T is for...he's a TOTAL jerk (Grover Beach Team #3)

by Piper Shelly

  “See you in a minute,” I replied, remaining rooted to the top of the stairs.

  Tony brushed past Cloey. I couldn’t see his face, but the way Cloey’s eyes moved to his, I guessed the two of them had locked gazes for the length of a breath. Then I heard him say in a cold voice, “Interesting change, Summers.” He must have meant her hair.

  When Tony was gone and I was alone with my cousin in the hallway, I got the full blast of her lethal scowl. “Are you crazy? Bringing Mit—”

  “Excuse me, Cloey,” I cut her off, “but I don’t have time for this shit.” I knew where this would go, and right now I’d rather get under the shower and ready to see Tony again instead of taking ridiculous jealousy crap from her. With one hand on the rail, I continued up the stairs, taking two at a time, and left her standing in the hallway.

  I showered in record time and slipped into the rusty red and brown camouflage pants that I had worn on my first night out in Grover Beach. It was warm enough, so a black T-shirt with a typed winking smiley face on the front made the top.

  Leaving the laces of my boots untied as usual, I quickly packed my sketchpad and some pencils into my backpack, then I sneaked out of my room, checking both sides of the hallway to make sure I wouldn’t bump into Cloey again. She was nowhere in sight. But downstairs, Pamela caught me tiptoeing past the living room. She came to the door and gave me a knowing smile.

  “That was Anthony Mitchell, right?” she said in a low voice.

  I nodded.

  “Things have changed between him and you then?”

  I nodded again.

  “That’s great. I’m really happy for you, Sam.”

  “Cloey isn’t. She’ll hate me forever.”

  Pamela sighed, pursing her lips. “I’ll talk to her about it.”

  “No, please don’t,” I begged my aunt and took her hands. “She already thinks I’m trying to steal you from her. Let this be between her and me. We’ll get this sorted out…somehow.”

  Pam looked at me as though she hadn’t had any idea of what was going on between me and Cloey, but I knew she had noticed it from the start. “Okay.”

  “Thanks, Pam.” Releasing her hands, I walked to the door.

  Pamela walked with me. “Where are you two going?”

  “I have no idea,” I whined. “He won’t tell.”

  “Don’t be home too late. It’s a school night.”

  “I won’t be.” Hopefully. The truth was I had no idea when Tony intended to bring me back.

  With a wave over my shoulder, I walked outside and closed the door. There was no red car in our drive this time, but Tony sat on a metallic-green mountain bike, leaning his forearms on the handlebar.

  “Do you have a bike?” he asked me. When I shook my head, he grimaced. “I guessed so. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take my mom’s car today, so you’ll have to hop onto here.” Tony straightened and tapped at the handlebar.

  My mouth fell open. “You’re kidding me.”

  “It’s a bit of a way. Too far to walk. So buck up, Summers, and get your butt up here.” He smirked, reached over, and grabbed my hand, leaving me no choice as he pulled me forward. Steadying the bike, he let me climb onto the handlebar, which wasn’t as easy as they always make it look in films, and pulled my backpack from my shoulders to carry it during the ride. When I sat with my feet dangling but anchored with an iron grip around the cold metal, he slowly pushed forward and started to pedal, cycling down the street.

  We gained speed. This was scary as hell. A shaky whine escaped me.

  “Relax. I’ve done this a hundred times.” His nose brushed my hair—or maybe it was my hair wafting into his face from the ride—as he said the soft words into my ear.

  “You might have, but I haven’t,” I croaked. My palms started to sweat, giving me the feeling of losing my hold. “How far do we have to go?”

  “Just out of town. About three miles.”

  Tony had to stand for the entire ten-minute ride, because I would have blocked his view if he sat. As the road turned slightly uphill and he had to step even harder into the pedals, he placed his forehead on my left shoulder, and I could not only hear his strained breathing but also feel it through the fabric of my shirt.

  The lines of houses finally faded away at our sides, replaced by juicy green lowlands. A wonderfully fresh smell wafted around us, but I wondered what he wanted out here, where there was nothing but grass, trees, and an occasional house every few hundred meters.

  A white split rail fence to our right hedged a wide area with a handful of horses in it. The dark animals were beautiful. I watched them grazing in the warm afternoon sun and didn’t notice that Tony had slowed down until we suddenly stopped at one corner of the fence. A trail led away from the road, following the pasture up to a nice little property.

  “Get off. We have to walk from here,” Tony said to me. “The path is too bumpy with you on the handlebar.”

  I jumped off his bike and turned around to face him with a questioning look. “Do you know the people who live here?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And we’re going to visit them?”

  “Not them. But the horses.” Tony leaned his bike against the white fence and started walking toward the house. “You said you needed a live model. So…ta-da.” He sort of sang the last word as he spread his arms like he was presenting me with this paddock and the horses in it.

  I smiled. “I never thought I’d actually ever say this, but you’re amazing, Anthony Mitchell.” The urge to hug him rose within me, but I resisted and skipped ahead of him, whistling with two fingers to get the nearest horse’s attention.

  It was a gorgeous black stallion with one white hind leg and a blaze in the shape of a sword on its forehead. Tearing out a handful of grass near the hedge and holding it out, I lured the animal closer. The stallion caught the grass between his lips then gave my shoulder a nudge that pushed me a couple of steps backward. He hadn’t looked as tall from the distance.

  “Who lives here?” I demanded, following Tony up the path and leaving the horse behind. “A friend of yours?”

  “Not a friend. Family. And you know her.”

  “Her?” I frowned. How would I know any of his relatives? But then it dawned on me. “Miss Jackson?”

  “Yep. This is my aunt’s land.” His voice was a little strained. He climbed over the iron barrier close to the nice white house with its dark gray roof and broad windows facing the paddock. “She’s been breeding horses for as long as I can remember.”

  Unlike Tony, I didn’t climb over, but ducked through the two metal bars parallel to the ground. “You sure she doesn’t mind me coming here with you?”

  Tony waited until I straightened again. “I called her this morning. She’s happy to help you with your AVE project and thought it was a wonderful idea. Hopefully, this’ll help me get an A in her class this year.”

  That surprised me. “Your drawings are brilliant!” I bit my tongue and quickly corrected myself, trying to sound less enthusiastic. “Well, they’re very nice, actually. She doesn’t have a choice but to give you an A.”

  “With my aunt being my teacher? You have no idea how hard she goes on me. It’s totally unfair. Like I have to do everything three times as good as others just to get the same grades.”

  “She probably knows that you have it in you and wants to coax it out that way. I think that’s adorable of her.”

  Tony cut me a stern glance. “You wouldn’t say that if she was your aunt.” Then he rang the bell and we waited in front of the dark brown door to be welcomed.

  Miss Jackson opened the door only half a minute later, her smile widening when she saw us. Just like he had done with Jessie Hunter, Tony kissed his aunt on the cheek as he greeted her. It was lovely to watch him when he cared to show his good manners.

  Miss Jackson then shook my hand enthusiastically. “Samantha. It’s so nice to have you out here. Tony told me about your struggles with drawing a horse from memory. I’m sure
you’ll find it easy with one of the breeds in the paddock.”

  I thanked her for the invitation and the opportunity, then I happily followed Tony across the yard to a romantic place behind the house.

  An overburdened apple tree grew in the middle of a meadow next to the pasture. Several fruits lay on the ground, but most of them still hung on the branches. I settled down in its shade with my back against the tree, breathing in the intense smell of leaves and fruits. Tony handed me my backpack with my drawing utensils. I placed my sketchpad against my thighs, the pencil clasped tightly, and couldn’t wait to get started. There was only one problem. “The horses are too far away.”

  Tony, who had just lain down in the soft grass, blinked at me. He sure knew what I wanted from him. “All right,” he moaned and jerked up again, strolling over to the fence. He put two fingers of each hand in his mouth and whistled so loudly that I flinched. Like I had done before, he then ripped some grass from the ground and waved it at eye level of the nearest horse that had lifted its head at his signal. The brown animal stalked closer, ate the grass, then dipped its head down and started grazing next to the fence.

  Tony turned to me. “Happy?”

  I gave him a sheepish look, shaking my head. “The black one?”

  “Argh, Summers! Seriously?”

  A smile tugged at my lips as I nodded.

  “Fine.” Rolling his eyes, he trudged away. A little later, he came back along the inside of the paddock’s fence, leading the gorgeous stallion on a dark blue halter that the animal hadn’t been wearing before. Tony obviously knew his way around this property and around the horses.

  “I’m impressed,” I admitted as he came and sat down beside me.

  Tony raised his brows at my empty paper and taunted me, “You should be working.”

  With a happy smile on my lips, I started outlining the body of the horse with a few simple sketches, continuously looking up at the model. When the skeletal structure was finished, I began adding layer after layer, shaping the horse into a moving animal. But soon I faced a different problem.

  Tony must have noticed my concern when I started chewing on my pencil instead of using it on the paper. “What’s up?” he demanded.

  “The horse isn’t moving. I can’t finish this if it stands still like a rock.” I turned a pleading look at him. “Do you think you could make it move somehow?”

  He shrugged and rose to his feet. “I can try.” On the way over to the black stallion, he picked up an apple and then swayed it in front of the animal’s mouth. When the horse strained its neck to catch the fruit, Tony pulled his hand away and walked a few steps to the left. He climbed onto the split rail fence and straddled the top batten. “Come here, horsey, horsey, horsey.”

  The stallion cocked his ears but otherwise didn’t move.

  “It isn’t a cat,” I told Tony, quirking my brows in disbelief.

  He grunted, hopped down, and walked back to the horse, teasing it with the fruit once more. “You want this yummy apple?” Then he tossed it as far as he could. “Go get it!”

  I giggled. “And it sure as hell isn’t a dog!”

  “Really, Miss Summers? Then tell me, what’s your plan to improve this situation?” His voice was saccharin sweet.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. Walk it?”

  Tony heaved a sigh, deliberating. “You’re insane, Summers.” Nevertheless, he grabbed the blue halter and marched off with the stallion in tow. Man and horse walked back and forth a few times while I made changes to my drawing.

  “Faster!” I shouted.

  Tony started to jog, the stallion trotting beside him.

  I let them run for some minutes, then tried again, “Think you can go a little faster still?”

  “No, I don’t think I can, Sam,” Tony gasped, letting go of the horse and bending over, hands braced on his knees. His hair in a sweaty mess, he turned his face to me.

  His blue eyes shone in the bright light, his cheeks had turned red, and he bit his bottom lip. He looked gorgeous, just like that day when I had gone to his house to get his notes.

  The corners of his mouth went up slightly which made me return a shy smile of my own.

  And there I realized with shocking clarity that I was falling for this guy.

  CHAPTER 13

  Tony left the horse. As he made his way to me, he fished for his cell phone in his pocket and keyed in a number. “Hey…Samantha needs more action. Could you come out and run the horse?...Okay.” Tucking the cell back into his pocket, he grinned. “Plan B is in motion.”

  Plan B actually arrived three minutes later with a lunge line and a crop. Miss Jackson smiled and asked me which horse she should train for my drawing. I pointed the black stallion out to her.

  “Oh yes, Jostle is the pride of my breeding. Let’s see if he’s up for some activity today.” She cinched the lunge line to his halter and led him away from the fence where the stallion had been rubbing his neck with pleasure.

  After giving him a few minutes to get adjusted to the lunging, Miss Jackson had him trotting and then galloping in a wide circle. It was beautiful. The stallion moved gracefully, the power beneath his smooth, shiny coat visible.

  “I don’t think Carry can make the horse run all day, so you’d better start drawing,” Tony said as he sank to the grass next to me and broke my fascination with Jostle’s fluid movements.

  I pulled a lollipop from my pocket, unwrapped it, then stuck it in my mouth and started to finalize my picture with swift pencil strokes. Tony watched and sometimes gave me good advice. He had a fantastic eye for detail, light and shadow especially, and he made me correct every line that was misplaced, even by just a millimeter.

  “You sound like you’ve drawn many horses in your life,” I mumbled around the candy in my mouth.

  “Some,” he replied quietly. “When I was younger, I often came out here to draw. Carry didn’t mind. Some of my pictures still decorate the inside of her house.”

  “Did she also teach you how to put a halter onto a horse?”

  “Yeah. She wanted to give me riding lessons, too.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m really not a horse person.”

  Concentrating on the left front leg and the accurate size of the hoof now, I squinted. “Riding lessons sound good. I would have loved to have my own horse.”

  “Carry gives lessons for kids. Her husband died a long time ago. Now she takes in a bunch of kids every summer to teach them how to handle horses, and also draw, if they’re interested.”

  “Wow.” I erased a misplaced stroke, wiped the rubber dust away with the back of my fingers, and blew on the picture to get it clean. “That’s really nice of her.”

  Tony’s shrug caught the corner of my eye. He crossed his arms behind his head and leaned against the tree trunk, gazing into the sun. “The house is big enough. Liza and I stayed over often as well. She’s afraid of riding, but she loved to groom the horses and braid their manes.”

  I hadn’t expected him to mention Liza in front of me, but since he had, I deliberated if I could probe his relationship with her some more. “Susan said you’re still in love with Liza. Is it true?”

  Even without looking up, I felt how Tony tensed beside me. I lifted my head and found him staring blankly at my face.

  “Too personal, Summers.”

  Of course. I bit my lip and lowered my gaze back at my drawing, but his shocked expression haunted me. He thought I didn’t know? Or did it bother him that I did? And what a stupid question was it anyway? Like I hadn’t known he was going to block me.

  Like I had hoped he would say no…

  Dream on, Sam. He’s not interested in you.

  Tony was nice to me now, and I should be happy about it. There would never be anything more. Because even if his jibes had turned into a playful taunting, I wasn’t his type. That simple.

  I suppressed a sigh, chewing on the smooth plastic lollipop stick. It was okay, I told myself. He didn’t have to find me attractive or sweet or whatever.
Because I wouldn’t fall for him either. Mentally, I shrugged it off. It wasn’t too late for me to get out of this. I’d just refuse to develop any stronger feelings for him.

  Fortunately for me, my plan worked. I turned all my attention back to the project I had to finish. After a long moment, Tony continued to tell me about his visits at his aunt’s place, which I was glad about. He didn’t hold my getting too personal against me.

  “Right over there in the woods”—he nodded to my left—“is a place where we used to hang out a lot. When I came here alone, I often went there to draw the landscape. Only I turned it into a fairy woodland, with trolls and leprechauns peeking out from behind rocks, or little elves sitting on buttercups. I could get really imaginative there.”

  “That must be an awesome place.” I looked at him sideways. “Would you mind showing it to me when we’re done here?”

  Tony nodded. “If the weather holds out.”

  Turning the other way, I saw the dark clouds he meant. They sneaked toward us, promising rain later today. Nothing to worry about. I would be done with my picture in a few minutes anyway.

  Some more pencil strokes with Tony’s instructions and soon I had a beautiful picture of a horse racing across the meadows, leaving rocks and bushes behind. It was perfect; the best drawing I had done in a long time.

  “I have some great material about how to draw a body from the skeletal structure until the last layer of skin on my computer. If you like, I can email it to you later,” Tony offered as I added the date and my signature at the bottom of the picture.

  “Sure.” I ripped a small piece of paper from my sketchbook and scribbled my email address on it.

  “Sammy-dot-Smmrs?” Tony read out loud then arched one amused brow. “Does anyone really call you Sammy?”

  “My mom does. And sometimes my aunt does, too.” I put the drawing into the folder and placed it next to my feet on the grass. Then I turned a provocative grin to him. “You don’t think it fits me?”

  He looked at me for a moment as though he wanted to say something silly like, ‘That’s the right name for a Golden Retriever’. He thought better of it. “Whatever I’m going to say now probably won’t do me any good.”