by Alla Kar
She’d never hit me before. I’d gotten plenty of ass whoopings, but they’d always come from my dad. And they were for things like sneaking out when I turned sixteen to go to a bonfire, or taking his car without permission and crashing it. There was a part of me that knew Mom didn’t care enough to hit me. Because discipline comes from a parent that wanted to see their child succeed, and my mother didn’t give a damn what happened to me.
***
Something stirred me out of my sleep. The day had gone, and the moon shone down brightly on our house. My curtains were opened and moonbeams lit my room like they had so many times before. A deep ache of hunger set in and I groaned, dragging myself out of the bedroom.
The house was eerily quiet as I tiptoed downstairs to the kitchen. Bug had saved me some cookies and I planned on eating my weight in them. The kitchen light brightened the room, and it eased the pounding of my heart. The dark and I weren’t best friends.
The cookies were wrapped up on a plate in the microwave; they hadn’t been touched since Bug slid them inside. Grabbing a cookie, I walked to the back door and looked outside. At first I didn’t see anything, only shadows and darkness. Something stirred from the corner of the backyard, and my blood went cold. No one was allowed on our property, and I knew it wasn’t Dad or Bug.
The shadow walked carelessly toward the woods. My heartbeat drummed louder, but I had to see who it was. Unlocking the door, the cookie in my other hand broke from being squeezed so hard.
“Shit,” I mumbled, brushing the crumbs from my hand. I opened the door quietly, and the humid wind hit me hard. I cupped my eyes and squinted to get a better look. “Hey!” I shouted.
The shadow stilled and turned. If I hadn’t been one foot away from the door and a lock, I would have shit my pants. “What in the hell are you doin’?”
The person bolted into a run and disappeared into the woods behind our house. Chills prickled my spine, and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was Boone. He wouldn’t have run, would he? Hell, he would have climbed the trellis like old times—but what if he had just stopped by?
Surprisingly, it didn’t piss me off like I thought it would. Knowing it was Boone would help me sleep better. But I didn’t have his cell phone number or e-mail address. Although, the way the person ran reminded of a girl. Who in the hell could it be? Sighing, I walked inside and locked the door. The backyard stayed still for the ten minutes I stood watching, waiting for the creeper to come back. But she never did.
***
The morning sun woke me at eight the next morning. My eyes burned from the lack of sleep. The creeper had me on edge the rest of the night. Once I smelled breakfast cooking, I was up and down the stairs.
Bug was sitting at the table, drinking a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. Her wild gray hair was brushed back, and I could see the same brown eyes that Jace had. “Hello, Josie. Good mornin’.”
I smiled her way and poured myself a cup of coffee. “Someone was outside last night. Was it you?”
She glanced over at me. “What do you mean? What time?”
I shrugged and took a sip. “About two in the morning.”
“Well, heavens no, it wasn’t me. I was in my bed asleep.” She furrowed her brow. “What were you doin’ up that late, young lady?”
I grinned. “Just woke up. I wonder who it was,” I mused, trailing my finger along the rim of my cup. “Do you know where Mom is?”
Bug looked at me over her paper. “She left earlier this morning.”
“Are you sure she was even here this morning?” I asked, giving her a careful glance before looking down at my coffee.
“What are you saying? That she didn’t come home last night? That she stayed out all night?”
“Well,” I cleared my throat. “She’s been gone every mornin’ when I wake up. And she was never an early bird before. So.” I shrugged again and took another sip.
Bug’s silence made me look up. “Josie,” she said, her voice dropping. “I advise you just to leave your momma alone. She’s got a lot goin’ on.”
Of course Bug was on her side—my mother signed her paychecks. She obviously didn’t know what my mother had done to my father, or how she’d treated me. “You may have worked for my mom for a year but I’ve known her my entire life. She isn’t all she’s cracked up to be.”
Bug gasped. “Don’t talk about your momma like that, Josie. She is your mother.”
Grinding my teeth together, I grabbed my coffee and stood. “Is she?”
Chapter Nine
Boone
“What are you doing? That doesn’t go there.”
Mindy jumped up and snatched the corner of the banner from my hand. “Don’t ask for help and then criticize me. Just because you’re family doesn’t mean I won’t kick your ass.”
She scrunched her nose and stuck her tongue out. She was hardly five feet but still trying to reach the top of the entrance to hang the sign. “Move it up a little, Chase.”
Chase, her new boyfriend, rolled his eyes and twisted his ball cap around to the back of his head. “God, woman. If I wanted to be bossed around I would have went to visit my momma today.”
“Stop bitching and push it up higher.” She stretched on her tiptoes but I grabbed her waist and moved her to the side. “Hey!”
“Let me do it, gnome. You’re too short.”
She sighed, pushed back her black hair, and squinted her light eyes. “Okay, up. No, to the left. Right there. You got it.”
I moved the banner until she was happy and tied it to the top of the gate. I was sure that had to be someone else’s job, but Mindy volunteered for everything and then dragged me along with her. Bossy gnome.
“Happy now?” I asked, stepping down.
“What crawled up your ass and died, Boone? You’ve been an asshole all morning.”
Yeah, I had. Running my fingers through my hair, I closed my eyes. There were a hundred million places I wanted to be, but the goddamn fair wasn’t one of them.
“I’m fine. Just tired.”
Mindy pointed for Chase to go get the rope, which earned her an eye roll, and then she turned back to me. “Something else is wrong. I can sense it.”
“You’re nosy, that’s all.”
She narrowed her eyes, stroked her chin, and tilted her face to the side. “No, there is definitely something wrong. Oh—” she stopped, pointing as they turned the Ferris wheel on and music blasted over the empty fairground. “Chase, we have to go on that tonight! Please!”
“Whatever!” he yelled, pulling the rope toward us. “I’m just ready to get some action tonight. All this bossing around deserves some damn compensation.”
Mindy smiled over at him. “Good things come to those who wait.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “You haven’t slept with him yet?”
Mindy’s cheeks turned red and she rolled her eyes. “Ever hear the saying, why buy the cow when the milk’s free? Nobody is getting any free milk around here.”
Chase groaned, but I could see he was hiding a smile. “Slave driver!” he yelled back at her.
Mindy’s grin widened and she turned back to me. “Now, back to you. You know my friend Molly?” Oh, here we go. “She has a crush on you. You know the girl from the diner?”
“Mindy, I don’t need help findin’ a date. Drop it.”
She sighed. “I want to see you happy again. Something happened this past year to make you the way you are. What was it?”
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell her, but that I couldn’t. With Mindy being my first cousin, she was in the on the ‘we hate the Sawyers’ campaign. Not her personally, but her dad, my uncle, was definitely on the list. “Look, Chase needs some help.” I pointed the other way and walked toward the supply shed quickly.
“Asshole!” she yelled at me. “He doesn’t need any help!”
“Got to go get something. Be right back.”
Jogging to get away from her voice, I rounded the corner of the concession
stand and braced my hands against the wall. Agony was tearing at my chest. You’d think a year would be plenty of time to get over a person you were only close to for a short amount of time, but it wasn’t for me. Everything about this place made me sick to my stomach.
***
Josie jerked our interlaced fingers backward until I stopped. Her eyes were wide with fear, and her fingers tightened on mine. “It’s closed for a reason, Boone,”
Smiling down at her, I cupped her chin and dragged her closer to me. The fair had shut down three hours before, but I knew my way around the grounds, and knew how to get inside.
“Don’t you trust me, Raven?”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “I hate when you say that, Tarzan. I do trust you, but I also know you don’t care if you get in trouble.”
That was true. “But I care if you get in trouble,” I said, leaning down to swipe my lips against hers.
She screwed her eyes shut and took a huge breath. “Okay, show the way.”
She followed me around the fence to the small hole on the backside, facing the woods. There was a trail from the fairground toward the back of my parents’ property and I knew it like the back of my hand. I pointed to the hole. “We gotta crawl through the hole.”
Josie tightened her grip. “Boone—”
“Stop bein’ a baby, Sawyer. I need you to suck it up and crawl underneath the fence. I dare you.”
I knew she’d take the bait; she did every time. “I can do it,” she snapped. I hid my grin and gestured for her to go first. She bent down and shimmied under the fence, wiggling her legs to help her through.
“See!” She shot up, her hair a sweaty mess. “I did it.” Her eyes were so bright I felt like I could swim in them forever.
“You did,” I said, watching her smile grow wider. “Here I come.” I ducked down and crawled through after her.
She took my hand as we walked silently through the fair. It was the kind of quiet where you didn’t want to say anything in case it wasn’t real. Empty popcorn cups and cotton candy sticks littered the ground where we walked. The crunching of our feet was the only sound.
“Is this a cheap way of taking me to the fair?”
I barked out a laughed and pulled her closer to me. “No, this is the romantic way of taking you to the fair. Now we don’t have to worry about lines or privacy or someone seeing us and telling your dad.”
She grinned, and yanked my arm toward the Ferris wheel. “Can we go on that?” She pointed.
I nodded and rubbed my thumb over her knuckles. “Yep. Come on.” We raced toward the ride like there were people to beat. “Pick a seat.”
She ran to the first seat and slid in while I started the Ferris wheel. The timer buzzed, and I made it just as the wheel started to turn. I pulled down the safety bar over us and hugged her into the crook of my shoulder. A loud song began to play on the lot, and if I hadn’t been there with her, it would have been creepy.
“You can see into town from here,” she whispered. “Doesn’t it make you want to whisper? Seeing all the stars for miles?”
Nodding, I played with a strand of hair on her shoulder. “I wish we didn’t have to hide each other,” I whispered.
Josie turned toward me and nodded. “Yeah, me too.” Sadness etched her face, so I pulled her to face me.
“I’m sorry to make you upset. I just can’t stop thinkin’ about it. There isn’t anything I want more than to show you off. When I saw Peter try to touch your ass at the football game last week—I wanted to break his nose.”
Josie grinned wide and played with the shoulder of my shirt. “Your jealousy suits you, Boone.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I’m not even goin’ to lie and say I’m not jealous because I fucking am. I hate not being able to hold you in public, baby.”
She nodded, and rested her forehead against my own. “I know, but our dads—”
“Don’t say it,” I said against her cheek. “Let’s pretend they don’t exist for a while. Okay? It’s just you and me,” I whispered.
She nodded, and leaned into my kiss, letting me guide her mouth to mine. The wheel began to slow but our mouths sped up, and we clung to each other like it was our last day on this earth.
“Please don’t leave me,” she whimpered helplessly into my mouth. “I’ve never felt like this,” she said.
My fingers dug into her skin, and my breathing became harder. “Raven, I’m not goin’ to leave you. You’re the girl I’ve always wanted.”
She smiled, but she didn’t realize the truth of it. I had wanted her long before she ever caught me in that treehouse. I’d wanted her when she was at her worst, and ached for her when she was at her best. There wasn’t anything this girl could do that would turn me away from her. I’d fallen in love with my most forbidden fruit, and it tasted like forever.
***
Josie
“You should come.”
I mentally groaned. The pint of cookies-and-cream ice cream on my lap was practically screaming my name. I’d planned on sitting on the couch and watching TV to avoid my mother. I hadn’t spoken to her since she slapped me, and didn’t plan on it.
“Thanks Bug, but I don’t really do the fair.” That was the stupidest lie I’d ever come up with. Who didn’t do the fair? Everyone loved the fair. Parts of me wanted to go and have a good time but the other parts told me to stay seated.
Bug narrowed her gaze, and shifted her large purse from one shoulder to the other. I swear she could hide a person in that thing. “Let me rephrase that. Get up, you’re comin’ with me, youngin’. You need to get out of this house. Sitting here and being sad isn’t goin’ to fix nothing.”
Ouch. Frowning, I set the ice cream to the side and stood up. “Okay, Bug. I’ll go, but only for a little while.”
She smiled and motioned for me to get ready. Sighing, I walked the stairs to my room. I pulled on some dark skinny jeans with tan boots, and a low-cut red T-shirt that made my tanned skin pop, and I loved the way it fit me—not that I was trying to impress anyone.
Bug drove us to the fair and parked in the back. The smell of fried foods and hay warmed me as we walked closer. The ticket booth was underneath a large banner that read “Hermitage County Fair” in bright red letters.
Bug pulled out her purse and paid for our tickets even though I had my money ready. “It’s the least I could do for draggin’ you out here.” She grinned up at me and looped her arm through mine, and we started inside.
Kids ran around with balloon animals, nachos, and huge prizes while the adults sat off to the side and talked amongst themselves. “What do you want to do first?” I leaned down to ask Bug.
She stroked her chin and pointed at the concession stand. “I need to go to the bathroom, I can’t hold my bladder like I used to. Can you get me a cotton candy?” She dug around in her purse and brought out some money. “Here ya go. Get you something too.”
I took the money and joined the line of waiting customers. As I stood, I took a look at everyone around me. I recognized most of the faces, but I didn’t make eye contact with any of them and kept to myself in the line.
A loud roar drew my attention to the left. Beside the game booths was a dunking booth where a semi-circle of people were gathered. “Missed!” a girl yelled at the top of her lungs. “Who else wants to dunk this fine young man today? You sir? Come on up!”
The crowd parted in the center and I saw what was happening. Boone sat in the dunking booth with a smart-ass grin on his face. Obviously, no one had dunked him yet. The man tossed the first ball and missed by a landslide. Boone tossed his head back and laughed.
Oh, God. I wanted to leave. I knew coming to the fair was a bad idea.
“You thinking about dunking him?” a man asked in front of me.
I turned and gave him a tight-lipped grin. “No.”
He lifted a brow. “Your boyfriend?”
I sneered up at the man. He was about my dad’s age and needed to mind his own business. “No. W
hy would you even think that?”
“Because you staring at him, youngin’.”
I narrowed my eyes.
He rolled his eyes and turned back to the front.
A loud splash rang out from behind me and I couldn’t help but look. A girl from my high school—Molly, I think—had hit the bulls eye and was staring in the cage at him. Jealously raced through me. Had they been dating? Or was she just flirting? My fingers clung to the cash in my hands, but before I turned back, Boone’s eyes caught mine. Dammit, now he knows I was watching him. His shirt was skin-tight to his chest, and I could make out every ridge.
I turned around quickly, trying my best to get that image out of my head. I had a feeling I’d be dreaming about him again soon.
One by one the line started to disappear, and it was safe to say I was in the homestretch. The sounds of kids squealing on rides and country music filtering through the fair were loud, but I heard his voice just as if it were quiet. “Josie.”
I turned on my heel and glared up at him. Boone’s heavy-lidded eyes were pinning me to my spot in line. Water droplets dripped down his face to his already soaked shirt. Oh shit, he looks good. The money in my hand was clutched tightly, and my heartbeat jackhammered like I was doing cardio.
“What do you want?” I snapped.
His neck muscles tightened, and his lips parted. “Is that a rhetorical question? Because I thought it was pretty damn obvious what I want.”
Heat burned my cheeks. The man standing in front of me in line turned back and gave me a grin. “I don’t give a damn about that,” I snapped back.
He gave me an amused smile. “Do you not?”