“Finally,” Laney said in a huff. “We need more female energy here. You know you can’t leave Maddie and me alone with all the boys.”
I pointed at the women with Brad, Andy, and Jay. “What about them?”
Her only answer was to roll her eyes.
The first thing I did was to introduce my brother to everyone, but when we came to Maddie, I asked, “No Dylan?”
She shook her head, her light brown hair shaking around her. It was curled today. As a hairdresser, she almost always had her hair done. Her bright hazel eyes were a color I didn’t think I’d ever seen before. I wanted her confidence. She was standing there with me and my brother in a black bikini that just covered the important bits but acted as if she was completely dressed. I wore a bikini but if I was up walking around, I put something over it.
“He goes to my parents’ on Thursdays in the summer. They have all the grandkids over for a sleepover. They take the kids a lot. My mom was a stay at home mom and so this gives her something to do in the summer while my dad’s at work.”
“That’s awesome. What about Ian?”
Her jaw set and she just shook her head but offered no other explanation.
No other hints needed as I pulled my brother away.
“Who is that?” he asked, glancing back at Maddie.
“Maddie Preston. She’s Zac’s baby mama.”
“But he’s with Laney.”
“Yeah. The kid is almost five now, so it was a while ago. There’s a whole story. Short version is… they co-parent, but he’s with Laney. They were never really together.”
He blinked purposely three times. “I feel like there’s more to it.”
“There is, but whatever. They were missing Laney and upset and fucked. Apparently just the one time, but she got pregnant.”
“That’s bad luck.”
I nodded emphatically. “For sure. But they all love Dylan so it worked out. And before you ask, Ian is her boyfriend. Or was. I don’t know her well enough to tell you what exactly her reaction was about. Why are you asking?”
“No reason.” He took a drink of the beer Zac had handed him.
“Tegan.”
“What? She’s hot. Why wouldn’t I ask? You say she has a boyfriend, though, so moving on… ”
We made our way back over to where Zac and Porter were laughing loudly at something I hadn’t heard. As soon as Porter saw me, he raised his eyebrows. His way of pushing me to keep my word and tell Laney we were together.
Well, everyone I’d met while in East Branch was right there, so I might as well rip the Band-Aid off.
“So,” I said when I got to her, “I probably should tell you that Porter and I are together.”
Everything on the beach stopped with the exception of the smile on Porter’s face.
“What did you just say?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips and leaning toward me, eyes narrowed. “I had to have heard you wrong.” A smile played on her lips.
“Yeah, no fucking way did you just say that,” Zac agreed.
I turned to Porter. I’d expected him to at least tell Zac… something. Apparently, I’d been wrong. He just looked at me with such innocence on his face and coupled with the fact that he was staying out of this little announcement made me want to slap him. I rolled my eyes and sighed before turning back to them again.
“I said Porter and I are together. Just thought everyone should know.” I waved my hands in the air. “Go back to whatever you were doing.”
They didn’t, though. They stood there staring at me for so long, everything inside me began to get uncomfortable. Finally, Porter threw me a fucking bone and slid is arm around my waist while casually taking a drink of his beer. As if this were something he did all the time.
It was a small gesture, but one that apparently made them all finally believe me. After far too long, they sort of returned to whatever conversations they were having before I’d spoken and I suspected that some of those turned to him and me.
“Let’s go for a walk,” Laney said. She took hold of my arms and pulled me along.
“Uh… Don’t I get a say in that?” Porter asked, tightening his hand on my waist.
“No,” she said back and tugged again.
I giggled. “Doesn’t look like I have a choice.”
Maddie followed behind her until we three were walking next to each other. Me pinned in the middle.
“Can you explain more about what you just told me?” Laney asked once we were far enough away from the group that they wouldn’t hear us.
“We’re together.”
“You’ve said that,” she snapped. “I was looking for a little more in the way of details. The how… the where… the how… ”
“The why… ” Maddie muttered under her breath.
I snorted. If only she knew the why.
“OK. Fine.” We stopped after taking a left onto some grass. I couldn’t see the group, but that meant they couldn’t see us. We could have this conversation in private. “Ask your questions.”
“Are you being held hostage?” Maddie asked.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “No.”
“Does he have blackmail material on you?” Laney asked. “Like he helped you make a dead body disappear and now you owe him?”
Again, I shook my head and laughed. “No. Why would he need that?”
“Rhian,” Laney said seriously. “It’s… Porter. I’ve told you his reputation. He doesn’t have girlfriends.”
“No,” I replied. “He doesn’t. He has one. Me.” I took a deep breath and began walking again. They were on each side of me. “Listen. I know what you’ve said, but he’s different with me.”
“Others have thought that,” Maddie said. When I looked at her, about to argue, she said, “I’m just saying.”
“But did he say they were his girlfriend?”
“No,” they said at the same time.
“Exactly. Look.” I stopped and turned to face them because I wanted them to know I was serious. This was serious. “I went to my parents’ last night and it was awful.”
“You said,” Laney agreed.
“Laney, my mother sat Aldrich Webber beside me. Kept pushing us together, probably hoping I’d fuck him so he’d get his dad to give a bigger donation.”
“Your mom’s a bitch.”
“Trust me. I know.” That was something we could all agree on. “After I flipped out on her and told her I was seeing someone, she told me that Porter isn’t good enough for me and she’d doesn’t even know him. I lost it some more. It was an awful night.”
“I’m sorry,” she said as she rubbed my arm.
“It’s fine. I’m only telling you this because when Porter found out he was mad as hell. At them. But also at me because if I hadn’t been so insistent that we not tell anyone about us, he could’ve been there to handle all of that. To take the abuse instead of me having to.”
“Wow,” she said quietly.
“He did that?” Maddie asked. I nodded. “That’s… definitely new.”
“The fact that he wanted to be there is kind of huge,” Laney said.
“I know.”
“Why didn’t you want to tell anyone?”
This was the answer that I had hoped she wouldn’t ask.
“I specifically didn’t want to tell you,” I finally admitted. “You’d warned me about him. Told him to stay away from me. I didn’t think you’d believe that this was real. Plus there’s my dating history. As I told Tegan my instincts are shit when it comes to the art of making love.”
The girls giggled with me. Exactly the response I’d wanted.
“Or matters of the heart might be a better description,” I continued. ”I choose awful guys. But Porter’s not awful.”
Laney’s tongue swept across her bottom lips and she folded her arms across her chest. “So all my warnings make it worse.”
I remained quiet, as did Maddie. Because yes, that was exactly what had happened, but I didn’t want
to rub it in her face.
Then she nodded. “OK. You and Porter… I’m not going to lie that I kind of need to see it to believe it but I didn’t mean to be so much like your mother.” She swallowed hard. “I hate that you hid something from me though.” And that’s where I knew I’d tripped her own insecurity.
She and I were a pair. We were sure of ourselves in a lot of ways but we each had this one thing that could roll our worlds to the side and fuck with our heads. I expected I’d hear about it again in the future since Maddie was with us. Laney may not want to tell me how she was really feeling with Maddie there.
Maddie piped up. “No kidding. We’ve known Porter since we were kids and he’s never once shown more than a passing interest in anyone. That’s a new side to him.”
“Well, it’s there,” I said with as much conviction as I could.
“One last question.” Laney took a step toward me. “Is he as good as some have said he is?”
I burst out into a loud laugh that I figured the guys would hear no matter how far away we were. “I can’t believe you just asked that.”
“I’ve always wanted to know, but not enough to find out myself.”
“Now you won’t need to,” I told her. “I don’t know what they’ve said, but I wasn’t disappointed.”
Both women smiled widely and looped their arms through mine as we slowly began to walk again.
Laney asked, “When did this all happen? Has it been the whole time you’ve been here?”
“No.” I shook my head. “You know we flirted last summer. Nothing happened. Then I moved here and we started talking. He kissed me in the pool at that hotel in Youngstown.”
She glanced to Maddie. “The place we stayed when we went to the butter castle.”
“Oh, right. That sounded fun.”
“Too bad you had to work. But yeah. It wasn’t anything fancy, but let’s just say it had some magic to it.” Laney’s eyes got this faraway look as she remembered whatever depraved things she and Zac done in our hotel room.
“Guess it did.” I looked over at Maddie. “They left the pool telling us not to come back for twenty minutes.”
The three of us giggled as we got closer to our group.
I had one last thing to say before we got within earshot. “I’m falling for him. It could end in the biggest heartbreak of my life, but I’m falling for him.”
Tegan came jogging up to us before anyone else really saw us. “Can I talk to you for a second?” he asked.
Maddie and Laney kept going toward the group, but I stopped in front of my brother.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“So these assholes have been harassing that poor guy since you walked away. Trying to get details from him.”
I raised an eyebrow, “Details?”
“About you. He wouldn’t give them any. Told them they could all go fuck themselves. This one was just for him.” He ran a hand over the back of his head. “He really hasn’t had a girlfriend before?”
I shook my head but wasn’t totally sure what he meant with the rest of the stuff, but at least our business wasn’t totally out there for public consumption.
“But after listening to you two at Laney’s and now him here… Rhian, you’re right to stand your ground. No guy wants the drama a family like ours can bring, yet he did. A guy doesn’t do that for just anyone.”
I swallowed hard and nodded. “So you’re saying you think he actually likes me.”
“No.” He shook his head. “He’s falling for you.”
My eyes widened. “You can’t know that.”
He shrugged. “Fine, don’t believe me. But guys can tell when a guy has it for a girl.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and dropped a kiss to the top of my head.
“At least you can’t hear his thoughts,” I said. “You’d never be able to sleep again.” I tried to keep my laugh inside.
Tegan squeezed me a little harder. “Please don’t ruin this moment for us.”
Now I couldn’t help but laugh and wrap my arms around him in a hug.
Chapter Eighteen
Tegan left super early the next morning. So early that I was barely awake when he left. I’d been asleep on the couch when he woke me so once he left, I collapsed into my bed to get a little more sleep. We hadn’t even stayed late at the pond, but I still had my lingering headache to sleep off.
By midmorning, my bladder wouldn’t wait any longer. Plus, I was hungry as hell.
After a stop at the bathroom, I went to the kitchen and made myself a bagel. Nothing had ever tasted so good. Laney joined me, obviously having already bathed and dressed for the day.
“You are getting too used to waking up early,” I told her around a mouthful of bagel.
She laughed as she pulled a juice from the fridge. “Have to. School is right around the corner.”
“Pfh. It’s forever away.”
“I was talking to Zac last night and we think the four of us should go out together. Like a movie.” The way she said it told me exactly how she felt about it. Uncomfortable, like your mom was making you kiss your Great-Aunt Edna.
“That’s OK.”
“No, really. We want to. Honestly, us being with best friends is probably the best-case scenario here. The guys get along. We don’t have to worry about it.”
“Yeah, but I don’t think you believe Porter is right for me.” I dropped my plate into the sink and finished off my glass of water.
“Me?” she asked innocently. “I love it.”
I rolled my eyes in an exaggerated way. “When?”
“Well, they both work this weekend. Again. Zac has Dylan this week.” She didn’t sound all that happy about it. “So Thursday? Dylan goes with his grandparents.”
“Fine. I’ll ask him if he’s available.”
“He is. Zac already sent a text.”
“Tell Zac thanks for asking my boyfriend out on a date for me.”
She laughed and started to walk out of the room until she turned back and snapped her fingers. “Oh, I also think you should apply for a job with this school district. The kids are getting a shitty education and you seemed to enjoy explaining the oxygen cycle to Dylan. They need teachers like us—plus, you’d be working with me.”
“Nah, brah,” I replied, but then I thought better of playing if off. “I did. They haven’t called for an interview, so whatever.”
Her eyes grew as I spoke. “You did?” She ran over and wrapped her arms around me. “Yay!”
“Nope. No yay. You heard me say they didn’t call for an interview.”
“They will. I feel it.”
“We’ll see,” I said before returning to my bedroom to get on with my day. Then it was time to shower, dress, and tackle some more job applications as well as send off some resumes. Not the most fun way to spend the day, but necessary.
The more time that passed, the more I understood that I really needed to get a damn job.
At some point, I went back to the kitchen for lunch then settled on the couch to continue the job hunt. Tegan messaged to let me know he got back fine, which I’d asked him to do. Overall, it was a boring day.
Over the weekend, with the guys working, Laney and I had an at home spa day. We smeared charcoal face stuff all over our faces, painted our toenails, watched cheesy rom-coms and laughed. We laughed a lot. Porter only dropped by once on Saturday night to give the kiss he said he’d been thinking about for days. The guys were working a bunch of overtime to cover for some other people. It sucked and they were so dead on their feet that Zac didn’t spend one night. He went home and collapsed, Laney said. Plus he had to take time to see his kid.
On Monday, Laney came out of her bedroom with her phone in her hand and a very severe look on her face.
“Did you see this?” she asked, her phone in her hand.
“See what?” I asked back as I popped a grape into my mouth.
“Zac and Porter are going with their boss to part out some old cars.”
&nb
sp; “What does that mean?” I glanced at my phone and found that Porter had indeed sent a text. I just hadn’t seen it.
“It means long hours after they just had long hours.”
“And why do they do this?” Porter hadn’t said and I didn’t know all the ins and outs yet.
“Their boss has some customers who are looking for specific parts for specific cars. Classics that they’re rebuilding. So they have a list and there a few scrap yards that let him know when classic cars come in. Or sometimes they call around. It makes them a bunch of money.”
“But they have to work more.”
“Right. It’s worth it for them because it’s a lot of extra money.”
I nodded. I totally understood that part. “But that means… ”
“Don’t plan on seeing them until Thursday. If they’re done, Zac says.” She dropped down on the couch beside me and folded her arms over her stomach like a pouting child.
I shrugged. “That’s cool. We can have a girl’s week. What do you want to do?”
At first her pouty face remained but as she thought it over, a smile began to spread over her face. I knew whatever we decided, it’d be fun.
Laney and I spent the week shopping for work clothes for her. I did pick up a few things because either way, I’d eventually get a job doing something, so I tried to stay generic in my clothing. We also did some cleaning; the house was long overdue. I continued to look for jobs but working with Laney might be fun. If I could bring myself to let go of the years of pressure from my parents and figure out that aside from them, teaching might not be so bad.
Laney and I shared a quick dinner in the kitchen Thursday night before going our separate ways to get ready. The guys were supposed to be here around seven. That was the earliest they could be ready, they said.
I’d already showered, so I took my time curling my blonde hair into loose waves, putting on date makeup, which was only a step above my regular low-key makeup, and picking out an outfit. A skirt, tank top, and sandals. Plus a hoodie in case the theater was freezing. They tended to be.
A Little More Touch Me (The Fallout Series Book 2) Page 15