“Could you tow my car to Mom and Dad’s?” she asked, needing to change the subject. Her voice sounded shaky to her own ears, but there was nothing she could do about it. “I was wanting to surprise them. They weren’t expecting me back until next week.”
“Sure, but your mom and dad are in town. They had to go in to talk to your little brother’s principle. He was fighting at school.”
“Which brother?” Mindi asked, sounding puzzled. “I have eight of them.”
“Gabe. And two of your eight brothers are older than you,” Luke said with a smirk.
She just looked at him, and ignored the older brother crack. “He’s eight. What does he have to fight about?” she asked, following Luke back to his tow truck. She was astounded by the thought of her adorable little brother fighting with anyone.
“Have you really forgotten our fights from when we were kids?” he asked with a cocky grin. “We used to fight about everything.”
“What do you mean, we used to fight about everything? As far as I can see, we still do. Are you telling me he was fighting with a girl?” she asked with a smirk. Then she thought better of it and added. “You never hit me.”
“Yes, it was the little girl down the road from you mom and dad’s house. And he pulled her hair,” he said with a laugh. “Apparently, they fight a lot. She’s the one that hit him. If I remember right, our fights were a lot like that,” he said, grinning at her. He had to turn and walk away before he gave into the urge to reach back and tug on her pony tail even now.
Luke climbed back up in the cab of the big truck while she stood on the other side of the road out of the way, so he could pull the tow truck to the back of the car. Luke hopped down from the truck and went back and started hooking up her car.
“Was the little girl Izzy?” she asked, walking up beside him.
“Yes, it was Izzy Jones,” Luke said without looking back at her.
She just shook her head. “So, he’s fighting with little Izzy Jones. Why am I not surprised?”
Luke just laughed. The sound reminded her of warm fudge poured over vanilla ice cream. She was starting to get that churning feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“Will you just tow my car home, please?” she snapped, with a little too much irritation.
“Sure thing, Sweetheart,” he said, sounding like some old black and white movie. He didn’t even flinch at her rough tone. It was the same tone she had used on him so many times before, it was just natural for him to laugh it off.
“Don’t call me sweetheart. I’m not your sweetheart,” she said, a little to forcefully.
*******
Tracy dropped the binoculars against her chest after Luke pulled off with Mindi’s car hooked to his tow truck, and Mindi in the cab with him. She was furious.
How did that little tramp get so lucky? It was probably that nosey old Mr. Trashy Tagert. Mindi always did like that mean old man. He would have called Luke for sure. He wouldn’t want helpless Mindi sitting there all alone in the hot sun, just waiting for someone to come by.
Tracy climbed down from the deer stand she had been using to keep an eye on the road for the last week. It was an old metal one her dad had put up the year before. He had stopped using the old hunting cabin because he didn’t get far away from the house anymore. This had worked out well for Tracy. It had given her a place to stay for the last year, so she could be close to Luke, and the deer stand had worked well to keep a look out for unwelcome scum. She knew Mindi would be returning soon because summer break was starting.
I know I’m going to have my work cut out for me. Luke has got sucked in, and thinks he’s in love with her. Right now, I just need to keep them from getting too cozy. If Mindi can, she’ll have them married before the summer is out. Well, I’m not going to let that happen. Once the summer is over, and Mindi goes back to school, I’ll get him back.
Who knows what she’s going to school for. She’s obviously not smart enough for much. She didn’t take out a cell phone. Someone else had to of called. What kind of idiot didn’t carry a cell phone with them these days?
Anyway, once Mindi is back at school, I’ll have Luke all to myself, and we can be together again. I’m just going to have to remind him there is better out there. And let him know, I forgive him for breaking up with me.
She had slowly made her way back to her car, making sure not to trample the vegetation too much. She had her car hidden in the trees, so it couldn’t be seen easily from the road. She pulled back onto the trail, and headed back to the old garage her father had built back when he was still young enough to need it. The garage had been used to store a tractor back when he could still use one. The garaged sat not too far from the Jones’ land. She’d have to take the scooter she had hidden there to get close enough to see what Mindi and Luke were up to once they go back to her parent’s house. She could hide in the trees, and no one would know she was there. She had done it plenty of times before, when she was keeping an eye on what Luke was doing. She knew for a fact he hadn’t dated since he broke up with her. Just another sign how much he truly loves me.
Everybody is always telling me Luke is in love with Mindi, and how great a couple they will make when they finally get together. Well, Mindi doesn’t deserve him.
Everybody is always telling me, I need to move on and forget about Luke. They are always telling me Luke will never take me back, and he will never marry me. That he isn’t in love with me. Even my own parents believe I need to drop it, and let Luke go. They tell me any chance I had of ever getting him back was destroyed when I shot at him.
Well, everybody is wrong. He is in love with me, and he will marry me someday. He’s just confused. He’ll come back to me. He’ll ask me to marry him.
He’ll forgive me. He’ll understand I was just upset, and letting off a little steam. He’ll understand in the end. He’ll understand I didn’t really want to hurt him.
I’ll marry him. But I’ll make him beg for my forgiveness first. I won’t make it easy on him. I’ll have to make sure he never does anything like this again.
She had reached the spot she always hid her scooter when she was watching Luke. She propped the scooter against the tree and made her way through the trees. She stood behind a large oak tree that was on the very edge of the Townsend property line. She was not even fifty yards away from the house. Luke had just pulled up in the drive. She could tell he and Mindi were already fighting, because Mindi had got out and slammed the door and was yelling like a mad woman.
He’ll be so pleased when he finds out how dedicated I’ve been while we’re apart. He’ll understand how much I truly love him and that we really do belong together.
*******
Less than ten minutes after hooking her car to his tow truck, Luke and Mindi were pulling up in her parent’s front yard. She looked at the three-story brick house she had grown up in. the house had ten bedrooms and five bathrooms, not to mention a full basement. But with sixteen kids it never seemed like there was enough room.
The house was always full of laughter and chaos. And there had always been so much love, it had made it the best place in the world to grow up. She had really missed this place. She had missed the chaos and affection. She had missed her crazy family sticking together through everything. She had even missed Luke and James always being there. James was Luke’s business partner, and her sister Lisa’s best friend.
That didn’t change the fact that she and Luke were always fighting. And apparently, that wasn’t going to be any different today.
Mindi got out of the truck and slammed the door as hard as she could. She didn’t know why, but he could always reduce her to childish tantrums. She stormed across the yard yelling as she went, “You are so infuriating. Would you, please, just drop it?”
Luke got out after her and started around the front of the truck. “I was just saying, you should have had your cell phone charged. I wasn’t trying to make you feel stupid. You’re just bad about forgetting things when you’re
in a hurry.”
“I told you. I had charged it last night. It shouldn’t have died before I got here. It’s just that everybody and their brother has called me today to see what I was doing. Even after I told all of them yesterday I was coming home earlier than I had planned,” she said, starting to sound really angry. “On top of that, my phone hasn’t been holding a charge lately. I think I need a new one. And I lost my car charger. I think it may have fallen out of my car. Drop it already. I wasn’t being irresponsible.” She was angry enough, she felt like her blood was boiling. “You sound just like Phillip and Zane.” That’s all I need. Another brother.
“Okay, sorry about the cell phone thing. That doesn’t explain why you didn’t stop long enough to eat breakfast,” he said, walking up behind her. He tried putting his hand on her arm, but she jerked away. It didn’t stop him from following her, though.
She went in the house and slammed that door behind her, too. It only made her feel a little better, because Luke came in right behind her.
“You know how not eating well affects you.”
“Stop. Just stop trying to mother me,” she said, almost spitting the words out. “That’s not what I need from you,” she said, not really realizing how her words would sound to him.
She felt him come up behind her, and she tensed, and drew her shoulders in on herself. He took as step back in response. “So, are you seeing anyone right now?” he asked wanting to change the subject, but wishing he could take the question back the second it was out.
“Is that really any of your business?” She was still angry at him over the cell phone thing. She couldn’t tell him that she was so excited to get home to see him, that he was all she could think about while she was packing to leave. She didn’t need him trying to pry into her personal life. There is no way I’m going to tell him I’m not dating anyone. Especially since the only reason I never said yes to any of the invitations, is because they weren’t hm.
“Sorry, I was just trying to change the topic of conversation. I wasn’t trying to invade your privacy,” he said with an icy tone.
She turned around to look him in the eye. “Nothing is ever that simple with you,” she said, raising one eyebrow. “You’re always trying to make me angry.” She was still annoyed with him, and wasn’t ready to play nice yet.
“Come on. I’ve changed over the last few years.” He was smiling at her, but it looked painful. “Let’s go see what they have in there for you to eat,” he said in an obvious attempt to derail the argument. Now that she thought about it, he usually always did try to stop their more serious arguments before they got out of hand. That just gave her more to think about, and made her even angrier.
“I can find something to eat on my own, and you’ve just gotten more annoying.” She knew she shouldn’t be trying to hurt his feelings. She was about the only one who could. It’s just, she couldn’t seem to help herself. “You may not be pulling my hair anymore, but you’re always around, making me crazy.” Now she was gritting her teeth.
He crossed the room to where she was. He was grinning, but she could see the pain in his eyes. “Come on, now. I’ve grown up a lot in the last few years. You know that.”
He had moved in closer. When he reached up and finally gave into the urge to brush his hand across her cheek, she gasped and jumped back, blurting out, “I’m dating a medical student. His name is Jeff.” She wasn’t sure what came over her. I wonder what Jeff will think when he finds out we’re dating. It’s sure to shock him.
It was just, when he touched her, she had felt something she had never felt before. It had felt like electricity or fire under her skin. She had ended up saying the first thing that came into her head.
“Sounds great. Well, I really need to be getting out of here,” he said, slowly backing to the door. He tripped over an end table by the front door when he suddenly became very clumsy. “I’ll see you later,” he said, knocking a lamp over.
Now, he really sounded hurt. When she looked into his beautiful brown eyes, she saw the pain. She found herself wishing she hadn’t said what she had. But I can’t tell him I lied. He’ll want to know why, and I honestly don’t know myself.
She found herself really wanting to do something to comfort him, and if she didn’t get him out of here, she was sure she would give into the urge to kiss him senseless. It would be more likely that he would kiss her senseless.
Not sure she could handle being pushed away if she took the chance and gave into her own impulses, she said with a little too much force, “Please, leave.” Trying really hard to adjust her tone, she added, “I really appreciate your help, but I need to be alone right now.”
He just stood there for a few minutes. He was really feeling confused right now. She was sending really mixed signals. One second he would think she wanted him to kiss her, then the next, she would be snarling at him.
She wasn’t sure what he was going to do. She was almost afraid he was going to argue with her. When he finally spoke, she was even more confused. “I’m taking your car back to my garage. I’m going to fix it, and don’t bother trying to argue. You can’t keep driving it the way it is. It needs to be gone through completely.”
“I can’t afford for you to fix it. You know that.” She was starting to get agitated again. “You can’t do that. I’ll be in debt to you for the rest of my life.”
“We’ll talk about it later. We can work something out.” Without giving her time to respond again, he turned and walked out the door.
*******
Luke walked out on the front porch in time to see Mindi’s parents drive up beside his truck. He walked out to meet them as they were getting out of their car. “Hey, Luke. I see Mindi’s here,” Carl said with surprise.
Carl was a big man, who stood six two. He had kept himself lean from years of jogging every morning before going to work. He was in surprisingly good health for a man of forty-nine. His age would hardly show at all, if it wasn’t for his gray hair.
Jamie was tiny in comparison. She was no more than five four. Her hair was still mostly brown. And at forty-seven, her brown eyes were just as sharp and translucent as they most likely had been when she was twenty years younger.
Mindi had got her height from her dad. She wasn’t too tall, but at five eight, she was considered tall for a woman. She shared her pale complexion with only a few of her siblings. Jamie had said once that it came from her grandmother on Carl’s side. And only one of her brothers shared the auburn hair.
Carl turned to the back door of the car and opened it to lean in and unbuckle their youngest daughter, Emily, and pull her from the car seat. Jamie opened the other side and let Emily’s sister Zoe out of the car and grabbed the diaper bag that had been sitting between them in the back seat.
Once Zoe’s little feet hit the ground, she took a run at Luke, and launched herself into his arms, her dark brown curls bouncing. “Hi, Luke. We got to stay with Mrs. Slatter. I got to make a sock puppet.” Which explained to Luke why she had a sock on her hand, that had little buttons for eyes and a mouth sewn on with yarn.
Mrs. Slatter had six kids, but they were all grown and had kids of their own now. Some of them still lived in the area. Some of them had moved on to bigger towns.
She always enjoyed taking care of the kids. She said it made her feel young again. It seemed like she always had one of her own grandchildren with her when she could. The lady was absolutely wonderful with children. All of them. It didn’t matter if they were her grand-kids, or someone else’s. she just loved children.
“That Mrs. Slatter is great, isn’t she?”
Luke knew the younger Townsend children all loved staying with the family babysitter. She always had something fun for them to do. He gave the little girl a hug and sat her down on the ground, and turned his conversation back to Carl and Jamie.
“Yeah. She broke down about two miles up the road. Mr. Tagert called me to come and check on her. I’m going to take the car in with me, and try to find the ti
me to fix it. I wish I could have got this done before now. She was taking a big chance taking it to college with her. I’m just glad she’s back with it now.”
“Yeah, we’ve been worrying about that for two years now,” Carl said, chuckling.
“Oh, and Jamie, she’s going to be mad at me for this,” Luke said with a frown, shaking his head, “but she hasn’t eaten very well today. She had half a bag of chips, and half of a soda. I had an extra sausage biscuit I made her eat. But judging by how quickly her moods were changing, she hadn’t eaten well yesterday either.”
“Thanks for telling me, but you know you’re going to be in trouble,” Jamie said, eyeing Luke with concern.
“Nothing new there,” he stated with a resigned tone. “Right now, her health comes first. I wish she could just see that I care about her.”
“Thanks for helping her. We’ll see you later,” Carl said, bonding up the stairs without looking back. Jamie was fast on his heels.
“Yeah, no problem. Have a good one.” They were both already up the stairs of the porch. He was grateful they were distracted, otherwise they might have noticed he was a little out of it.
Jamie opened the door and called out for her daughter. “Mindi, where are you, Sweetheart?” Her mother found her a few seconds later sitting at the kitchen counter with a tub of chocolate ice cream in front of her. “Oh dear. Do you want to talk about it?” Mindi always ate ice cream when she was upset.
Mindi just looked at her mother. “No, Mom. Not right now.”
“Fine, you don’t have to talk, but you do have to eat something other than ice cream.” Her mom walked over and snatched the ice cream carton off the table, and took the spoon out of her daughter’s hand. Mindi promptly burst into tears.
*******
Well, it’s about time he came out of that house. He’s been in there with that tramp long enough.
Tracy jumped down from a tree where she had been sitting on a big branch. She had gotten really good at climbing trees since keeping surveillance on Luke. It was one of her many new talents. She had never really been much of an outdoor type, despite how hard her father had tried. I just really don’t like trees and grass and camping in the open might air. Anyone who does is crazy if you ask me. Maybe Luke and I can move to Kansas City after we get married. That’s where my parents think I am right now, anyway.
Summer Obsession (The Townsends Book 1) Page 3