I thought of him yelling at me outside the bio building on campus after I’d caught him cheating. Thought of how he’d painted me as the only bad guy in our falling out. Thought of how it felt to be called names.
I grasped the door handle, pushing my hair back from my face. Then I got out of the car.
The laughing stopped, and a line of power traveled through me, along with a sense that I was about to bring a reckoning. And when I went around the car to Micah, the shocked silence deepened. Someone even turned off the music, like they wanted to hear every word.
As I looked around at Rex’s friends—Chance, Doug, Dante, all the boys who’d been so nice and inclusive when I’d started dating their man—I let them wonder what I was doing here with Micah. Then I slipped my arm around him.
A few stunned laughs sliced the air as I finally met Rex’s gaze.
“He sure isn’t you,” I said.
His friends exploded, hurling “slut” and “Lana Peyton lives!” at me, just like I thought they would. But none of it hurt anymore. I was who I was with Micah, and no one could take that away.
The only thing that came close was the scratch of discomfort I felt when Micah put his arm around me, claiming me. As I looked up at him, he didn’t return my gaze. He was watching Rex, as if reveling in his reaction.
The bet doesn’t exist anymore, he’d told me.
And I still believed him, even though I was getting strange vibes. I couldn’t not believe, because this was my Micah, not the player he’d been before.
Just as all the voices peaked, Jadyn emerged from the car. It wasn’t until I felt Evie’s hand on my arm that I realized she’d already gotten out, too. But it was the sight of Jadyn that really seemed to knock Rex back.
His expression fell, and he shot the same betrayed look to me. It almost seemed as if he actually still felt something for the both of us, even though he’d been such a shitheel.
But then that asinine smile returned to his face.
“Who else do you have in there?” he brayed, gesturing to the car. “Do you have a . . . what do you call it?”
One of the cheerdevils volunteered, “A harem!”
Chance Gutherie nudged Rex. “Or more clowns.”
Everyone tittered, and both Micah and Evie tightened their grips on me. I did the same to Micah, hoping he’d still be a lover, not a fighter. We didn’t have a chance against this crowd if he decided to start up like he had at the Lonesome Star.
How could I have thought this would go well?
“That’s right,” Rex said, motioning for everyone to shut up. “A harem of psycho ex clowns and their art fag friend stuffed into a secondhand piece of dung car. Damn, Shelby and Jadyn, this is rock bottom, screwing the town’s white trash sperm bank. You doin’ it, too, Evie?”
My temper spiked. “Don’t talk about him or my friends like that, Rex.” And here I’d planned to keep it cool.
Rex used his hands to imitate a blabbing mouth. “Mweh-mweh-mweh-mweh, Rex!”
More laughing, and it jabbed at me harder this time.
Rex fed off it. “Next thing you know, Shelby’s gonna end up preggers like all trailer trash does. Like her mom did!”
Even though he didn’t know the whole story, I damned well did, and I wasn’t going to hear him slam Mom.
I lunged forward, my hand clawed and raised at Rex, but as everyone howled with glee, Micah pulled me back. He put me behind him as Evie kept me still. Jadyn was on the other side of me, anchoring me, shaking.
But I was also trembling, and it wasn’t because I was scared. Rex had degraded Mom, my friends, and Micah, so I was pissed times three.
Micah raised a finger at Rex, and the joyous times disappeared.
“I could give a shit what people say about me,” Micah said in a voice so low that it skimmed the air, “but if you open your mouth about Shelby, her mom, Evie, or Jadyn again, I will give a shit.”
That got the biggest rise yet out of them, and Rex yelled over the noise. “Listen to that! What a sweetheart. Wow, it sounds like you really do care about Shelby!” He motioned for quiet again. “It’s almost like you didn’t want to win a bet by banging her. Isn’t that why you brought her here tonight, though? To give us proof that you won your bet?”
Dumbass. Righteous excitement filled me, because Micah was going to tell Rex that we’d fallen in love. He was going to say he’d cancelled that bet with the twins and had pursued me because of deeper emotions than lust.
But with each fraction of a second that ticked by, that little voice knocked at me.
Something about the way he’s been acting is making you doubt him tonight, and why is that? Wouldn’t you just love to honeytrap him right now to see what’s really going on inside his own head, to see why you’ve been getting bad vibes?
Then someone else stepped out of the crowd—a stocky, ex-wrestler type I recognized from somewhere. As he put on a cynical and amused smile, he hooked his thumbs in his belt loops, and I placed him.
Brian Taggert, the older guy who’d lost the drag race to Micah a lifetime ago.
“Yeah, Wyatt,” he said. “Are you offering proof that you won our bet?”
Bewildered, I looked at Micah as his expression fell, his shoulders slumping as he returned my gaze, somehow as guilty as hell.
21
I could only stare at Micah. He’d cancelled the bet with the twins, but he’d had one with Brian Taggert, too?
“Micah?” I whispered.
“I can explain,” he said, reaching for me.
I stepped back, shrugging away from him. More “ooo”s from the crowd. I felt like the ground was sinking under me, swallowing me, but I wasn’t lucky enough to disappear into thin air like that. I never was.
God, I didn’t want all these eyes on me. I didn’t want to see Rex and his smug smile or the cheerdevils looking at me like I was the biggest loser in the universe, a wiggle of sperm that’d found its way into my mother one night and stayed a nothing.
Taggert broke in. “Whoa, Wyatt, she doesn’t know? Day-um, you’re frosty!”
Evie was suddenly right at my shoulder. “Stop stirring the shit, old man. What’re you doing partying with the kids again, anyway? Isn’t there a tenth-year high school reunion you should be at somewhere?”
Taggert glared at her, but he didn’t register with me that much. Micah’s gaze did, though, and it was still guilty and so very sorry.
He lowered his voice so that only I could hear. “Don’t pay any mind to him, Shelby.”
I broke away from him, and there went the “ooo”s.
Taggert talked to me. “So you didn’t know that, if he boned you by the end of last week, he gets my Impala. If he failed, I get the Camaro. Hell, I came to town to see if I won, but what I can’t figure out is why he’s still sticking around here if he did screw you. I’d have already collected my prize and scrammed by now. Just tell me that you didn’t give it up to him, girl. I heard you were trying to stay to yourself this summer, and I banked on you. You’re all that’s standing between me and an upgrade from my ride.”
I only shook my head, still not getting it. I’d trusted Micah. Lost my heart to him. And all he could do was send that sorry gaze to me.
“Micah?” I asked.
He clenched his jaw. Through his teeth he said, “It’s true.”
I backed farther away from him and, gradually, his expression changed, as if he had decided something.
Then he tossed his car keys at Taggert, who didn’t react in time to catch them. They clinked to the ground, next to his boots, glinting.
“Take the damned car,” he said.
A pine needle could’ve hit the dirt and everyone would’ve heard it. Even Rex and his crew were soundless.
Taggert narrowed his gaze at Micah. “If you’re giving me the Camaro, then that means—”
Every word was a heartbreak—I could hear it in his voice. I didn’t know if it was because he was losing his pride and joy, or if it was because I was looking at him with such distrust.
He turned back to me, fisting his hands by his sides as his gaze bored into mine. “I’m in love with Shelby, so even if I’m minus a ride, I’m the one that came out the winner.”
Shock grabbed me at the public admission. But had he won me? Or had he just lost me for good because he hadn’t been honest with me?
But he had to love me. He’d said so. Yet what about Taggert’s bet? Had he forgotten about it? Was that what he’d wanted to explain to me?
As Taggert bent to pick the keys up from the ground, I couldn’t imagine Micah losing the Camaro. He’d put everything he had—money, sweat, dignity—into building it up. It was as much a part of him as . . .
As I thought I’d been.
I moved fast toward the keys and scooped them off the ground, away from Taggert’s grip. I stood, staring at everyone who surrounded us, not running from this latest scandal. Not this time.
So I was truly going to be the slut of Aidan Falls, the latest victim to Micah Wyatt’s seductions. He’d nailed me and won his bet, proving I was the bad girl who spelled nothing but trouble.
I was what I was.
I faced Taggert. “Micah was just defending me—I’ve had sex with him, a lot of times, too. Many, many wonderful times. And you know what? It happened before the end of last week. He didn’t lose any bet.”
“Goddammit, Shelby,” Micah said.
He had only been trying to protect my reputation after putting it in a position to be stomped on all over again. I almost laughed at the irony of it—like I even had any reputation to defend anymore—but my heart was ricocheting through me, not knowing where to go. And it was my heart that was overwhelming me.
The kids were flaring up again. Just like predictable cretins, they started to mock me.
“Slut, slut, slut!”
Taggert made a grab for the keys, but I jerked them away. When Evie came up from behind me and snatched them instead, I gasped. Taggert saw her and took off after her as she ran and dove into the Camaro, locking it.
Making as if to pound on the closed window, Taggert yelled at her to open up.
Micah stepped in front of him. “Let’s just call this even. You keep your ride, I keep mine.”
“Fuck that.”
“Brian,” Micah said against the clamor. “Come on, man.”
Taggert stopped menacing Evie, then frowned as he considered the compromise. Then he said, “Race you for it.”
Micah dismissed him by giving an impatient nod, then focusing that intense gaze on me again. Assuaged, Taggert backed off, frowning at all the names being slung our way as if he was just now starting to hear them.
“Skee-zy! Skee-zy!”
Micah didn’t acknowledge anyone, even when Rex took up where he’d left off before, wallowing in this circus.
“When the blush wears off, Wyatt, you’re gonna realize what a bad lay she is, anyway—”
“Enough!” said a girl’s voice.
Everyone broke off as Jadyn positioned herself in the middle of the chaos. Rex’s gaze gentled for a second before it settled into wariness. I’d gripped Micah’s T-shirt, holding him back once more.
What was she doing?
She only shook her head at the group, as if she couldn’t believe their mob mentality. “What is this? Does everyone feel good about themselves, ganging up and letting loose like jackals?”
One of Rex’s friends from the back yelled, “Shut up, already!” He probably didn’t know what a jackal was.
“I will not,” Jadyn yelled back. “I will never shut up again, especially when it comes to you fools. This is appalling.”
Even if I didn’t know what to make of Micah anymore, I kept pulling him away, but he wouldn’t move a foot. He must’ve sensed that Jadyn might need the back up now.
I wished I could push him into the car so we could get out of here. It wasn’t because I was afraid of all these people, either. I wanted an explanation from him about what’d just gone on with Taggert. He needed to explain a lot.
Jadyn walked closer to Rex, her tone level. “I know you’ve still got to be angry because I slept with Micah. I’m sorry I never had the opportunity to tell you why I did it.”
Rex shrugged, glancing at his friends. “I don’t care why you worked me over.”
“Oh, yes, you do.”
Rex stared down at her, his hair covering one eye. Defensive, arrogant. But there was a hint of that look I’d seen before—the one that told me Rex had some feeling in him, if you could dig deep enough.
Jadyn leaned closer to him, but she didn’t whisper; she made sure her voice carried. “I gave in to Micah because you left me here in Aidan Falls thinking that you might still love Shelby, and that you were going to get back together with her at college, even after everything you two went through. I slept with Micah because he treated me like a woman when I needed it the most. And, hell. Shelby would agree with me in that I’ve never been treated so well before.”
Dang, girl.
She smiled as she put the capper on Rex. “You, T-Rex, are selfish and narcissistic. You have no idea how to please any woman.”
“You fucking bitch,” he muttered.
Even as he cussed at her, he still had a trace of that sad, regretful look. Maybe one day he’d learn how to handle a woman, and he wouldn’t always have to be this way.
For now, though, he had no clue.
Ignoring Jadyn, he dragged a glare to Micah, as if this was all his fault. “Seems like you have these girls wrapped around your little finger. They have no idea what a joke you are.” He targeted me. “Case number one: We all saw what he did to you tonight, Shelby. If you don’t think you’ll always be a bet to him, you’re dumber than I thought.”
“I don’t need your advice,” I said, keeping my voice as solid as I could.
As he moved closer to me, Jadyn tracked him. He’d pushed aside what she’d said about being selfish and narcissistic, and after bottling up her frustration for so long, she was obviously waiting, simmering for a resolution.
Rex didn’t seem to catch on to that. “You need someone’s advice, Shel, especially if they didn’t tell you yet that being with a clown like this means he’ll only hold you back. Like I said, you’ll be his kind of trailer trash, a college dropout. You’re slumming for a good time this summer, so do yourself a favor and don’t think you’ve got more with him than you do.” He jerked his chin at me. “That’s my input.”
Hadn’t Micah almost said the same thing to me early on? I can’t change who I am, Shelby. You, however, will go back to college and have a whole life ahead of you.
His expression didn’t give his thoughts away as he stood by, getting tenser as Rex got closer.
As Rex played to his appreciative audience, he had one last point. “Now that I think again, maybe you two do belong together, right along with your new friend.” He gestured to Jadyn. “Three little whores, sittin’ in a tree—”
If I’d expected Micah to be the one who brought him down, I was wrong.
Jadyn calmly stepped up behind Rex and reached up and around, grabbing the hank of hair that covered his eye. And just like that, she pulled his head back to talk into his face.
“Don’t ever call me a whore, you whore.”
I’d never seen her face like this before, her eyes wide, her jaw gritted, and as Rex grabbed her wrist and swatted his hand back at her to smack her away, Micah was already in motion.
So was ever
yone else as they descended on Jadyn and Micah. While Taggert hung near the Camaro, like he was protecting it from a brawl, Evie burst out of the car. She looked at me and I looked at her right before I flew into the crush, pushing my way between Rex and Micah, who were already trading punches.
It would’ve been an equal fight, too, even with Jadyn still pulling at Rex’s hair, except that Rex’s friends had bull-rushed Micah, driving him off Rex, slamming him into the T-Rex Machine, whaling on him with their fists.
Someone was screaming on the fringes as I tried to pull Chance Gutherie off Micah.
“Cops! Get out of here! Copppppps!”
It was like someone had stomped on a beehive, and everyone flew for their cars and trucks. Taggert was the first one to skid out of the party in his Impala. We piled into the Camaro, and I could see Rex’s truck peeling away in front of us, kicking up dirt as several of his friends piled in the back, hanging on. Dante Rhodes’ Silverado was the last to go since it had the keg in back with a group of guys pushing it toward the back of the flatbed.
As we passed them and entered the dirt road leading away from the lake, Evie grabbed the backs of our front seats. “Pull into the trees by my car, Micah!”
“Cops’ll find us there.”
“There aren’t any cops. That was me yelling!”
I gaped as Micah said “shit” and zoomed down the road until we got to where Evie had parked the car, then stopped so suddenly that we all lurched forward. More trucks and cars zoomed past us, dirt swirling.
“Come again, Evie?” Micah asked her.
His hair was loose, like someone had ripped the band out of it, and his shirt was torn and dirty. I hated my body for responding to him. My stomach was twirling and fireworking, while my heart was blasting.
But the deepest, most feeling part of me was going a little emptier every passing moment.
Taggert, a second bet, a betrayal?
Evie sweetly shrugged. “I thought that screaming about the cops was the only way to break up the fight. It worked, didn’t it?”
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