by LJ Evans
Derek backed out of the drive and started down the road.
“So, Mia, Derek says your brother owned that beauty of a car he bought last night. What the hell would make a guy give up a car like that?” Lonnie asked, and my heart snagged on a branch at his words.
“Dude,” Derek said with a warning glance in the rear-view mirror.
“It’s okay,” I said. “He used to own it. But he died.”
Silence, followed by scuffling in the backseat, and I could see the other two men hitting Lonnie on the shoulder and the back of the head like a group of teenage boys fighting over the last MoonPie.
I couldn’t help but smile, and when I looked back toward the front, Derek caught my eye with his, and my breath hitched at the concern that seemed to reside there. Egads, I was in trouble with this man. Where was Ginny Weasley’s wand and an obliviate spell when I needed one?
“Shit. Sorry,” Lonnie said, but it was muffled in his attempt to ward off the others’ pummeling fists.
“I can’t take you boys anywhere. Maybe I should drop you back off at the hotel, and Mia and I will hit the caverns on our own.”
Sudden stillness in the backseat. “You’d like that wouldn’t you? Mia all on your own in the caves. No way, man, you got yourself into this. We all get to help her now, and she’ll see that you may be the front man for this traveling circus, but you’re in no way the best of the troupe,” Owen teased.
It had been a long time since I’d been surrounded by boys. When I hung out with Cam in high school, it had been Cam, Wynn, and me and a whole boat full of them. Cam attracted boys the way roadkill attracts maggots. Not the most attractive image, but true. The guys were always all over her. Not that she cared. She only had eyes for Jake, but I think that just made it even more of a challenge for the boys. Not that she realized that either.
I kind of missed the relaxed atmosphere that normally surrounded a group of boys. My first best friend had been a boy, Harry, and I missed him. We’d become fast friends in elementary school when we’d both reached for the last Laura Numeroff book on the shelf, and we’d remained that way till his family moved to California after eighth grade. We stayed in touch, though. In fact, I was going to see him in a few weeks for his wedding. Maybe. If I could get up the courage to attend by myself even though I’d RSVP’d as Mia plus one because I was still a hopeful idiot.
Anyway, the truth was that boys were easier to get along with. They didn’t judge you as much. They just said what they thought most of the time, and if you accidentally burped or farted, they thought it was funny instead of embarrassing.
As we turned down the highway to McMinnville, I listened happily as this boy scout troop joshed and slammed each other, and my heart lightened again ever so slightly. Guilt and heartache stepping aside enough to let me breathe for just a few minutes.
My lighter heart gave way to nervousness when we pulled into the lot at the caverns. The place itself was rather unassuming, just a little ranch house in the middle of some trees. But I knew I’d be underground before long. Really far below ground, and that was enough to make my caffeinated stomach flip uncomfortably.
The guys unwrapped themselves from the backseat and pulled out equipment from the back. Backpacks, helmets with funky lights, and gear that seemed more appropriate to fishermen on Deadliest Catch than a dark cavern.
Mitch took off to the office to let them know we were there.
“I think they’ll have a helmet you can use, but let’s piece together some other gear,” Derek said as he searched through everyone else’s packs. No one seemed to mind his invasion.
Before I knew it, I had on a vinyl jacket and some wader-like pants. Everything was so large that it needed to be rolled and tucked with these wide rubber bands that had magically appeared from somewhere. Finally, Derek slung a flashlight around my neck.
Once, when I was little, the firefighters had come to our school and I’d been selected to put on the fireman’s gear. I felt like that all over again, and I knew I looked even more ludicrous than I had when Derek had shown up at the house.
Derek took a step back, and the corners of his mouth quirked ever so slightly. “I’m ridiculous,” I said with a sigh.
“No,” he said, but he was trying not to laugh.
“Is this some sort of spelunking hazing or something? Are you guys really going to wear this stuff too?” I asked.
“Caving. And we don’t do hazing,” he said.
Lonnie came around the SUV, and sure enough, he had on similar gear. “Aww. Don’t you look adorable.”
“Oh my God,” I sat down on the bumper, “I can’t do this.”
Derek hit Lonnie on the shoulder. A shoulder that must have been getting sore after all the hits it had taken on the drive over. “Don’t listen to this stupid shit.”
Mitch came back with a helmet and a bunch of papers. Apparently, you had to sign your life away and say that you wouldn’t hold the caverns responsible if you died, or passed out, or were in any other way injured on the journey. My nervousness increased to an entirely new level because, let’s face it, me dying in a cave was not an option Daddy had considered when he’d pushed me into this.
I watched as Derek drew on his own waders over his jeans. That action stopped my nervous brain cold because he was so unforgivably sexy even in a stupid fisherman outfit.
Once everyone had on these absurd outfits, they loaded the backpacks onto their shoulders, and Derek held out a hand. “Phillips, you gonna do this?”
Somehow, he had finally figured out that I was legitimately freaked out about this. I shrugged, grabbed the dirty pink backpack and the helmet Mitch had given me, but ignored his hand.
“I’m here. Might as well.”
He smiled encouragingly in response, those stormy eyes taking me in as if I was a horse about ready to bolt. Which wasn’t that far from the truth.
We met our guide, and he briefed us on the do’s and don’ts of spelunking. It seemed like we were going to be doing some crawling and ladder climbing. There was also a good chance we’d hit some mud after the summer storm that had blown through last week, so it was a good thing we were layered up. The guide promised it would all be worth it though. I was going to reserve my opinion until the end.
Then we went in.
And I didn’t have a chance to be nervous any longer, because I was immediately challenged by the space and the darkness. I didn’t even have one panic attack. Instead, I found it an interesting conundrum. How could I wedge myself through the tight darkness to the other side where I could hear Derek’s voice cheering me on? “You’re almost there, Phillips. You got this.”
Every time I got to the other side, the guys would always high five me and act like I’d just solved world hunger or something equally as important. It perked my spirit up in a way that it hadn’t been in forever. Since before Jake.
“Come on, Phillips, couple more tunnels before the big show.” Derek pulled at me.
I’m not sure why I went from Mia to Phillips in the cave. Maybe it was so the guys would treat me as one of the guys. Or maybe, like Cam’s and Jake’s coaches, it was a way of getting me to focus. I could see that Derek was coaching me through it, making sure I didn’t freak out. And it did help.
After an hour or so in, we stepped out of a dark tunnel into this huge cavern with gypsum crystals, stalactites, stalagmites, and rock formations that I’d vaguely known existed but never really thought about seeing in real life. It was like being flown to another country.
There was even a waterfall inside the rocks. It was breathtaking—cool and peaceful, like I wished my life could be instead of the mess I thought it was. I held my breath at the same time as I felt my heart expand, or maybe that was just my world.
I kind of felt like this whole cave was me. Like, on the outside, I looked just like a regular old hillside, but on the inside, I was a series of stunning waterfalls and gorgeous formations that hadn’t been seen by the m
ajority of the world. I felt like most people would just drive by, not knowing what really lay underneath.
“Crazy, huh?” Derek said, and for once, my echolocation hadn’t worked because I hadn’t known he’d come up next to me.
I just nodded.
“It’s always a good reminder to me that there’s way more under the surface of everything. People. Nature. Even music. It’s layer upon layer that gets put together into something whole that people judge for the whole, but may be way more if you take it apart and examine all the pieces.” He spoke quietly and seriously, almost as if he was in a church.
It was like he’d mirrored my own thoughts. I looked up at him. It was lighter in this part of the caverns, and while the shadows played on his face, I could still see those stormy eyes looking down on me like I was the music he wanted to see the layers of, and it both scared me and excited me. This gorgeous BB looking at me like that. Like maybe I could be my own fairytale.
I tried to remind myself that my books and fairytales were what had already gotten my heart broken once, and turned back to the next crevice.
After we’d spent about four hours underground, we came out dirty, tired, but happy into the main cavern. Where, to my utter amazement, there was a ginormous chandelier and a stage. All set up over three hundred feet under the ground!
“What?” I breathed out.
Derek laughed at my amazement and gave me a shove with his shoulder. “Never heard of the Bluegrass Underground either, I take it.”
I just shook my head. How did I not know this existed in Tennessee just a mere hour or so away from home? It was like I had been living under a rock. Not this rock, but a real rock where only grubs showed up.
“PBS puts on concerts here about once a month. What I wouldn’t give to play in this space…” he said almost wistfully, letting me see again, briefly, that there was more to this beautiful man than just a carefree attitude.
Scarily, that attracted me almost as much as his laugh and his smile.
We walked back the half mile to the main building, and thankfully, there was a restroom where I could change and wash my hands and face. The bulk of the dirt was on the outerwear I’d borrowed from the guys, but my Doc Martens were probably history.
I slid into my jean shorts and t-shirt along with flip flops. My hair was stuck to my head from the helmet, but I coaxed it back to life enough to look like a regular ponytail instead of a smooshed raisin.
When I came out, Derek was leaned up against a fence, waiting for me. The boys were nowhere to be seen.
“You cleaned up fast,” he said. He was eyeing me again in that way that made my toes want to curl up in their flip flops. “I like your shirt.” It sounded way more seductive than it should have.
I looked down and realized that I was wearing my faded “Mischief Managed” t-shirt. Harry Potter and I have always had a fabulous relationship. But it was his tone that had the red hitting my cheeks like a snowstorm hits the mountains.
“I think I’d like to know exactly what kind of mischief Mia Phillips is capable of getting into.”
I crossed my arms over my huge chest and looked away. “I don’t think I get you,” was all I could respond because I really didn’t.
He pushed himself off the fence and came closer. All my insides were screaming to run the other way. Back to the cool caverns and the place where he was calling me Phillips, and I could just concentrate on getting through a tight space to the other side.
“What don’t you get?” He reached out and tugged at the edges of my ponytail, dragging it forward and twirling his fingers into it. I looked down at those slender musician fingers and swallowed hard.
“I can’t be your normal target,” I breathed out.
“Target?” A frown covered his sensual face in a way that seemed almost foreign to him. His hand froze, still tangled in my hair.
“You know. The long line of women that you’ve clearly got trailing after you.”
He laughed, his cleft stretching in that way that made me hunger to touch it with my finger or my lips. I wondered how he could possibly be so happy so often. “Where We Land” threw lyrics in my direction because I found myself wanting him to tell me his secrets. I wanted to see what caused those brief moments of thoughtfulness I’d glimpsed. But I also wanted to let the good times flood into my life, led by this happy, sexy man, and I wasn’t sure if I loved that or hated that. I couldn’t make up my mind. I definitely knew I was afraid to free fall because where would I land if I let him take me into his spiral?
“Did Blake tell you that? He’s such a schmuck. He knows that isn’t true,” Derek said, but he was still smiling so I didn’t know if I could take him seriously or not.
“Cam told me. And Cam always tells the truth.” I pulled back and pushed his hand away from my hair and my face so that I could try to think clearly again.
“Cam?” He frowned again. “I’ve only met Cam a couple times, and I swear to God I can’t think of any woman that would have been around when she was there.”
“Okay, so why would Blake tell her you were a player?”
Realization seemed to hit him like a pebble on the water, and he chuckled again. I didn’t think there was anything funny about it. I guess only a guy would think that being a player was cool and not the turnoff it would be to a notoriously serious girl like me.
Derek realized I wasn’t seeing the humor, and his laughter disappeared. “It’s a joke,” he started. “My dad lives at the PlayBabe Mansion, so Blake calls me a player, or playbabe, or playdude or whatever he thinks will get under my skin the most.”
I realized he meant the actual PlayBabe Mansion, owned by Hugo Brantly. The guy whose magazine had made Playboy and Penthouse look like Christian magazines.
I just stared because, like he’d done multiple times since I met him, he made it impossible for me to figure out what to respond to first. There were probably a dozen follow up questions I could have asked, but it was hard to unravel them all. Instead, I felt both frustrated and oddly relieved.
I was saved from responding by my phone vibrating. As if she’d realized we were talking about her, the text was from Cam.
CAM: Jesus! Blake just told me that you went caving with the moron. Please tell me you are alive and well.
I stepped away from Derek.
“Mia,” he started to protest, but at the same time, the boys came storming out of the restrooms. They were flinging water at each other and laughing like ten-year-olds instead of the twenty-somethings they must have been.
I put more space between myself and Derek as I texted back.
ME: I’m alive. It was actually pretty amazing. Mia dirty in a cave. You would have been shocked.
My phone pinged almost instantly.
CAM: I sent that two hours ago! I was almost ready to call your mama.
I’d turned off my phone in the caverns. No signal anyway, and I’d just turned it on as I’d come back out of the bathroom so that I could post pictures on Instagram. Poor Cam. She rarely worried. Especially not enough to call Mama because she knew Mama already worried too much.
ME: Sorry. Was deep underground.
She came back with:
CAM: Seriously, who are you and what have you done with Mia?
I smiled because Mama had said the same thing last night, and I looked up at Derek as I realized that Serious Mia was out of her normal shell because of Dangerous Derek. He was watching me again. I could tell he wanted to finish our conversation, but I wasn’t ready for any of it.
“I’m starving, man,” Mitch said as he flung an arm around Derek’s neck. I wished I could be so casual with anyone. It wasn’t a normal move for me, no matter if it was someone I’d known my whole life or not. Jake used to fling his arm around me and rub the top of my head just to torment me. Brothers. God, I missed him still.
“Let’s head back into McMinnville. I read, somewhere, about a good pizza joint they have,” Lonnie sugg
ested.
“You up for pizza?” Derek asked.
“What idiot would say no to pizza?” I replied, and all the boys hooted their approval.
Derek eased up next to me as we walked into the parking lot. “Everything okay?” he asked, referring to my buzzing phone.
I nodded. “Cam was worried once she found out I was with you.”
“Goddamn, Blake!” Derek swore. “If he wasn’t already on my team, I’d swear he had it out for me.”
I smirked. “Maybe he just doesn’t like you enough to see his sister-in-law with you.”
“Who? Me? Everybody likes me.” His tone was teasing, but his eyes were serious and stormy.
We got back in the SUV, and even though I offered again to climb in the back, no one would let me. I sighed. At least they’d been taught some manners. Not everyone had. How many times had I squished into the back of Hayden’s tiny sports car while his friends rode up front?
I texted Cam.
ME: On the way to pizza with the moron and his gang. Did Blake really tell you he had a string of girls? He insists it’s a joke. That Blake is teasing because his dad lives at the PlayBabe Mansion. Don’t ask. I didn’t.
We’d driven back into town and parked before my phone buzzed again.
CAM: Seriously. Who is this? The Mia I know is not interested in scary sexy musicians, doesn’t go caving, and doesn’t hang out with a gang of boys.
This was followed by her next response.
CAM: Blake’s laughing at me. He says Derek’s dad does live in that disgusting mansion and that’s why he harasses Derek. He hasn’t seen Derek with any particular girl, but he does know that the girls love him. I’m seriously putting the man in time out.
A minute later.
CAM: Mia. This is Blake. Cam is now in time out.
Buzz.
CAM: Mia
Buzz.
CAM: Cam will not be getting her phone back for a while. Do NOT do anything stupid with the band boy. Come home. Do I need to come get you?