by Rachel Jonas
Mom interlocked her fingers with his and the gesture seemed to calm him right away.
Nick extended his hand to shake my father’s. For a second, Dad let it linger in the air, unreciprocated, but then he gripped Nick tight, maintaining the hard stare.
“Nick, right?” Dad asked, staring down his nose at him. But, considering Nick was the tallest thing in the house, it was more like staring up his nose at him.
I wanted to crawl under a rock. This was so unnecessary.
Nick gave a nod. “Yes, sir. It’s nice meeting you.”
All my father did was nod. Never smiling. Never taking any extra steps to make our guest feel even remotely welcome. I was reminded of how Mrs. Stokes made me feel at the game—like I was some kind of side-show freak. It wasn’t a pleasant experience and I wouldn’t let my dad make Nick feel as uncomfortable as I did.
“Be back later.” With the clearly dismissive goodbye, I breezed past my parents and grabbed Nick by his arm, feeling smooth, warm skin on my fingertips as I pulled him toward the porch steps. Toward freedom.
“Oh! Evie, don’t forget your things,” Mom called from behind, forcing me to double back for the beach bag filled with snacks and Nick’s gift. I was in such a rush to get away from my dad’s tough-guy routine, I nearly left it behind.
“Be good,” Dad whispered through clenched teeth, as if I wasn’t always a good girl.
Mostly.
“Don’t be weird,” I whispered back, leaving a pink lip print on his dark skin when I kissed him. He gave a weary smile when I turned to go back to Nick.
I rejoined him on the walkway and then we crossed my yard to his, stopping at the circular drive in front of his house. We were taking a shiny, black pickup I wasn’t sure belonged to him. However, once inside, a SFFD lanyard with an ID attached that read ‘Richard Stokes’ answered my question; the truck belonged to Nick’s brother, Richie.
We shifted into drive and rounded toward the street, but, before we pulled off all the way, I caught sight of a dark shadow, a figure standing in an upstairs window of Nick’s house. His mother. And she didn’t look happy. In fact, she looked so unhappy, I coined a new term for that expression: anti-happy.
She made me super uncomfortable. Last night. Now, too. I had no idea what her issue was with me and Nick hanging out, but it was clear she didn’t approve.
We moved down the street and, with the house now out of sight, it was easy to put thoughts of Mrs. Stokes behind me.
“You must have one generous brother,” I chuckled, flicking the lanyard hanging from the rearview mirror. Nick’s eyes went there and he smiled.
“Eh… he can be cool when he wants to be. He only let me borrow it because today’s my birthday.”
I had to pretend to be surprised. “Is it really? Well… happy birthday!”
I was pretty sure I laid it on a little too thick, but I couldn’t exactly get a redo.
Nick smiled. “Yup, finally eighteen. A legal adult,” he added, hitting me with that gorgeous smile. “Too bad my family didn’t get the memo.”
My eyes went to him then. “Hard being the youngest?” As an only child, I had no idea what that was like.
He shrugged. “Has its perks and its drawbacks. Same as anything else, I guess. One thing’s for sure; anyone who knows my last name doesn’t mess with me. My brothers had quite the reputation growing up around here.”
I assumed he meant they got in their share of fights, their share of trouble; however, I was pretty sure people not messing with Nick had nothing to do with his last name.
At the thought, I surveyed him in my peripheral. He was beautiful and, clearly, a force to be reckoned with all on his own; brothers or no brothers. His heavily muscled arms were bare, with nothing more than a tight-fitting tank covering his upper half. Beneath it, hard ridges, impressive peaks and valleys marked the landscape of his physique.
Wetting my lips, I looked away, finding something else to focus on.
I glanced at the ID again. “Richie’s a firefighter?”
Nick nodded. “Yeah, for a few years now.”
“That’s pretty cool. Planning to follow in his footsteps or should I expect to see you reach pro football status?” I grinned a little, imagining him in both uniforms.
Nick’s smile turned shy and his cheeks reddened. “I’d say I’m undecided, but my athletic scholarships kind of made the decision for me.”
Most guys would’ve been over the moon to have colleges clamoring to lay claim to them, but not Nick. There was a look of longing in his eyes, leaving me with the feeling that a life of football might not be his dream like I assumed.
“Is there something else you’d rather do?” I asked.
The look Nick wore became more visible, as if he didn’t work as hard to hide it since I’d already seen what lie beneath.
He shrugged. “I don’t know… I can’t even say I’ve ever given it much thought. Football’s just kind of always been there, you know? Since I was a kid. Because I was bigger and faster than the other kids, I got moved up from one skill class to the next and, I don’t know, I guess I let people push it on me. It’s kind of my fault for not speaking up.”
My chest rose and fell when I breathed deep, listening to the message beneath the words. “You wanted more,” I said.
He seemed to think about that for a moment, and then answered. “I did. I do,” he clarified. “But sometimes, when you’re good at a thing, people assume that’s all you are.”
I didn’t think that and I hadn’t even known him very long. He was more than just an incredible athlete. He was smart and funny and kind.
“I’ve just always had this feeling that I have a bigger purpose in this world than running the ball,” he shared, and I believed him.
There was a quiet moment and I imagined he was reflecting on the finality of it all. From the sound of it, his path was already laid and there was nothing to do but prepare for the inevitable.
“Where are your scholarships to?” I asked.
“U of M and Michigan State are at the top of the list because I’d be closer to home, but there were also offers from Penn State and Virginia Tech as well.”
I was impressed, but didn’t feel as excited for him as I would have if I thought this was even remotely what he wanted.
“What about you? What are your post-graduation plans?”
My answer, lately, had been one catty version or the next of the same statement—I planned to head back to Chicago. Home.
However, that response didn’t come so swiftly now. Not as I sat beside Nick, inhaling him as we drove in the hot truck, our arms touching on the center console. No, that wasn’t the answer I wanted to give him.
“Haven’t quite decided yet,” was what I came up with instead. For some reason, around him, I didn’t want to talk about leaving or ending things or change.
“Well, if I can give you any advice based on my own decisions, it would be: don’t rush. I know the clock is winding down to graduation, but… take all the time you need. This is your life,” he added. “You’ve gotta live it for yourself.”
Those words stuck with me, hung heavy in my thoughts for a while. It was the soft lull of a song on the radio that brought me to the here and now. At that exact moment, Nick turned it up just a little and I noticed how his eyes subtly glanced over toward me whenever they weren’t on the road. I was too scared to meet his gaze, though. Whenever I did, my stomach tossed and turned, my head got cloudy, and my heart raced a mile a minute. And the last thing I needed was more clouds in my head.
But that was easier said than done. Everything about him made everything about me piping hot. Inside. Out. All over.
Taking a deep breath, I sucked in nothing but thick, humid air, reminding me of one of those sweltering days you expect in the middle of July. Not in late September. It made for the perfect day for a swim, though—a small favor before the cold set in.
The truck dipped and bobbed its way over the bumpy, dirt road that led
to the falls. Cars and trucks of varying color and newness lined the water’s edge. Already, a good thirty people had arrived. The grill was fired up with smoke billowing from the vented lid. Someone had even gone to the trouble of decorating the picnic blankets spaced apart on the grass—each with long strings stretching toward a bundle of balloons floating above. Confetti that had been tossed onto the soft pallets sparkled in the sunlight. All against a backdrop of the thousands of gallons of water flowing over the cusp of the dam.
Nick was right, the concrete behind it was vastly different from what you’d see in nature, but there was still something captivating and majestic about it.
Beside me, a dark brow knitted together as confusion spread across Nick’s face. His eyes scanned the setup his friends had gone through the trouble of arranging.
“Okay, so… there’s a slight chance I already knew today was your birthday,” I admitted with a grin.
He was clearly under the impression that this visit to the falls would be just like the trip he and his friends had taken to the reservoir a few miles up the hill last weekend. But he was wrong. This was all about him and it said a lot about his friends that they didn’t let this day pass without acknowledging it.
Nick’s head lowered and his face turned even redder as he smiled.
“…I got you something,” I forced out. Now was probably the best time to give him his gift. That way, if he didn’t like it, there was no one else around to witness this moment.
Reaching down inside the white and blue, canvas bag at my feet, I gripped the thick square covered in wrapping paper. Handing it over to Nick, he didn’t waste time tearing it open. And when he finished, I held my breath.
He didn’t speak right away, so I became nervous, explaining why I chose this particular gift. “I had no idea what to get you, but we talk a lot about the weather patterns and everything, so I just thought—”
“It’s perfect,” he cut in, scanning the back cover of a really cool almanac I found at a bookstore in town. It dated back to the 1800s, so I thought it’d be neat to do a side-by-side comparison of weather patterns back then, versus now.
My face was warm and not just because of the day’s heat. I was so nervous he’d think it was lame and just pretend to like it so he didn’t hurt my feelings. However, the look of genuine interest on his face right now said otherwise.
“I can’t believe you all did this.”
“It was more your friends’ doing than mine. They just let me in on it so I wouldn’t look like a chump when I showed up empty handed,” I clarified, laughing. They deserved all the credit.
Seeing all of them out there together—some already in the water, some sitting around listening to music, all happy—it reminded me of Chicago; of long, summer afternoons spent at the Ohio Street Beach. For a while, I thought those days were over for me; those moments where I felt like I was a part of something bigger. However, as Beth spotted Nick and I and began waving her arms like a wild woman, gesturing for me to come join her and her friends, I felt like I might have been wrong about that.
“I guess that’s our cue,” Nick said with a smile.
I nodded, scooping my bag from between my feet before my hand touched the door handle, but I didn’t pull. Instead, warm fingers against my arm stopped me. My gaze shifted toward Nick and the two oceans in the centers of his eyes made me feel like I’d drown in them.
“I really do love this,” he reiterated, still clutching the almanac. “I wouldn’t have expected you to bother getting me anything… you know… because this thing with us is all so new.”
I held my breath, watching his lips, trying to actually listen to the words leaving them.
“But I think it’s super cool that you did,” he added.
My lids fluttered when he came close. Close enough that I smelled the natural scent of him, the aroma beneath the sunscreen and cologne. The real him. It overwhelmed me, made it difficult not to reach out and gently pull him closer. A feather-light kiss was pressed to my cheek and that spot warmed like the surface of the sun. Even after he pulled away, it lingered with me.
His lips curved up with a sweet smile and I couldn’t hold back my own. A crush was quickly turning into something else I don’t think either one of us anticipated.
He made it so easy to forget all the conflicting emotions and thoughts that came with seeing Liam, nearly snuffed out that small flame that was lit the moment I laid eyes on the familiar stranger the night before.
Nearly, but… not completely.
I cleared my throat as an uncomfortable feeling walked over my skin, something resembling a chill, but not quite. I could only guess it had something to do with allowing thoughts of Liam to creep in while I was here with Nick—the beautiful boy with sun-kissed skin who had me swooning with little more than a peck on the cheek.
It felt like we were exiting the ‘friend zone’ a little quicker than I imagined.
—
Chapter Thirteen —
Nick
She was like a candy shop—the tempting exterior luring me in, only to discover that what’s inside is even better. I felt no shame in admitting I was the greedy kid with zero willpower, the one who wanted to walk around touching and sampling. The one who didn’t want to wait until later, but wanted what he wanted right here, right now.
No patience whatsoever.
Even now, with Evie sitting several yards away with Beth and a few others, my eyes hardly left her. In fact, as I stood around the grill with the guys, drinking and talking over the loud radio, I couldn’t tell you a single word they said. It wasn’t until my name was called that I actually tuned in to listen.
“So… you’re girl’s in good with Beth?” Lucas asked with a cheesy smile, raising his eyebrow suggestively.
I shook my head at him and, naturally, shifted my gaze back toward Evie. She was laughing at something one of the girls said, tilting her head back, exposing her throat. She looked happy. Happy, but still… something else. I picked up on it as soon as I laid eyes on her when she ascended the steps to meet me at her front door. It was like, I don’t know, maybe something was troubling her.
She kept up conversation, smiled at all the right times, but still, I felt it.
“Yeah, something like that.” I answered, too distracted to elaborate.
“Think she can put in a good word for me? I’m wearing her down,” he insisted. “You freakin’ saw her with my number painted on her cheek, right?”
I nodded. Even if I hadn’t seen it, Lucas made sure to tell me about it a good fifteen or twenty times at the victory dinner.
He was staring in the same direction, but at a completely different girl, nodding as he said more. “I think Evie might be the key to Beth and I finally putting an end to this song and dance.”
Behind us, Chris snorted a laugh as the meat he just tended on the grill hissed. Lucas turned to see what was so funny.
“I’m lying?” Lucas asked. “You don’t think the face paint meant anything?”
Chris tried to settle down long enough to speak. “I think it meant she was probably sporting a #18 and part of it got rubbed off.”
I pursed my lips together to keep from laughing.
“If she hasn’t come around by now, man…” Chris paused to shake his head. “Just… move on.”
I agreed with the advice wholeheartedly, but knew Lucas would never jump ship on Beth.
Chris set the spatula down on the small stand beside the grill, looping an arm around Lucas’ neck right after, pointing a finger toward the girls. “You should aim for someone a little more your speed,” he said. “Like that brunette over there with the plaid shorts on.”
My eyes scanned the group before settling on Roz. She was the brunette in the plaid shorts. I was shaking my head before Lucas could even get that thought in his.
“Bad move,” I breathed. “She’d talk you to death and she takes nagging to a whole new level.”
When Lucas looked my way, Chris forcefully grab
bed his chin, turning his head straight again. “Don’t listen to Nick. He’s already got his situation on lock. We need to focus on you right now, man. And, if you ask me, you need to go for the brunette.”
I sipped my drink, smiling at the ill-advised suggestion.
“And… why her?” Lucas asked.
Chris had an explanation ready and waiting. “She’s young, inexperienced, and…”
“And a pain in the—”
“Focus, Luke,” Chris said, cutting me off before I could finish. “She’s cute in a… in a kid-sister kind of way.”
Lucas frowned at the analogy.
“Stay with me,” Chris said in a rush, still holding his hand out in front of him, trying to get Lucas to buy into his vision. It was more like being sold real estate than anything.
I couldn’t listen to it anymore. I knew exactly how to nail this coffin shut once and for all. I stepped forward, standing at Lucas’ other shoulder. “And the best part of it is, she’s Beth’s cousin, so maybe, after the breakup, she can put in a good word for you.”
Lucas shrugged Chris’s arm from around him. “Absolutely not. Dating her cousin would completely put me out of the running,” he explained. “I’ll just stick with the same plan I’ve always stuck to. Perseverance.”
Chris walked back to the grill, shaking his head at our best friend, the hopeless romantic.
I glanced back over at the girls, but this time not at Evie. Instead, staring at Roz. Our conversation had been floating around inside my head all night. All because of the pieces and fragments my parents dropped during their argument. Before then, I truly believed I was the only one with weird things going on, but now, I got the feeling they knew more than they were letting on.