by Chris Cannon
I called my mother’s cell and explained the situation. After assuring her I was fine, she agreed to call school. Haley’s dad called school for her once she’d taken ibuprofen and had a bag of frozen peas pressed against her shoulder.
She looked miserable. I moved my chair closer and reached for her hand. She seemed surprised, and I remembered something she said earlier. “Why would you think I was mad at you?”
“When you dropped me off, we were having fun. When you came back you didn’t want anything to do with me. What was I supposed to think?”
“I was mad, but not at you.” Even though I hadn’t planned on sharing, words flew out of my mouth. “When I went home, there was a woman in the kitchen wearing my mother’s robe.”
“Who?”
“My father’s secretary.” I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “None of the reasons I can come up with for her being there are positive.”
“Don’t assume you understand the situation,” Haley’s dad said.
I hadn’t realized he was still in the room. “Why else would she be there?”
“I don’t know but neither do you. Better to ask than make an ass of yourself.” With that parting shot, he walked out the front door.
Just when I was starting to like the guy.
…
Haley
This was turning out to be one of the weirdest days ever. Given recent events in my life, that was saying something. Bryce sitting in my kitchen holding my hand and being concerned for my well-being was nice.
Then there was the whole secretary in his kitchen issue. I wanted to help him, but didn’t know how. “Maybe you should call your dad. Pretend you have a question about your car and see how he responds.”
Bryce shook his head. “I’m not supposed to bother him at work. We have a call-only-if-the–house-is-on-fire rule.”
“That’s one warm fuzzy relationship you have with your father.”
He stared out the kitchen window. A muscle in his jaw twitched. “My father doesn’t do warm and fuzzy. He prefers an authoritarian regime.”
I squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry. That sounds like it sucks.”
He gave a self-deprecating laugh. “The money balances things out.”
Liar.
His phone buzzed. I imagined it would be someone from school checking up on us.
Bryce texted one handed. “I’m telling Nathan what happened. Jane keeps texting him with questions because you don’t have a cell phone. He’s stunned by that fact.”
I would’ve rolled my eyes, but suddenly I was exhausted. The adrenaline from the close call with the deer was wearing off, and my eyelids weighed a ton. And crap, I was supposed to go feed the animals at the shelter tonight.
“Can I borrow your phone?”
Bryce handed his cell to me and I dialed Deena explaining I wouldn’t make it tonight. She was okay with that and wished me a speedy recovery. After I hung up, Bryce’s phone buzzed. It was a text from Nathan. I handed it back to him without reading it, because I didn’t want to be too nosy. Okay I was dying to read it, but I didn’t.
Bryce scrolled down the screen. “Jane is coming over here after dinner and she’s bringing you a chocolate mall.” He set his phone down on the table. “What’s a chocolate mall?”
It took a moment for my brain to interpret the message. “Malt, she must mean a malt. Whenever one of us is depressed or sick the other one brings ice cream.”
“You’ve been complaining you’re cold, why would you want ice cream?”
“Ice cream is good any time of year. If it makes me cold, I’ll cover up with a blanket.” Covering up with a blanket sounded like heaven. “Would you sit on the couch with me for a little bit?”
His gaze traveled to the door my father exited through. “Sure.”
I led him into the main floor family room, because my dad had a rule about my brothers not taking girls into the basement living room. Even though I’d never tried taking anyone male into the basement, I figured the rule went double for me.
The scuffed brown leather couch had seen better days, but it was the most comfortable piece of furniture in the house. Would any of the furniture in Bryce’s house be less than perfect? Probably not.
I let him sit first. Being diplomatic, he chose the middle. I sat next to him and leaned against him. When he didn’t scoot away, I lifted his arm and put it around my shoulders for warmth.
He sighed as if he were irritated or in great pain. Okay. I could take a hint. I moved out from under his arm and scooted away from him. And at that moment, I didn’t need or want a boyfriend. “This was a bad idea. You should go.”
“Haley.”
“What?” I pretended to pick a thread on the sleeve of my blouse.
“I was joking.”
“Oh.” A wave of relief crashed over me, even though I wasn’t sure I believed him. Not wanting to give him a second chance to reject me, I picked up the remote and turned on the television, flipping past several soap operas and landing on a game show.
Bryce cleared his throat to get my attention. He was holding out his hand. I smacked the remote into his palm. “See what you can find.”
A strange look crossed his face. “I wasn’t asking for the remote, I was inviting you to come back over here.”
A smarter female would have said, “I’m good.” But, against my better judgment, I scooted back over. He lifted his arm and I leaned against him laying my head on his shoulder. His body heat warmed me from the inside out. Tense muscles in my back and neck relaxed. I inhaled his scent, a combination of dryer sheets and whatever antiperspirant he used. Even though he wasn’t my real boyfriend, this felt right.
For the moment, life was good.
…
Bryce
How had I gotten myself into this mess? Why had I invited her to come closer? I flipped channels on the antique television while Haley used me as a pillow. Ignoring the television, I studied her. The corners of her mouth turned up in a small smile while she slept molded against me. Strange how someone so small could cause so much trouble in my life.
Why did she want to be with me? At first it was about saving her reputation. But lately, I’d caught glimpses of real emotions. That scared the hell out of me.
We didn’t do emotions in my family. My father didn’t give hugs, he gave gifts. In the short time I’d known Haley, I’d seen her father hug her several times. Maybe it was because she was a girl. I doubt he hugged her brothers.
Haley shifted and wriggled against me. That was distracting. Her scent drifted up to me, some type of flower. I’d never admit it, but sitting here with her was nice. I had no business noticing how she smelled, because the truth was I hadn’t been joking when I’d sighed.
The last thing I had wanted to do was cuddle with Haley on a couch, thirty feet from the front door where her father and two overprotective brothers could enter the room at any time. I had hoped she’d take the hint and tell me to leave.
When I’d sighed, her entire body had gone rigid and then she’d seemed to wilt. After distancing herself from me, she’d pulled it back together and told me to go. Had I been smarter, I would’ve taken the offer. But I’d seen the look of disappointment on her face as she’d moved away, and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave. So, I’d lied and said I was joking.
It was cute, the way she’d pretended not to care, but I’d seen the way her face lit up when I’d asked her to come back. Why had I done that? I wasn’t in this for the long hall. One week down and two to go until I was free to date the kind of girls I wanted to date. Girls who knew the score. Girls who were in it for a good time and didn’t expect anything beyond whatever happened that night.
I heard a snuffling sound and checked the room for three-legged dogs. No animals in sight. I heard the sound again, and realized Haley was snoring. A slow intake of breath and then a small snuffling sound. The fact that I found this cute set alarm bells off in my head.
Meowowow.
That was not
Haley.
A gray cat who looked like Frankenstein strolled into the room. He glared at me like I was intruding on his territory. The glare was less effective with only one eye. Still I got the message. He didn’t know who I was, and he didn’t trust me.
“Right back at you,” I muttered.
The cat turned his back on me, licked his paw, and then for some strange reason tried to shove it in his ear. Was that normal cat behavior, or had losing an eye and a quarter of his skull made the cat crazy? Who knew? This entire situation was off.
Why wasn’t there anything on television, and why did Haley’s family have so few channels? There were no movie channels, but there were plenty of soap operas and infomercials. I found a sports channel featuring a sharpshooting competition, and decided it was better than nothing.
Since no one was there to see me, I studied my surroundings. The living room I sat in consisted of the couch, two recliners, and a wooden chest upon which a giant television sat. Giant in size, it was easily three feet deep. Had her parents never heard of a flat screen? I didn’t know TVs like this still worked. The black duct tape on the armrest of the nearest chair would give my mother’s decorator a coronary.
Still, there was something warm about Haley’s house. It felt lived in. There were rooms in my house, and wings in Nathan’s house, where the only person who entered them was the maid. Once, Nathan had managed to hide a box of fireworks in one of the spare dining rooms for a week before anyone had noticed.
The warmth of Haley’s body and the lack of interesting television proved a fatal combination. My eyes kept drifting shut. Maybe I should go. Then again, I didn’t know what I’d find when I returned home. Giving in, I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. What was the worst that could happen?
Chapter Twelve
Haley
“What’s he doing here?”
“Matt?” I opened my eyes to discover my brothers glaring down at me. Well technically, me and Bryce.
“I said, what’s he—”
“We heard you the first time,” Bryce said midyawn.
I smiled up at him. “You fell asleep, too?”
“Obviously. What time is it?” He checked his cell.
“Is anyone going to answer my question?” Matt looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel.
Like I needed this crap right now. I sat up and moved a respectable distance away from Bryce to appease my brother. “Here’s the short version. We almost hit a deer. I hurt my shoulder. Bryce brought me home. Dad checked my shoulder. Then we sat on the couch and fell asleep. Dad knows he’s here, so you can back off.”
“You’re fine now, so he can leave.”
I ignored my brother and spoke to Bryce. “Want to stay for dinner to piss Matt off?”
He laughed and ran his hand through his hair. “Tempting, but maybe some other time.”
Matt stomped off. Charlie gave me the you’re-an-idiot look.
Whatever. There was a more important issue at hand. My mouth tasted like week old peanut butter and jelly. I needed a quick route to fresh breath.
“Want a Coke for the road?” I asked.
“Sure.” He followed me into the kitchen. I grabbed two sodas from the fridge and passed him one. After downing a third of the can, I felt like the carbonation and citric acid had burned away any lingering nap breath.
“I’ll walk you out.” I gestured toward the front door. Bryce opened his mouth to say something.
Then he nodded. “Fine.”
“Thanks for sticking around this afternoon.”
He laughed. “It’s my fault you’re hurt, and you’re thanking me?”
“More for what happened after the accident than before. You could have dropped me off and run away.”
“No. I couldn’t.”
We made our way outside to his Mustang. Pressing the issue, I followed him around the car to the driver’s side door. A flashing neon light saying KISS ME, would’ve been more subtle, but I didn’t care. It felt like we were on the brink of a nonfake relationship. If I wanted this to be real, I had to make the first move.
His back was to the house, so I improvised. “My brothers are idiots.”
He moved to turn around. I grabbed his arm. “No. Don’t look. I don’t want to give them the satisfaction of knowing they annoy me.” Plus, they’re not really there.
Moving closer, I said, “I understand if you say no, but would you kiss me to get back at them?”
There was less than an inch between our bodies. I reached up and threaded my fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck. “It’s for a good cause.” Going for it, I leaned against him.
He leaned down. The warmth of his breath brushed across my lips. A shiver ran down my spine. His lips moved against mine and—
Honk. Honk.
Startled, I jumped back from Bryce and looked for the source of the noise. My dad stood next to his truck, hand on the center of the steering wheel, and his eyes fixed like lasers on Bryce.
“I should go.” Bryce leaned down and pressed his lips to mine for an instant and then climbed into his car.
I stepped back and watched him drive away. He’d kissed me. All on his own. Okay, maybe standing up to my dad had been part of it, but still.
“Cocky little bastard.” My dad shoved two pizza boxes at me. “Take these in. There’s more in the truck.”
…
Haley
Dinner was a lovely event where my brothers glared at me, my mom interrogated me, and my dad lectured me about car safety. The fact that I hadn’t been the one driving the car didn’t seem to make a difference.
“You were lucky today.” Dad dipped a bread stick in marinara sauce. “I’m surprised his air bags didn’t go off.”
“We weren’t going that fast.” I picked the onions off my pizza. “If I’d put my hands on the dash, my shoulder wouldn’t have been hurt as bad.”
“Weren’t you paying attention?” Mom asked.
“Yes, I was paying attention. I’m the one who saw the deer bound into the road. I’m the one who warned Bryce.” Why hadn’t I braced myself? Because I thought we were going to hit the deer. Leaning closer for a better view of the carnage wasn’t an option.
“You should never have left school in the first place,” my mom snapped.
“I told you, my shirt was wet. I needed new clothes and a shower.”
“And what if your father hadn’t been here?” My mom pushed away from the table and crossed her arms over her chest. “What would have happened then?”
“The same thing that did happen. He would’ve dropped me off and gone home to change.”
My dad reached over and placed a hand on my mom’s shoulder. “Enough. Now, isn’t the time.”
“How do you know?” Mom asked.
It was like they were talking in code. What was going on? I checked my brothers’ faces. They were as clueless as I was.
Dad sighed. “Bryce could’ve dumped her off at the door. He didn’t. He came inside to make sure she was okay.”
He had. Hadn’t he?
My father’s words calmed my mother and the loaded questions stopped. She’d always trusted me to be smart. I didn’t understand why the idea of me dating Bryce upset her so much.
Ding-dong. I hopped up to answer the doorbell. Jane came in carrying a cardboard tray. “I brought dessert.” Her smile dimmed as she took in the vibe of the room. “I’ll put these in the freezer for whenever you’re ready.” She shoved four cups in the freezer, kept two for us, and headed toward my room.
Once my door was shut and locked, Jane pointed back the direction we came. “What was that about?”
I took a big sip of my chocolate malt. It was cold, sweet, and wonderful. “I don’t know.” I gave her a summary of my mom’s accusations.
“Your mom thought you and Bryce skipped school to hook up?” Jane plopped down on my bed.
I had too much pent-up energy to sit. Pacing back and forth, I reflected on my mom’s weird qu
estions. “Why would she think that?”
“Bryce is hot.” Jane grinned. “Not as hot as Nathan, of course, but still. Maybe she thought you’d be overcome with lust.”
Not a stretch of the imagination in my fantasy world. In the real world, I had a better grip on the situation. I joined Jane on the bed, sitting with my back against the wall. “It sucks that she doesn’t have any faith in me.”
“Maybe one of her friends in high school did something stupid and lived to regret it. She doesn’t want you hurt.”
…
Bryce
I drove home slowly, watching out for animals trying to commit suicide by Mustang. Besides the occasional bug splatting against my windshield the coast was clear. Keeping my guard up, I thought about Haley, specifically the way she’d looked at me when she’d asked me to kiss her.
Sure she’d wanted me to kiss her to piss off her brothers, but there’d been more to it than that. There was a spark and then a slow burn. The way she’d run her fingers through my hair and leaned against me…I’d wanted to kiss her.
Never saw that coming.
She wasn’t anything like the girls I normally went for. Maybe what I felt was curiosity. It was novel to have an honor student interested in me, someone who had opinions and voiced them, loudly, rather than agreeing with everything I said.
My cell rang through the car stereo. Nathan’s name scrolled across the console. I hit the button to answer.
“What’s up?”
“I wanted to give you fair warning there’s a rumor going around about you and Haley.”
“Great.”
“People are saying you staged the soda explosion so you could leave school and hook up.”
The rumor was so dumb, I laughed. I filled him in on everything that had happened after I texted him, including kissing Haley.
“Did you actually see her brother’s watching you when she asked you to kiss her?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“I bet you her brothers were nowhere in sight and she said that to manipulate you into kissing her.”
Interesting. I should’ve been mad she tricked me, but the fact that she’d gone to so much trouble was flattering. Plenty of girls flashed cleavage at me. I’d never had a girl who schemed her way into kissing me. I guess Haley was going with her strengths. In a way, it was impressive.