Reading Tara (Growing Up Ashton Book 1)

by Kathryn Hewitt

  “What?” I asked, but didn’t really want to know.

  “Hey Tara.” I forced my head to turn, pleading with the universe that this wasn’t happening. Standing right next to me was Calen. Oh.my.god. He did know my name. Praying that the flush I felt starting never reached my cheeks until he left, I looked up into his face. Had he heard me talking about him?

  “Uh, Hi.” And the winner of the eloquence award goes to…

  “Out with the girls, I see,” he said, starting to smile. Gosh, I really hoped I got to see him actually smile.

  “Yeah, you know, it’s Ladies’ night and the Feeling’s right…” Kill. Me. Now.

  He chuckled. Giving the table a once over, he said, “Well, have fun Ladies.” Turning back to me and looking me in the eyes, “It’s nice to see you again, Tara.” With that, he walked off. I wanted to sink into the booth.

  “Oh my god. He Totally knows your name, Miss “Will’s sister”!” Jenny looked ecstatic.

  “Tara! Ladies’ Night? What is wrong with you?!” Sam. Again.

  Burying my flaming face in my hands, I just moaned. Why oh why was I such a goober? That wasn’t me. I’m not the coolest, but I can usually throw on the ‘fun girl’ hat when I want to.

  “It’s ok, he didn’t seem like he minded your…silliness,” Sarah trailed off. Of course she’d come to my defense. But I was pretty sure that even Elmo couldn’t make me feel better about that exchange. I sighed.

  I looked at my friends. “Well at least that takes care of any embarrassing situations like that in the future. Now I don’t have to constantly be worried about seeing him around. Not that I was, but still…” Had I been thinking about seeing him around? I’d say no…except for the fact that I saw him every time I closed my eyes. Will was right. But he was too late. I guess I just had to talk to Calen a bit more because then I would discover he was as immature as the rest of my brother’s friends and I could move on. Still…he was awfully handsome. And tall. I hadn’t realized how tall he was because he’d been sitting surrounded by the other players when I’d seen him. Ok, I needed to stop my inner monologue since everyone was staring at me.

  “What?” I said again, for what felt like the millionth time. They continued to stare. Sam finally spoke for everyone.

  “It’s just that you haven’t been out with us for a long time, and here, the first time out, a hottie new guy stops by our table to talk to you? Who cares that you cracked that dumb joke. That’s half of why we love you, you do that shit all the time!” I do? Damn. I’d better work on my act. “You cannot just go crawling back under your rock. This is a New Guy. Like, as in Not the same old losers we’ve grown up with? The reason we’re forced to scope out the college guys? Seriously. You owe it to the female race.” I didn’t want to point out that females weren’t a race.

  “Uh, guys? Were you not sitting right here when that just went down? He was just saying hi because he’s on the team and now he’s my brother’s friend. And before any of you say it, my brother is Not Hot.” That was a peeve of mine. I got it that to someone unrelated to him, Will probably was hot, but I drew the line at actively acknowledging it and being willing to hear about it from my friends.

  They all exchanged glances I pointedly ignored. Finally, Sam cleared her throat and said, “Just consider it. See what happens. Maybe he’s a total D-bag, who knows? But you will never know unless you try. You deserve some Tara time. Just don’t forget about us.”

  “Yeah. We miss you,” Sarah said.

  “I know. I miss you guys too.”

  “And if you don’t go after him, I will.” Sam, pulling the threat card. Typical.

  And with that, they let it go and we resumed our girl time.

  By the time we left, it was fully raining and Sarah and I made a mad dash to her car. I didn’t mind being drenched, now that we were headed home. Then it hit me. Thank goodness I’d dragged Sarah to the back entrance, or else when Calen had stopped by, I’d have resembled the rat I’d been the first time he’d had seen me.

  Damn. I mentally kicked myself for allowing my thoughts to return to him. Seriously. I needed to get my priorities straight.

  As soon as I got home, I did two loads of laundry. The only blessing was that if my family wanted their sheets washed, I demanded that they strip their beds and bring them to the laundry room. I wasn’t their maid. Granted, they usually just left the sheets piled on the floor outside of their respective rooms. I guess you have to pick your battles.

  ꧁5꧂

  A few days later, the girls convinced me that it was my sisterly duty to attend an evening basketball game. It was true, the team was pretty good and since there wasn’t all that much to do in town for high school kids, it was a popular choice for a lot of our school. Will never seemed to care whether I came or not, but I would drag myself to games on occasion.

  Sarah picked me up and she had Sam and Jenny with her. I guess Lisa had some family obligations or something. We got to the game, paid our buck to get in, and settled in about midway up in the bleachers. Usually, I spent the games reading and re-reading the colorful pennants that decorated the walls, listing previous years’ championships. That or counting how many people sitting in the opposite bleachers were wearing red, or blue, or stripes, depending on my mood. I could already feel my eyes start to glaze over.

  The team came and out and I heard Sarah’s intake of breath when Zach showed up. I heard some murmurs around me about how hot Will Ashton was (barf) and then there were suddenly a lot more giggles and sighs. I looked up and Calen had come out on the court and was practicing some shots. He looked good. I seriously hoped mine wasn’t one of the sighs I kept hearing. Suddenly, Sam elbowed me.

  “What?!” Damn, that kinda hurt.

  “Close your mouth Tara, it’s not a good look for you.” I shot her a deadly glare and she just looked at me with a very self-satisfied smirk on her face. “That’s what I thought,” was all she’d say.

  “Just watch the game.” I never in a million years would have believed that those words would come out of my mouth.

  “Uh huh.” She was so smug. And so right! The game was in full swing now and I couldn’t stop watching him. He moved with such grace and fluidity, for someone so tall it was impressive. His reputation for how skilled he was on the court was no exaggeration. Between Calen and Will, it looked like this was going to be a season that would be contributing another pennant to the wall.

  “If he’s half as good with his hands as he is with that ball, I would….”

  I just barely stopped myself from glaring at Jenny. Who was I to glare? He was hot, it was a well-established fact, and I certainly had no claim on him. We were all just admiring him, like we would fine art. I practically gagged when I realized I’d just compared a guy to fine art. Groan.

  “I’d let Calen do a full court press on me any day.” This came from some girl behind me. I didn’t even really know what that meant but it still bothered me. What was going on?

  Just then, Will passed the ball to Calen who took a half court shot and it went into the basket like a breeze, like he does that kind of thing all the time, no sweat. Everyone jumped up and cheered, including me, and his teammates high-fived him and slapped him on the back. Just then, he turned and looked straight at me. Our eyes met and he gave me a little half smile and a slight lift of one shoulder. I raised my eyebrows and responded with my own little smile and his half turned into a whole. Oh my god I needed to sit down soon or my legs would give out. Then the game was back in play and our little slow motion moment was over.

  Sarah squealed and elbowed me on the other side. I was going leave this game with freaking bruises. “Was he just smiling at you?” she asked. I didn’t say anything. I think I was still speechless. “Oh my god, he just smiled at you from the court.”

  “I don’t know Sarah, he could have been smiling at anyone. There are tons of people here, how could he have even found me in the crowd? And why would he smile, anyway, even if he had?” She just star
ed at me. “Breathe, Sarah, breathe.”

  “He totally smiled at you. We all saw it. And you were totally smiling back. You Slut!” That was Sam. Never could she let anything go. I just shook my head and finally stopped trying to force myself to not watch Calen. Thankfully he was focused on the game.

  They won, of course. The girls forced me to go down to greet the team since they claimed that I could get entrée and not look suspicious, since I was Will’s sister. It felt plenty obvious, but I was only one person and Sam could get pretty bossy. Walking up to the players, my evil friends suddenly thrust me in front of them, like this was my idea. Shit, I saw Will every day, which was about everyday too much.

  And apparently, he was in top form.

  “Well well, little sister, come to admire the Adonis with whom you share DNA?”

  “Yeah,” pretending to look behind Will, “Where is he?” Will scoffed. “Oh you mean you? I thought you’d discovered that Zach was our long lost brother.” I heard someone snort behind Will. Will waved a hand at me dismissively. Deciding he had no need to impress me, and knowing I was a lost cause, he turned to my girlfriends. All he cared about was that they were XX.

  “Enjoy the gun show, ladies?” Eww, he could be so sleazy. Apparently the girls didn’t think so since they tittered in unison. I just rolled my eyes. “We’re all going to pizza, care to join?” My mouth gaped open. He turned and looked at me, as if he’d forgotten I was here. “Oh, no, not you Tara. See you at home.” Rat Bastard.

  “Ha. Ha.” I punched him in the arm. Then I just walked past him and went to go talk to Zach. I had to get away from my brother. His ego was bad enough on a good day, let alone after a game in which, even I had to admit, he’d greatly contributed to the victory of. But we all knew who the real star was, I thought to myself.

  “Hey Tara!” Zach came over, freshly showered.

  “Good game, Zachy!” Smiling, I hugged him. Since he was almost as tall as my brother, I had to lift up on my toes to do so and over his shoulder I met those green eyes that seemed to be haunting me. We just looked at each other. He quirked an eyebrow and turned away. I quickly released Zach.

  “Thanks for coming. It really means a lot to us guys, since I know you can’t come that often, and it makes us proud that when you came, we won…” He trailed off. I was totally not paying attention, instead focusing on Calen and that eyebrow and that smile and…. “Tara?”

  “Oh, yeah. You did a great job! I’m proud of you, and if you swear not to tell him, proud of Will too.” He smirked.

  “Well, we all know Calen is really responsible,” Zach conceded.

  “Yeah…He did really well.” I don’t know why, but it made me feel weird talking about Calen like we were friends and like he wasn’t standing right over there.

  “So, pizza?” Zach asked.

  “Well, Will dis-invited me, so I’m not so sure.” I rolled my eyes. Also, emphasis on Dis.

  “Oh come on, Tar. You know you’re always welcome, and we worked our butts off out there. Come celebrate with us.” I knew my girls had fallen for Will’s invite hook, line, and sinker, so I knew I didn’t have to check with them. Sighing, I agreed. The whole time, Calen stood off in the background talking to one of his teammates, but I couldn’t help feeling like he was listening to our conversation…which was weird. I wasn’t sure which part was weird, that he would listen or that I would assume he’d listen. Whatever.

  Pizza with the guys was exactly as it always is. Us girls crammed on one side of the long table, while the guys took over the rest, talking nonstop about the game. You’d think that a bunch of guys would pay attention to the girls, but no. Basketball was their mistress tonight. If I had to hear one more time how this guy pulled off that shot, or how they couldn’t believe how so and so had executed a perfect block, I’d scream.

  Slumping next to Sarah, I leaned in and asked if this was as painful for her as it was for me. “No, this is actually pretty entertaining. It’s like watching TV except you’re up close and you know the actors.” Then she blushed. “Well, sort of know…” I smiled at her. Then she leaned in and whispered in my ear, “I think Calen wants to talk to you. He keeps watching you.”

  I leaned back to her, trying to be less obvious than she always is, and whispered back, “God, Sar. I’m really trying not to go there.” She looked at me inquisitively but I just shook my head. She nodded back encouraging. I narrowed my eyes at her. She shrugged. If anyone was watching us, they’d think we were doing our own Charlie Chaplin routine.

  The night wrapped up and Will jumped into the Jetta with us girls, since Sarah had to take me home. I happened to notice the whole show he made of it to his friends, mock complaining that he had to ride with all of the girls. Then he forced me in front so that he’d be squeezed in the back with Sam and Jenny, winking at his teammates. As if he cared about my friends at all. What a drama queen.

  ***

  Things pretty much stayed the same for the next week. Will’s birthday was upon us and I knew he was going to be going out with his friends, but I felt like he deserved something at home. Since I wasn’t entirely sure that my mom even remembered that it was his birthday, I went to the store and got box of cake, the kind with the little multicolored sprinkles in it that was his favorite. Since I tried to only spend the family money on family stuff, and my babysitting gigs was starting to dry up, I didn’t get him a present so I hoped that a cake would be adequate. At least I got candles.

  I’d heard his friends at school say that they’d pick him up around 8, so I figured we could have cake first. When it was time, I went upstairs and knocked on my mom’s door. It took her so long to answer I had begun to wonder if she had finally ventured outside of the house. Then I knocked on Will’s door, and through the pounding bass I barely made out that he was ‘getting ready, and what did I want?’ I said I needed him to reach something in the kitchen that was too high for me. I think he grunted an ok. Downstairs, Beth and Richard came out of their room, looking like they’d just woken up, and for once they had the baby with them.

  When I heard Will’s thunderous footfalls on the stairs, I lit the candles and started singing as he entered the kitchen. I hoped the rest of my family wasn’t so hopeless as to make me sing all alone, but thankfully they started in. I could have done without all of Dick’s r-rated addendums to the end of ‘and Many more…,’ but what are you going to do?

  Everything went well, aside from the fact that Baby Blake kept alternating between trying to grab the cake and trying to touch the flames. I mean who holds a baby close enough to lit candles that they could even come that close to touching fire? Will seemed pretty pleased with the whole thing, which made me feel really happy. I guess that sometimes you are actually rewarded for trying.

  Surprisingly, he looked like he’d combed his hair. His hair was a much darker shade than mine, especially compared to my sister’s Barbie locks, and tended to stand on end. My girlfriends often referred to it as, “Sexy Messy,” causing me to constantly force myself to not throw up. Since when did laziness equal sexiness?

  Will actually looked well put together, wearing clean jeans and a t-shirt from one of the local reggae bands. That was one good thing about living next to a cool surf town, we had a pretty decent local music scene. I must have been lost in thought because he gave me a weird look right as we heard car doors slamming outside.

  “That’s me,” he said. “Tar, can you put some cake away for me to eat later? Thanks, you’re a peach.” Smh. With that, Zach, Paul, and Mike came barreling into the house. Why knock? They were high fiving and doing normal extraterrestrial dude things, and then they were gone. Suddenly, the kitchen emptied and things were very quiet. I stood there looking at the untouched cake and suddenly felt like crying. I knew it wasn’t because I was lonely or wanted to go with Will. I had already planned to take a bubble bath and read the new novel I had just started. But I just felt a little empty. Maybe it was because this was the closest we’d come to resembling the famil
y we used to be?

  Wrapping up the cake, I headed upstairs and called Sarah. I just needed to be distracted. After she regaled me with tales of nothing, I took the bubble bath. It really did work wonders. I sort of had a thing for candles, so I lit a bunch and settled in. When the water had finally grown tepid and my toes had never so closely resembled prunes, I dragged myself out and got ready for bed. Burrowing under my fluffy comforter, I fell immediately to sleep.

  ***

  At first, I couldn’t figure out why I was awake. It was pitch dark outside but the clock only read 12:17. Then I heard what must have woken me. The ping ping against my window got louder and closer together. Seriously? Throwing a rock at someone’s window? I rolled my eyes with the cliché of it all. Then I dragged myself out of bed and opened the curtains. Out front, I saw Zach’s car with its headlights on and the doors standing open. There were suddenly too many questions that I did not want to know the answers to. I opened the window and stuck my head out.

  “Thank god, Tara. We thought you would never wake up! We knew you were up there.” Zach said in a loud whisper. Then I got a better look at the scene below. Zach held a bunch of rocks, Mike was lying down in the back seat of the car, and Calen and Paul held up a slumped guy who was wearing the same Reggae shirt that Will had left the house in. “Oh my gosh.” I whispered. I closed the curtains and grabbed a sweater to put on over my tank, shoving my feet into my Ugg boots. I was still trying to extricate one of the legs of my pajama pants that had gotten stuck in the boot as I ran downstairs.

  I burst out the front door and ran over to Will. “What happened?” I didn’t think he heard me because he didn’t open his eyes, but then he shuddered and pulled away from Calen and Paul, proceeding to empty his stomach at my feet. Gee, thanks. Watch the boots!