Summer Obsession (The Townsends Book 1)

by Angie Campbell

  “Mom, I don’t think I can handle giving you details. Please, don’t ask.” She had her hands raised in a defensive gesture, backing away. I can’t tell her what happened. I would die of embarrassment.

  “Okay, you don’t have to talk to me about it. But you are going to have to talk to him,” her mom said, sounding very serious. “You can’t just ignore it and hope it will go away. If you try to do that, you will slip up and go too far.” And Carl and I will get that first grandbaby before we expected.

  “I know.” Mindi sounded so small her mom wanted to pull her up on her lap and hold her.

  *******

  Twenty minutes later, Luke walked into the kitchen. He looked almost as nervous as she felt. When she saw him, she turned quickly back to the counter, and went back to cutting up tomatoes for the salad. She kept her head down, hoping he would just ignore her. She should have known better.

  She was concentrating so hard on being invisible, she missed the exchange between him and her mom. She didn’t notice when her mom walked out of the kitchen. She didn’t realize she was in the room alone with him until it was too late.

  She was caught off guard when he walked up behind her, and placed his hands on either side of her on the counter. The action caused him to press his body up against her. When her head snapped up, she felt his breath on her ear. “We need to talk.” He spoke so low, if he hadn’t been as close as he was, she wouldn’t have heard him.

  “I can’t,” she said, her voice shaking. “I’m not ready.”

  “We have no choice. This has gotten too wild, too fast. We’re in danger of spontaneous combustion.” We almost went up in flames Monday.

  “Luke, please. I can’t think with you this close.” Her voice was growing weaker with each breath.

  “I don’t know. I might need to press my advantage,” he said, breathing in her ear once again. And I’m enjoying this way too much to want to back up.

  “Please,” she begged, collapsing against his chest.

  “We have to talk.”

  She could tell by his tone, he wasn’t going to back down. “Fine, but I need some space.” Her voice grew a little stronger with determination. But only a little.

  “Let’s go outside.” He took her hand and lead her out the back door. She thought he’d let her hand go once they were outside, but he kept going, pulling her along with him, out into the middle of the backyard.

  “Now, we’re alone enough to talk, but hopefully close enough to other people to maintain some control.” It sounded like he was getting nervous again. Not likely.

  They stood toe to toe, facing each other in the bright sun light. “Luke, I’m dating someone else.” She was panicking again, and ended up sticking with the lie. What is my problem?

  “That must be some relationship.” She could hear the sarcasm dripping off every word. There is only one other time in my life I wanted to beat the crap out of someone this bad. Strangely, it had to do with her then, too.

  The sarcasm took her by surprise. It was so unlike him. “Our relationship is just fine,” she said, snapping at him.

  “Really? Do you have that much trouble controlling your reactions to him?”

  She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. Her skin, already warm from the hot sun, glowed red from embarrassment.

  “That’s what I thought,” he bit out. Maybe I should just not stop next time. That would certainly prove a point.

  “Luke, it doesn’t change anything. Please, I don’t want to fight.” She sounded broken to her own ears.

  He brushed his fingers across her cheekbone, and she felt a tingle of electricity under her skin, all the way to her toes. “You really need to think about what you’re doing. You know there’s something here, just as much as I do.”

  “Luke, I need time.” Time to straighten out this mess I seem determined to make worse.

  “Fine, I can give you time.” He turned and walked back in the house without a backward glance.

  She followed slowly behind him. She knew she was going to have to tell him the truth. It was obvious her lie hadn’t protected her from the way she felt about him. She just wasn’t sure how to, without making things worse.

  She had two obvious outcomes. He would either be so angry, he would never speak to her again, or he would forgive her, but constantly be testing her self-control. I hope he’ll forgive me. I hope I can learn better self-control, she snorted to herself.

  When she walked back into the house, it was to discover that James had come to dinner with Lisa. They were in the kitchen helping her mom finish up, and Luke was nowhere to be found.

  James gave her a very concerned look when he asked, “Mindi, are you okay?”

  “Maybe. Luke didn’t leave, did he?” she asked, not wanting him to have left, but thinking it might be better if he had.

  “No, I think he’s in the game room,” Lisa said, giving her sister an amused look.

  “Did he seem angry?” I hope he’s not. I know this has got to be really frustrating to him.

  “No, just frustrated.”

  “Okay.” That I can handle.

  “Mindi, what happened Monday, when he came over here to talk to you?” James asked, trying to sound merely curious.

  “Why?” Mindi asked. I really would like to hide under the table right now.

  “Well, it’s just that, when he got back, he couldn’t do anything right.” James sat the salad down on the table, and turned to go back to the cabinet for the plates to set the table. He didn’t notice when Mindi’s cheeks turned pink from memories. “Before you showed up, he was distracted, but he was still getting things right. He said he was distracted because you had kissed him the day before.”

  James sat the plates down on the table and started placing them in front of the chairs around the table. “I was just wondering what you had done to screw him up that bad. We had a bunch of stuff we had to redo the next day. And he was still a little out of it even then.

  “Sorry,” Mindi replied in a very small voice.

  “Oh, Beautiful, I’m not trying to make you feel bad. I’m sorry.”

  Mindi looked at Lisa, begging for help with her eyes. She knew Jenny would have talked to Lisa about her and Luke’s close call with spontaneous combustion, as he called it.

  Her sister caught on fast. “James, I don’t think she’s comfortable talking about this with you.”

  James just laughed. “Okay, I’ll let it go. I’m just concerned. He just wouldn’t talk to me, and he normally tells me everything.”

  They finished getting everything ready, then hollered for everyone to come and eat.

  When everyone was seated, Mindi found herself beside Luke. And despite what Lisa had said about him being frustrated before, he seemed determined to be in a good mood now.

  Dinner passed with its usual good humor and small talk about everybody’s day. Still, by the time they were done cleaning up, and it was time for Luke and James to leave, Mindi was so wound up she felt she was vibrating.

  After about the fifth or sixth time of him accidently touching her, she started to believe it wasn’t an accident at all. By the time they were done eating, she knew it wasn’t accidents.

  At one point, he caused her to drop the gravy boat, and spill gravy all over the table. They had to stop in the middle of dinner and clean the table off. She dropped her fork on the floor twice. And by the time they had got done eating, she felt light headed from all the number of sharp intakes of air she had took.

  Everyone at the table was either too young to understand, or had decided not to comment. The only thing that gave it away that they were aware of what was going on, was the number of smirks and smiles she had noticed around the table.

  At one point, Zane looked like he was about to say something. She noticed he flinched and then went back to eating, changing his mind about whatever it was he was going to say. Their mom must have stomped on his foot, or elbowed him, because Zoe was on his other side.

  It was just small
things. Like, he’d brush his arm along hers, or bump their knees together. He didn’t give her time to recover from one touch, before he’d move on to the next. At one point, his hand touched her bare knee and brushed up her thigh. She had barely been able to eat. Her insides were just too churned up. She knew she’d be up at midnight, raiding the fridge, once she had time to calm down.

  They were just finishing up. She had her back to him, putting the rest of the plates back in the cabinet. When she turned around, she found herself, once again, trapped between him and the counter. He seemed to be developing a habit.

  He had left an inch of space between them. But her already charged nerves couldn’t take the shock, and she had to grab hold of his waist to steady herself. She heard his sharp intake of air, and realized he was in the same shape she was. She could feel him shaking under her touch.

  “Luke, what are you doing?” she asked between clenched teeth. “You said you’d give me time.” He’s making me crazy. I’m literally going to lose my mind.

  “Yeah, I’ll give you time. Time to think. I’ll let you decide.” He leaned in closer, their noses almost touching. “But I’m not backing off.” He brushed her hair back with his hand, and moved his mouth to her ear. “I’m going to fight for what I want.” He breathed in her ear, and ran the tip of his tongue around the outside of her ear, causing a shiver to run down her spine. “And I will win.”

  He stepped back, and looked her in the eyes, seeming to wait for his words to sink in. The moment the full meaning of his words hit her, her eyes grew wide with the shock. Oh my, God. We are definitely going to end up having a shot gun wedding.

  He didn’t give her time to recover. He kissed her quick, and turned and walked to the swinging doors. He turned and looked back at her from a safe distance. “Bye, I’ll see you tomorrow.” She wasn’t sure whether to take that as a threat or a promise. He just turned and walked through the doors with a wide grin on his face.

  “Oh, God.” She sat down at the table and put her head on her arms in front of her. She knew she couldn’t let this go much farther without telling him the truth. If only she was sure he could forgive her.

  Chapter 7 – Friday, May 5

  “Mom, are you sure that will be enough? We always cut it so close, and I think you’ve got more people invited to this one than normal,” Mindi said with a thoughtful look on her face. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you and Dad were up to something.” They are definitely up to something.

  Mindi and her mom were in Harris Grocery picking up the stuff they needed for the barbecue the next day. They were standing at the meat counter waiting for Chris, the store butcher, to come back with the hamburger they had ordered when Tracy Lewis came around the corner.

  “Well, if it isn’t little miss-good-two-shoes and her mother,” Tracy said with a vicious snarl on her face. “What are you doing? Buying meat for that extremely, large brood of yours. I mean really, why would anyone want children at all. But especially that many? How gross?” She curled her nose like she could smell something really foul.

  Mindi and Jamie both stood in silence at first, left speechless by the level of hatred Tracy displayed. When Mindi finally registered the insult to her mother, she got furious. “How dare you talk to my mom that way? She said, breathing fire. I’m going to kill her. She started toward Tracy, but her mom stopped her by putting her arm out.

  “Tracy, I don’t relish telling anyone this, but you have a truly black soul. You need Jesus.” Jamie was truly alarmed by the level of hatred in the young woman.

  “Sorry to hear you don’t like kids, Tracy,” Mindi said with a sinister look, sounding far braver and daring then she felt. “Luke loves children. He’d never marry someone who didn’t want kids. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard him say he couldn’t wait to have kids of his own.

  “How dare you talk to me about Luke.” Tracy jumped at Mindi, but Chris had come up while they were talking and reached out and grabbed her before she could do any damage. He wrapped his arms around her arms and chest to hold her up off the ground. She started kicking in Mindi’s direction like she thought she had a chance of doing damage from several feet away. “You’re delusional if you think Luke is in love with you. He loves me, and he’ll marry me one day. I’ll get you out of the way if I have to.”

  Chris had remained quiet until this moment, but it seemed this proclamation was more than he could stand. He had gone to school with Luke, and had figured out, like a lot of others, how he felt about Mindi, and even understood why he felt it necessary to date other girls at the time.

  “He only dated you for two weeks. I’d say, he figured out pretty quick how crazy you are,” Chris said with a sneer.

  “Let go of me, you slimy little man.” She was still kicking and screaming when Joe walked up.

  “Tracy, you need to leave. I’m not going to allow verbal, or physical abuse of my patrons.” Joe was normally an easy going, quiet man. Jamie could tell he was really furious. “If you don’t leave peacefully, I will call the cops.”

  “Fine, I’ll leave,” she said, still dangling off the floor. They’d probably send the tramp’s brother. “Will you have your henchmen put me down?” she asked with disgust.

  “Chris, walk her to the door, please,” he said with a smirk, knowing exactly what Chris would do.

  “No problem, Joe,” Chris said with a look that could have been misinterpreted as polite by a stranger. However, Mindi knew him well, and knew he was taking a lot of pleasure in embarrassing Tracy. He was a really good guy. He just didn’t care for hateful, manipulative people. And Tracy was a lot worse than that. “I’ll take out the trash.”

  “How dare you?” Tracy said, shooting daggers with her eyes.

  Chris walked to the front door with her still dangling off the floor. She was still screeching insults at the top of her lungs when he finally sat her down on the floor, and unceremoniously shoved her out the door and closed it behind her with a little wave.

  Tracy just stood there for a few minutes, fuming. She was looking fairly mutinous when Mindi looked at her mom, and said, “This isn’t going to be good when it gets back to Luke.” And I’m going to be in trouble. A lot of trouble.

  *******

  Mindi didn’t know just how right she was until they got back to her mom and dad’s and found Luke’s tow truck already sitting there. “That had to be a gossip hot line record. The miracle of small towns,” she muttered to her mom as they walked through the front door.

  The found Luke pacing back and forth in the living room, threatening to wear a hole in the carpet.

  He hadn’t heard them come in, and came to an abrupt halt when he turned back and saw them both standing there. The look on his face would have been comical if it wasn’t for the obvious concern. “What exactly happened? Joe said you ran into Tracy in the grocery store.”

  “It sounded a little like a veiled threat, that’s all. I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.” Oh, no. I’m in so much trouble if he finds out what I said.

  Mindi was trying to down play the whole thing, and make it seem less than it was, but her mother wasn’t having any of it.

  “Veiled threat, my foot. There was nothing veiled about it,” she said, giving Mindi a dirty look. “She said she knew you were in love with her, and she would get Mindi out of the way if she had to,” she finished, looking back at Luke for a reaction.

  “Mom, it wasn’t that bad. Please, don’t make this worse than it needs to be.” Oh, great. She’s going to tell him the whole thing. Does she even realize the kind of trouble she’s going to get me in?

  “Chris carried her out of the store kicking and screaming,” her mom added, sounding incredulous. Turning back to Luke, she then added,” And that was after Mindi made sure to tell her how much you want children after she had just made fun of me for having so many and saying she didn’t understand why a person would want children at all.” Jamie looked back at her daughter as if to say, talk yourse
lf out of that one.

  And there it is, the crowning jewel. I’m toast. Just shoot me.

  At first, he just stared at Mindi, and she thought she was going to get away easy. But she should have known better. There was nothing in their history together that should have led her to believe he was going to let this slide.

  When he finally spoke, she knew she had greatly miscalculated. His tone belied his true feelings. He was furious. He spoke so calmly, she could tell he was anything but calm. “You can’t let her take you by surprise. I’m not the only one she’s willing to take a shot at. If she gets a chance, she’ll kill you.” And that would kill me.

  Mindi didn’t know why it was, but she always got mesmerized by his voice. While he had been talking, she had become entranced by the sound of it, and the fire in his eyes that she hadn’t noticed that her mother was no longer in the room with them. She had apparently decided she’d leave it up to Luke to talk some sense into her.

  She was wishing now that she had been paying attention. Now she was standing toe to toe with him, and there was no escaping just how angry he was. Or the fact that he was angry with her.

  When next he spoke, it was barely above a whisper. “I don’t care how angry she makes you, you’ve got to resist the temptation to goad her. And it doesn’t matter how right you are. You have got to be careful what you say. It will only make her want to kill you that much more.”

  She wasn’t sure what it was. It seemed like lately she just couldn’t help herself, and she did the one thing that was sure to tick him off even more. She just looked at him, and very calmly said, “Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you when you’ve had so much to say while angry before. You usually go into silent mode.

  She should have realized the rules had changed, and she was the one who had changed them. She was expecting him to have a blow out on her. She wasn’t expecting what did happen. She should have though.