Steal Me (Haunted Roads Book 1)

by India R. Adams

  Not happening. I only had one girl on my mind. “So, Jaz, is, uh, Delilah still with you, uh, by chance?”

  Jaz smiled at Pepper, who looked mystified. “Why, yes she is, and she has spotted your truck. Wanna say hi?”

  “Bailey! Let’s roll!” I practically yelled at the poor child, suddenly anxious to get to the parking lot.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” Jaz mumbled behind me as I rushed to grab Bailey’s bag because the kid wasn’t moving fast enough.

  Heading to the parking lot, Bailey and Hailey were in their own world, holding hands and discussing their day. I nudged Jaz. “What’s the story with you and Pepper?”

  “Ain’t one. I’ve been wrapped up into Pepper’s hate pile because I am best friends with Delilah, who is a sister of Tucker, who is one of Pepper’s ex-lovers. It all comes full circle. This is a very small town, Maverick.”

  “Full circle. Small town. Got it.”

  Delilah was leaning against Jazebelle’s car. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the sun shining down on the goddess. Almost to her car, Jaz said, “Careful. Pepper’s claws were reaching for ya.”

  My eyes bugged out. I couldn’t believe Jaz had said that within Delilah’s hearing range.

  “Who’s got claws for Maverick?” Delilah asked with disdain.

  Or maybe Jaz is brilliant.

  “Pepper,” Jazebelle replied without missing a beat.

  Delilah eyeballed me. “Pepper? Hmm, you like her claws, Maverick?”

  Fuck no! “No, ma’am.”

  That earned me a new smile. This one was sexy as hell and had me aching for more. “Good answer, new new guy.” I was still enjoying the smile when Delilah’s expression changed. It went serious as she looked away before facing me again. With a saddened sincerity, she said, “Sorry about lunch.”

  “Girls, want some candy?” Jazebelle was giving Delilah and me some privacy. Bailey and Hailey went for the bait without blinking, quickly following Jaz to the driver’s-side door.

  I said, “No, please don’t apologize. I’m just grateful that you talked to me, and I meant what I said… I can do slow.”

  She almost sounded scared. “Will you be my friend first kinda slow?”

  Even though that was what we kept repeating to the gang, we were truly discussing it between ourselves for the first time. It was tugging at my heartstrings. “Yes, if that’s what you want. Is it?”

  Delilah looked away again. I waited. Her leg started to bounce nervously as she delved deeper into thought. I stepped closer to her. “Delilah, it’s okay. Whatever you want.”

  Still not looking at me, with a touch of insecurity, she said, “I don’t want… my looks to… change you.”

  Not understanding what she meant, and not knowing the depth of what she was trying to tell me, gave me no option but to speak the truth. “It’s not the outside appearance of you that is changing me, Delilah. It’s something inside you that is calling to me.”

  I didn’t realize how much taller I was till Delilah looked up at me. But she was not as petite as Jaz. Delilah was a tall, solid girl, and I craved every bit of her. Including her curvy hips…

  Realizing my thoughts had exited the friend zone, I rerouted. “But if you can only see me as a friend, I’m okay with that.”

  She shook her head.

  “So, you can see me… as more?”

  “I—I’m very attracted to you, Maverick.”

  Inside, I was celebrating, but outside, I stayed quiet. My instincts said just to listen.

  She smiled. “See? I love that you give me time to think. You’re not trying to… fix me.”

  I wanted to reach out for her, to comfort her, but I held back. “I don’t think that you’re broken.”

  She laughed, but it wasn’t humorous. It was more like a burst of hurt. “That’s where you’re wrong. I’m damaged goods, Maverick.”

  I looked at the ground, thinking.

  “What?”

  “Just makes me sad to hear you say that about yourself.”

  “I’m even harder on myself on the inside, I assure you.”

  Jaz had walked the girls across the parking lot to a nearby field. Hailey and Bailey were running wild and free through tall grass, chasing butterflies. When Bailey stopped prancing, she looked so beautiful, smiling at a butterfly on her hand, that I swore I’d never forget that image.

  “What are you thinking?”

  I looked to her. “Probably wouldn’t believe me.”

  “Try me,” Delilah eagerly said.

  “I was just wondering if you ever got to run around like that.” I pointed to the girls. Delilah’s hand went to her mouth.

  I think I was begging when I said, “I need permission.”

  Delilah looked at me in question.

  “Can I touch you?” I softly asked, aching to do so.

  With her mouth still covered, Delilah slowly began to nod.

  Hesitantly, I reached out and pulled her hand from her beautiful mouth. Not only did she not pull away from me this time, but she cautiously leaned toward me. I held still, giving her time to take a giant leap forward. When her face rested on my chest, my eyes closed. Delilah had just allowed physical contact in a major way. It was a huge move in the right direction, and I wanted the moment to never end. My arms slowly circled, trying not to spook her into another retreat. Once she accepted my embrace, I rested my head on the top of hers. “Thank you, Delilah.”

  She pointed to the little girls. “I want to be that free… like that.”

  We stayed quiet for a while, watching the girls play as I rocked her. “This feels good,” I said. Her cheek rubbed my chest as she nodded, agreeing with me.

  Some moments later, she said, “Maverick, I don’t want to drag you into my world and jack yours up, but… I don’t want to miss out. You seem different. You seem to be… one of a kind.”

  “Are you asking me to wait for you?” I teased. “Because I have the ladies lining up, you know.”

  She smacked me, chuckling into my chest. “Like Pepper?”

  “That’s right. This is one hot tamale you’ve got here.” My hands cupped her face to pull her eyes to mine. “All kidding aside, Delilah, I’m in no hurry—” Her lips looked so full and moist that my thoughts began to get scattered again. “I—I am more than willing to wait—”

  Focus, Maverick!

  But her body touching me was a drug. So, so soft and fitting perfectly in my embrace. Her tongue nervously licked her lips. “Do you want to kiss me?”

  I’d been told never to lie to her. My breath was lost as I nodded.

  “Are you going to?”

  Someday. I slowly shook my head.

  Delilah pressed her cheek to my chest again with a sigh. I thought it was a sigh of relief. Then she said the best words in the world. “I promise to be worth the wait.”

  I believe you.

  Watching Bailey collecting flowers, I realized, if it weren’t for the sacrifices I’d made for my little sister, I would not be holding Delilah at that very moment.

  The next day, entering the cafeteria, I saw a girl talking to Delilah. The girl looked to be from a rich family or possibly a bubbly cheerleader type, which made me a bit nauseated. Nothing against cheerleaders, but I was just not into the overly enthusiastic kind of girls. That was the thing about Delilah: she made being chill seductive and sexy.

  Delilah saw me approaching and rolled her eyes, indicating that what was being said wasn’t her speed. The closer I got, the more I could hear the zealous girl saying, “So, what do you think? Want to be on the homecoming committee?”

  So not Delilah’s thing. It was time to earn brownie points and rescue Delilah. I hollered, “Pick me! Pick me!”

  The girl looked at me with a huge smile. “You would like to be on the committee?”

  “Been a dream of mine.” I looked at Delilah. “If you join, I want in.”

  Delilah’s jaw fell to the ground.

  I said to the cheerleader clone, “
Can I help with decor? I’m great with painting smiley faces on balloons.”

  “Uh, smiley faces?” she warily asked. The thought of me fucking up her decorating plans had this poor girl practically vomiting in her mouth.

  Then I went in for the kill. “And don’t let me get my hands on some finger paint. Whooee! That’s where my true talent lies. Truly unstoppable at that point. Oh, wait, I know! I could do designs all over the gym walls, in any colors you like!”

  Bubbly girl whimpered in horror. Delilah covered her mouth and her mischievous smile; she knew exactly what I was doing and was pleased.

  Score!

  Fancy Shoes was stuttering, “Finger paint? I—I don’t think—”

  “But I have one condition for my services,” I said because there was no fucking way I was going to be on that committee. “If Delilah’s not in, I unfortunately must pass, also.”

  I waited until the light bulb went off in Barbie’s head. She suddenly fake frowned. “Oh, darn it, Maverick! Delilah was just telling me how she’s not able to help out this year.”

  I acted crushed. “No!”

  Playing along, Delilah shrugged and told me, “It’s true.”

  I stomped my work boot, which was clearly not prom-committee material. “Damn it! I got so excited.”

  Barbie tried to soothe me, ready to bail before I changed my mind. “I know, and we would have loved to have your, uh, skills, but I totally understand. Maybe next year?”

  It was our senior year. What a dingbat.

  Barbie gave no time for me to respond. “Uh, well, I have to go. Lunchtime! Bye!” She practically ran from my awesome finger-painting ideas.

  I gestured Delilah to the lunch line. “My lady.”

  She shook her head, saying “Maverick, Maverick, Maverick” as we walked toward the line of hungry students.

  I walked behind her, quite proud of myself. “Yes, Delilah?”

  Just then, a guy walked up to her. “Hey, Delilah.” He was looking me up and down as I stood behind her. I quite possibly resembled a dog protecting his treat.

  “Hi, Jerry. What’s up?” said Delilah, seemingly unaware of my testosterone tidal wave lurking behind her.

  “Thought I would ask you to homecoming before anyone else got the chance.”

  Yes, he eyeballed me again. I wanted to punch him, but knowing that would ruin my chances with Delilah, since she hated fighters, I restrained the urge.

  “Oh, thanks for asking, Jerry, but I’m not going this year.”

  My jealous chest began to loosen again.

  Cole walked up with a greeting full of tension. “Jerry.”

  “Coleman,” Jerry replied with matching disdain. Jerry again looked at me, still standing behind Delilah, and said, “No problem. I understand.”

  I couldn’t stop myself! I was a prick and grinned at the sorry bastard, betting that he understood fully.

  Delilah never did go to her last homecoming dance, and neither did I. She talked to me on the phone all night instead. I loved her voice. It was sultry and womanly. Over the phone, I could picture her easily.

  I asked, “Do you think you will ever have another vehicle?”

  There was a pause. “I hope so. I’d like to someday be able to look at a shiny, new car and not see… him.”

  I mumbled, “You must love my truck, then.”

  I was shocked to hear her giggle. “Actually, I do. Your old, beat-up truck warms me because it has history, a past. It makes me feel not so… alone.”

  I never claimed to be a genius, but I showed potential intelligence when I almost shouted, “That’s it, Delilah. You need an old fixer-upper!”

  “What?”

  “Yes! Pick out any clunker you want, and I’ll fix it up. I’ll save your dad thousands, and you won’t be… lonely.”

  “I think… I think that V is right. You rock, Mavy.” She sounded touched.

  “Well, you know. Not to, uh, blow my own horn and all, but when she’s right, V is right.”

  Delilah chuckled. “Good to know your ego is in check.”

  “Delilah, you’d look smokin’ in a ’69 Chevy.”

  I heard her typing on her laptop. “Smokin’, huh? Let me see what you’re speaking of here… oh, Maverick, that’s it. I’m looking at a blue, old, muscle-looking car with black stripes…”

  Her voice faded in my ears as all the blood rushed from my brain to my growing cock, picturing her behind the wheel of her new, old car.

  A couple of days later, Miss Viola linked her arm with mine as she walked me to a class we had together. “Oh, Mavy Wavy, you have made someone’s big bro extremely happy.”

  “I have?” I opened our classroom door for her.

  Walking through it, Viola said, “Oh yes. He and Pretty D are spending evenings online looking for some car that Delilah was told she would look smokin’ in.”

  I grinned and struggled through another hard-on.

  V looked at Hu, who was in the desk next to mine. “Move. I want to sit next to my besty.”

  Hu smirked. “You can sit on my lap?”

  “In your dreams, punk. Move.”

  Viola sat next to me every day from that point on.

  I wasn’t too surprised when approached by a coach at the school. I’d been heading out of the locker room when he said, “Maverick, I got a call from a Coach Morris yesterday.”

  Coach Morris was my faithful trainer from a local gym back home. He wasn’t happy with my decision to walk away from it all. “Wouldn’t shock me, sir.”

  “He asked if I would talk to you a little about offers you recently turned down.”

  I guess I shouldn’t have avoided Morris’s calls. The coach from my old school had warned me that Morris was calling him also.

  My new coach was eyeballing me, as if trying to figure me out. “I felt he was exaggerating, but after I watched some videos on YouTube, I gotta say, I’m impressed.”

  “Thank you, sir, but I let… that go after my father passed. Too hard without him.”

  Coach was in thought for a moment, then nodded. “I contacted DC. That scholarship’s still on the table, son. Be a shame to pass it by.”

  I inhaled deeply, wanting to take my free ride, but…

  He patted my shoulder. “Listen, I know you’ve been through a lot, and you have some time to decide. DC was happy to hear from me and insisted we stay in touch. I was just thinking, in case you change your mind, maybe we should get you back in the gym? Keep you in shape?”

  The gym became part of my routine again, and it felt so good to be pumping weights and returning to some rigorous cardio. My body had missed the sweating and was thanking me.

  “So, college?” Delilah quietly asked during one of our morning conversations. I could tell Mr. Bristol was listening to us from his desk. The other students were quietly working on some assignment I was probably also supposed to be working on.

  “Would love to,” I replied.

  “And?”

  “Too much going on right now.”

  She reached out and grabbed my hand. “You and Bailey will find a way to have it all.”

  Damn, this girl gets me.

  “Delilah… why don’t you ask about my mom?”

  “You’ll tell me when you are ready.”

  Wow.

  Delilah said, “Hey, it’s Friday. We’re going to the Pizza Parlor. Will you come?”

  Later, carrying Bailey into the Pizza Parlor, I found our group taking up two booths against the restaurant’s front windows, being loud as usual. Cole saw me and yelled from across the restaurant, “Damn, dude, are you getting bigger?”

  Before I could reply that I’d only been back to lifting for a month, Vixen yelled, “Yeehaw! Mav is getting even hotter, if that is even possible.”

  Other patrons all turned to take a gander. My head dropped in embarrassment. Tucker, who was sitting on the inside of the booth next to Viola, threw his hands in the air as if Viola had been going on about me for a while.

 
; “Mav! Stay away from my female!” Bryce yelled. He sat squashed in a booth between Nash and Nelson and across from his girl.

  I found it odd that Tuck was sitting with Viola. Even though Tuck was the size of Nash and Nelson combined, if V had been mine, I would’ve told him to move his ass. Then I would have accepted the punch Tuck delivered, but I still would have been next to my girl.

  Picking up speed and trying to stop being the center of attention, as all the comments had strangers staring at me, I headed to the booth that had an open spot next to Hu. Jaz was tucked into the corner. I stopped when I heard a deep voice say, “Goat-boy.”

  Tucker.

  Now standing in front of his booth, I lifted my chin, not really appreciating the reference to my goatee. He smirked. Message received. “We found her car,” Tuck said. “Got a good deal. It has a solid body, but the engine needs an overhaul. You serious about helping out?”

  I looked to a bashful Delilah, who was watching me. “Yeah, I’m in.”

  “Know your way around a motor?”

  “Twisted a wrench or two.” I looked down to swallow a building lump.

  “My daddy and Mavowick would get dirty woking on engines.”

  My voice was raspy. “Working, baby.”

  Bailey nodded and reshaped her lips. “W-working.”

  “Good girl,” I said, feeling no energy all of a sudden.

  Tucker softened as if he were speaking to June. “Is that so? Did your daddy teach your brother?”

  “Uh huh. In da gawage.”

  Feeling drained, I chose not to correct her.

  Tucker nodded to me, now understanding my choking. “I’ll be in touch.”

  Cole got out of the booth behind Tucker and gestured for me to sit where he had been, next to Delilah. I tried to stay true to my word. “No, that’s all right. We’re just friends.”

  Cole sat next to Hu, who was mumbling to Jaz, “Here we go with the friends again.”

  From over his shoulder, Tucker told me, “Just sit down, dumbass.”

  Just then, Bailey dove out of my arms, screeching, “Dewiwah!”

  Is anyone listening to me?