Promise.”

  My insides twisted. The party had sounded fun and I did want to go, but not without Tatum. I wouldn’t even consider going if he weren’t there. There was no way I trusted Brina to be alone with me at some random party. Too many things could go wrong. If anyone wanted to set me up or mess with me here, I had a feeling it would be her.

  “If Paige wants to go, I’ll be the one who takes her,” Tatum informed a now-scowling Brina.

  “I’m pretty sure Paige can make decisions for herself. She doesn’t have to go with you if she doesn’t want to,” Brina shot back, clearly pissed off for whatever reason. They both turned to look at me, while Celeste quietly observed the chaos. Maybe she was used to the two of them acting like this?

  They all waited for me to say something, and I wanted it to be clear that my loyalties, however misguided, lay with Tatum, so I said, “If I decide to go tonight, I’ll go with Tatum.”

  His mouth began to turn up into a smile before he bit it back and turned toward Celeste. “Is it at Luke’s farm?” he asked, completely ignoring his ex.

  “Like always,” she responded with a tight smile. I could tell she was holding back a laugh. I realized in that moment that I liked Celeste.

  As Tatum held out a hand to me, I instinctively reached for it as if it was the most natural thing on earth. Under normal circumstances I might have fought him on it, but Brina made me uncomfortable, and I sensed he didn’t like me hanging out with her. He pulled me to my feet and I fought the urge to grip his hand in mine so tightly that he couldn’t let me go. Instead, he released me easily once I was standing, and my body mourned the loss of his energy that trickled through me whenever he touched me.

  After I shimmied into my cutoff jean shorts and threw on my tank top, Tatum grabbed my towel and motioned for me to follow him. “’Bye, you guys. I guess I’ll see you later.” I waved at the two girls, who were leaning toward each other whispering something I couldn’t hear.

  “See you tonight. ’Bye,” they both yelled before returning to their private conversation.

  Tatum walked in front of me as he tossed Buster’s toy for him to fetch. Once we were out of earshot, I teased, “Well, that was the quickest swimming-hole excursion I’ve ever had.”

  He stopped on the path and turned to face me, his expression serious. “Stay away from Brina, Paige. I mean it.”

  “She found me, not the other way around,” I said innocently as he moved closer toward me. With each step he took, my heart thudded more painfully inside my chest. He leaned toward me, his lips mere inches from mine, and I held my breath in anticipation of what might come. Fighting my attraction for Tatum was a lot of work.

  “You can’t trust her,” he whispered, and I prayed for him to close the space between us completely. Instead, he turned back around as I stood there dumbfounded, fighting for air.

  Field Parties Are a Bad Idea

  Tatum

  Seeing Paige with Brina royally pissed me off. I had been so happy for all of two seconds when I first saw Paige in the clearing, her black-and-white bikini showing off way more skin than I ever thought I’d see. But then I noticed we weren’t alone, and any happiness I felt evaporated into the hot and humid air. The last thing I needed was for Brina to go filling Paige’s head with lies, stories, and her version of the truth.

  “Paige, did you ask the girls not to tell anyone you were here?” I asked, suddenly remembering that Paige was trying to recover from heartbreak and she needed space.

  She shook her head, her long brown ponytail moving with it. “I figured if we were going to a party tonight, that’s sort of pointless. Don’t you think?”

  Buster ran back to my side, toy in his mouth, and I grabbed it and chucked it across the field. “Shit.” Why’d they have to go and tell her about the party?

  “What’s wrong?” Paige’s eyes narrowed and she looked genuinely sad.

  “I don’t like the idea of everyone knowing you’re here. After this party, Paige, the whole town will know you’re here. And then who knows what else will happen after that.”

  “Is that really a bad thing? I mean, will they tell? Can’t we ask them not to say anything to anyone?”

  “We can try, but I’m not sure it will work. Most of the people here are good folk. But this might be too much for even them to handle. It’s more excitement than we’ve had in years.”

  I laughed because it was true, but my chest ached at not being able to promise her privacy. Paige being here would be front-page news of our newspaper, if we had one.

  “Give me a minute,” I said, handing Paige her towel before running back the way we’d come, leaving Paige standing in the middle of the field with Buster jumping around her.

  Jogging back toward the swimming hole, I prayed Brina and Celeste hadn’t left yet. The last thing I wanted to do was have to call Brina on the phone. I’d done a pretty good job of avoiding that task since we’d broken up. I entered the clearing and saw them lying on their towels, chatting away.

  “Oh, Tatum. You came back.” Brina sat up immediately, her blond hair falling down around her shoulders. I hated that my dick twitched at the sight of her. What my dick should do is curl up inside itself and run away screaming. If there was ever truth to the rumor that guys’ penises acted on their own accord, this was the proof. Earth to penis, this one’s bad news. Down, boy.

  “I just wanted to ask you girls to please keep the fact that Paige is here to yourself. She really needs the privacy right now, and she wants to relax without any of the typical craziness.”

  “What do you care?” Brina whined, and I wished someone would knock some sense into her.
<
br />   “I care because Paige is a nice girl. She’s just trying to catch a break, and if her agent or whatever finds out where she is, he’ll come get her and make her go home.” I didn’t know why I spilled this much personal information, but I needed them to know how important it was that they keep their mouths shut.

  “I won’t say anything to anyone,” Celeste said. “And if you guys come tonight, I’ll help keep everyone else quiet about it too.”

  “Yeah, Tatum. No one’s really going to care that she’s here. I mean, they’ll care,” Brina said slowly, “but no one will want her to leave.”

  Celeste laughed. “Brina’s right. They’ll all just want to be friends with her.”

  I shook my head, the list of cons for taking Paige to the party growing with each word they spoke. “Well, just don’t say anything. Please? I’m asking nicely.”

  “We already said we wouldn’t. God, Tatum, I always knew you had a thing for her. Every time we’d watch one of her movies you’d—”

  I cut her off. “I don’t have a thing for her, okay? I barely even know her.”

  “You sure seem to care an awful lot about someone you barely know,” Brina added with a frown, then lay back down on her towel and turned her head away.

  I kicked at the dirt and tried to stop feeling so damned frustrated, but dealing with Brina made everything ten times worse. Stalking away, I balled my hands into fists before releasing them. I refused to let Brina affect me. Seeing Paige ahead in the distance waiting for me, I broke into a jog as my anger dissipated.

  “Sorry. I wanted to ask them to keep quiet about you being here.”

  Paige smiled and I stared at her mouth. Like, I couldn’t take my eyes off her full lips and I wanted to feel them, taste them, have them pressed against mine.

  “What’d they say?” she asked, her voice interrupting my inappropriate thoughts.

  “They said they would.”

  “That’s a good start, right?”

  I think she gave people more credit than they deserved, but I didn’t want to disappoint her. “Yeah, it’s a good start.” I smiled back at her, and even though it didn’t seem possible, her smile grew larger. She was so damned optimistic, and it made me want her even more.

  We walked side by side the rest of the way to Mama’s house as my insides tore in two. One half wanted to stop overthinking everything in my life and enjoy whatever time I had with Paige doing whatever she’d allow me to do with her, while the other half refused to let down its guard. I didn’t handle being hurt well; I’d learned that from experience. But weren’t some people worth the risk?

  I wasn’t so sure.

  As we neared the house, I was no closer to an answer.

  Partying in the South

  Paige

  With all the excitement of Tatum crashing my swimming-hole party and making me leave, I’d completely forgotten about my car. I didn’t even think to ask him about when the tire would be in. And the honest-to-God truth was that at the moment, I didn’t care at all. I’d stay here all summer if I could. And I think I’d like it. I liked the way he acted like he was protecting me. With Tatum, it didn’t seem self-serving; he seemed to genuinely want to keep me safe. Part of me didn’t know how to reconcile that in my head. I could count on one hand how many people truly cared about me.

  After changing out of my bikini, I walked into the kitchen to hear Tatum and his mom talking about me.

  “Tatum. Take her to the field. It will be fun for her,” his mom insisted, and Tatum grunted.

  “You grunt a lot,” I said, announcing my presence.

  “What?” He glanced at me from the corner of his eye.

  “That sound. You do it a lot when you’re irritated. Or maybe you just do it a lot around me because I irritate you.”

  He looked away. “You don’t irritate me.”

  “Coulda fooled me.”

  His head finally turned in my direction and his blue eyes pierced right through me. “I already told you I’m not good at making small talk.”

  “Tatum, stop snapping at her and apologize this instant!” his mom yelled before smacking him on the back of the head.

  “Sorry.”

  “I did not raise you to be so impolite to a guest, or to a woman for that matter,” she said, and stomped a foot on the floor for emphasis.

  “You’re right, Mama.”

  Seeing his relationship with his mom only made him hotter in my eyes. Who didn’t swoon over a man who respected his mom?

  “It’s okay, Mrs. Montgomery, clearly he can’t help himself. I’m sure you did the best you could.” I felt awful for Tatum’s mom getting caught in our crossfire, but I headed into my room and closed the door before I could take it all back.

  The screen door slammed shut, followed by a light knock on my bedroom door. A woman’s voice called out, “Paige, can I come in?”

  “Of course,” I said from my bed. When Mrs. Montgomery walked in, I apologized immediately. “I didn’t mean to say that to you. I was just trying to get to him.”

  She smiled warmly. “I know, but I still wanted to apologize for my son.”

  I waved her off. “Don’t. I’m getting used to it.”

  “You absolutely are not. And you shouldn’t have to.” Her Southern accent grew more pronounced the more upset she got. “No gentleman treats a lady that way. Not in my home,” she said hotly.

  “I don’t think he means it. And I don’t think he can help it when it comes to me,” I admitted to her.

  “You might be right.” She laid a warm hand on top of mine and squeezed it gently.

  Longing to change the subject, I asked, “So, what do girls wear to these field parties anyway?”

  Her face lit up. “Ooh! The girls either wear shorts or dresses. It’s so warm in the evenings that you can wear what you wore that day. But they usually cute it up some.”

  I smiled back. “I think I have some things that will work.”

  “What size shoe do you wear?”

  I looked down at my feet, as if they would give me the answer. “Seven.”

  “I think I might have a pair of boots that will fit you if you want to wear them.”

  “Cowboy boots?” My mood perked up.

  “Yep.”

  “That would be amazing. Thank you.”

  When I beamed at her, she hopped off the bed. “Be right back.”

  A moment later I heard the sound of boxes falling and crashing. Before I could shout to ask if she needed my help, she was back in my room holding the most beautiful pair of brown leather boots I’d ever seen. Granted, I’d never really looked at boots before, but these were amazing.

  “These have never been worn,” she said. “They were a gift, but unfortunately they didn’t fit. Too small.”

  I reached out and brought the boots to my nose, inhaling while closing my eyes. “These smell so good.” Then I froze, wondering if I looked like a total creeper sniffing someone else’s footwear. My cheeks burned as I tried to cover for myself. “Uh, was that weird? I’m sorry. It’s the leather.”

  Mrs. Montgomery laughed. “I do it all the time. There’s nothing like the smell of new leather. Aren’t they gorgeous? I love the detail.”

  Gold rivets adorned the boots, and a tan stitched design weaved from the top to the bottom. No less than four varying shades of brown were visible and I had no idea why, but Mrs. Montgomery told me it was because each pair was handmade and the leather was worked throughout the process in a way that created the numerous shades.

  “I love everything about them.”

  “Try them on,” she insisted.

  “Do I wear them with socks?” I asked, feeling once again like a complete idiot. “I’m sorry I ask such stupid questions all the time.”

  “They’re not stupid, Paige. How would you know? And yes, you wear them with socks.”

  Grabbing a pair of white cotton socks, I pulled them on and slipped my feet into the waiting boots. They seemed snug at first until I stood. I walk
ed around the room, the heels of the boots clicking against the hardwood floors. “They are so comfortable. Who knew?”

  “Do they fit? They look great!”

  “I think they fit. They feel good.” I wasn’t entirely sure how boots like this were supposed to feel. Obviously my toes didn’t go into the pointy part, which I assumed would be as uncomfortable as all get-out.

  “Great! Then you’ll wear them tonight to the party,” she said before pushing herself off my bed.

  I widened my eyes. “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely. They sit in a box in my closet. They deserve to see a night out.”

  “Thank you so much,” I said, then enveloped her in a warm hug.

  • • •

  A little later, I walked around the back of the main house toward the barn. When I knocked on the door, memories of last night flooded my mind. Tatum had taken over my brain and turned me into some horny teenager. I’d been around good-looking guys my whole life, but this…this was different. Tatum was smoking hot, but he was real. And his genuine nature, no matter how brutally honest, pulled me to him even more.

  “Hi,” he said as he opened the door.

  I looked into his deep blue eyes and said, “I’m sorry about earlier.” Why was I apologizing again?

  “Me too.”

  With that out of the way, I asked, “Do you think I could use the computer again?”

  “Of course,” he said, holding open the screen door. I brushed past him as I entered and forced myself to keep walking when all I wanted to do was turn around and run my hands all over his well-formed chest.

  Sitting down at the desk, I noticed the computer was already on, so I logged back in to my personal e-mail. My mom had e-mailed, wanting all the information for where I was staying, including full names and addresses. She told me if I didn’t have them, to get them. I wanted to roll my eyes, but she was right to want that stuff, and I quickly typed out an e-mail telling her everything I knew about where I was and who I was spending my time with, including the phone number to Mrs. Montgomery’s house.

  And then I sent Quinn the same e-mail with the same information, plus a little extra. I told her all about Brina and about the field party. I told her that I wished she were here, experiencing all of this with me. E-mailing her wasn’t the same as hearing her voice, so I told her to call me soon.