Riley's Pond (New Adult Romance) (11 page)

Anger burned through me. “Take that back!”

“
What
? You didn’t know? Why the hell do you think he’s been MIA the last couple of weekends? Shit ‘Sherlock’. Are you really that blind?”

Cade had avoided me. I always got voicemail when I called his cell and last night was the first time since school ended, he’d hung out at Barney’s. But Kaylee still hung out with me. It didn’t make sense.

“How do you know? Got proof? Kaylee’s been with me almost every day since school ended.”

“
Days,
Riley. Not nights.”

“She works nights cleaning her uncle’s dentist office, trying to earn money for a car.”

“
Every
night? How do
you
know? Do
you
have proof?”

No I didn’t. Even with Taylor slowly capturing my heart, a bigger part of my cardiac muscle burned with anger, jealousy, and fear all at once.

I swallowed the hard bubble in the back of my throat. “Damn,” I muttered almost inaudible, feeling deflated and vulnerable. “Still doesn’t change what happened between you and her. Between you and
me.”

“
Like I said, I’ve got something to tell you, but I need your solemn oath it stays between us.”

“Sure. Whatever.”

“Riley, I’m serious. This
is
confidential.”

“Okay, you have my word. Do I need a secret decoder ring, too?”

“Always the smart-ass. No, just a blood promise. I’m calling for the ‘brother code’.”

We hadn’t used the “brother code” since middle school. Any time we did something that could land us grounded for at least a year, or owned a secret we could never tell Mom or Dad without getting ourselves implicated somehow or blamed, we demanded the “brother code” on the other. It was binding. I’d held a lot of blood oaths for Jaxson over the years.

“All right. I swear.
Brother Code.
”

Jaxson leaned back in the lawn chair. “The night of the accident, I asked Ally to go with me to Brandon’s party. She said she was sick of dealing with my drunken ass and looking back, she had good reason. I’m a mean prick when I drink.

“I stopped on my way to the party for ice at the gas station, and Kaylee walked in. Riley, she rubbed herself all up my side in the chip aisle. Because I was pissed at Ally, plus sick of fighting off Kaylee, I told her if she seriously wanted some ‘Jackson action’ to be at Brandon’s at nine. She arrived at 8:30. Good thing she’s got a body because the upstairs compartment is empty.”

“So true, but I’ve never cared about her IQ. It’s always been about me trying to get in her pants and her keeping me out. I can’t believe she and Cade hooked up.”

“Don’t take it personally. Word is Cade slipped her something Grad night. She felt so cheap after and scared of you finding out, she played it out that
she
seduced Cade. Guess they’re made for each other.”

“That dumb ass! I’ll kill him, I swear.”

“Thought you didn’t care?” Jax reminded inside a smirk.

“I don’t care that she’s banging Cade, but I care about him drugging her.
That’s
not right. It’s one thing if something happens, but to force a girl, even a ‘stoned’ one who wouldn’t know the difference, makes me sick.”

“Like I said. You’re decent, Riley, and deserve better than Kaylee Baker. Especially after what I’m about to tell you.”

Jaxson launched into the ugly details of the night of accident.
All
the details, convincing me he told the truth. After he finished, I had a healthy respect for my brother. He shouldered the blame and would pay the consequences for everyone’s actions that night.

True, he did take Dad’s cruiser, but he pushed Kaylee away when she went after
Jackson Jr.
In retaliation for being rejected, she yanked the wheel hard to the right, careening the car into the town marker. Seeing Jaxson impaled by the steering wheel, Kaylee apparently took off running, but being so drunk, smacked into a tree, knocking her out cold.

Meanwhile, her self-righteous-whore-of-a-friend Shar, managed to talk an inebriated and apparently
stoned
Brandon into removing all clothing from the waist down and well, let Shar do what Kaylee failed to accomplish. When the car smashed into the marker, they also took off with everything but underwear. I imagine Brandon’s boxers are marked “Exhibit A” in a box in the basement at the station. Shar’s panties probably hung off some rookie’s rearview mirror.

Jax was also right about the information he’d passed to my safeguard. If anyone found out, a lot more lives would be altered than just his.

“So why are you taking the fall? You’re going into the
army,
Jax, for two damn years. Don’t you want some payback for taking the heat on this?”

“What good would it do? I’d still go to jail. I took the car. No one held a gun to my head. This way, the charges are dropped if I keep my nose clean and complete my tour.”

Jax looked at me with an expression showing a hint of maturity. “Someday Riley, you’ll meet a girl that you’ll do anything to make her proud.”

“Ally?” I snorted. “Really.
Ally
.”

“I love her Riley. If she never speaks to me again, I’ll be okay with that, as long as I prove to her I’m not really a selfish bastard by doing this army thing. I want her to be proud of me.”

“Well good luck with that. Hey, can you say ‘sneaky snake’ for me?”

Jaxson’s lisp became pronounced when he got excited or tried to say a series of “S” words. According to Mom, the condition appeared permanent and we were to be
delicate
with the way we approached Jax about it.
Delicate?
She had to be insane. No one in our family even knew the word
delicate,
let alone had any idea how to behave that way.

“I thould beat the thit out of you!”

I started laughing. “That works!” He cuffed the side of my head. “Okay, okay!”

We folded the lawn chairs and faced the mountain at the end of the meadow. Aspen and cottonwood trees shimmered among the dark pines at the base of the hill with the late morning breeze. Tucked out of sight inside the leafy fortress, sat the pond.

“Ever go there anymore?” Jaxson asked, sounding melancholy.

“Yeah. Went there the other day. Still the same.”

But completely different. At least to me. The pond held new personal meaning—my liquid treasure chest where I found my prized jewel, Taylor. I decided not to tell Jax about her. A part of me didn’t trust him, even after close to an hour of brotherly bonding and sworn promises. She belonged to me
.
Or at least I hoped she would. I didn’t even want her to
see
Jaxson. I couldn’t chance another blow to my heart from him.

Slowly we walked back toward the house, chuckling when we saw Mom and Dad collide trying to move away from the window so they didn’t look suspicious.

“Think they watched us the whole time?” Jax asked around a smile.

“Oh yeah,” I laughed, my gaze fixed on the grass so I didn’t step in any dog crap. I ditched out of clean-up duty yesterday, to meet Taylor. “I figure Dad’s coffee kicked in about twenty minutes ago and he’s been in pain, glued to the glass door.”

Jackson started a menacing chuckle. “Then for hell sakes, slow down. Let’s torture the old man as long as we can.”

“You better stop smiling. Hate for him to think we’re getting along.”

“We okay Riley?” Jaxson’s tone turned penitent, his steps halting.

“That depends. Do you have an
expensive
shirt I can borrow?”

Fourteen

WATER SPORTS

Taylor

Today’s agenda included my debut as a water skier. Riley and I would meet his friends at the lake to spend the afternoon boating, then cook hotdogs once the sun went down. Other contact sports were slated for after dark.

Two weeks of constant companionship with Riley had pinned my lust meter in the danger zone, and his suggestion on how to relieve the physical tension building between us centered on a sole thought.
Sex.
The problem being,
I
started thinking the same thing. However, sex to me included a committed relationship, possibly one with a honking diamond on my left hand and a china pattern picked out. But that scenario remained several hundred pages into my life plan. Not on the page “life” currently wrote.

I paced the kitchen, bouncing an orange against my palm. Grammy pulled a tin of fresh blueberry muffins from the oven and the luscious aroma filled the room. She brushed the tops with melted butter, garnishing each with a sprinkle of brown sugar. I wanted to inhale one of the steamy treats, but my stomach had coiled in a nervous knot.

“Something wrong angel girl?” she asked, putting each steamy little cake into a basket, lined with a blue checkered napkin. “I think you’ve worn a trail in my floor.”

“I’m nervous.”

“About water skiing? It can’t be that hard. Looks kind of fun.”

“Yeah, sliding across the top of water on two slats at a high rate of speed, sounds like a blast,” I replied with a sarcastic edge. “Especially if you face plant. I’ve been told the water turns to concrete over ten miles an hour.”

Grammy took my orange and placed a hot muffin in my hand. The heat seared my skin and I juggled it between my palms. “Damn, that’s hot! Do you have like asbestos hands, or what?”

“Your dainty hands have never been used for anything that could grow a callous. Toughen up.” She took two muffins from the basket, rolled them together in a separate cloth and dropped them into a paper bag.

“Take these with you. Tell Riley you made them. Boys like to know a girl can cook.”

“But I
can’t.
”

Grams held my chin in her fingers. “That’s part of a girl’s charm. The ability to lie in a disarming, bewitching manner. All a boy has to do is
think
you can cook. By the time he figures out you can’t, it’s too late. You’ve already hooked him.”

“Are you trying to play matchmaker? I thought you wanted me to cool it with Riley Martin.”

“He’s growing on me.”

I looked around the part of the house visible to me, noticing several vases of fresh flowers dotting various table tops, the fireplace mantle, and the piano. Riley brought flowers to Grammy every day when he picked me up.

“You like the
flowers,
not Riley.”

Her quilted mitt-covered-fist pushed her side. “That’s not true. Riley’s nice enough. At least he’s nothing like his derelict brother. When you said you were dating the Martin boy, I worried the slimy older one had caught you too.”

“What do you mean?”

She placed the butter in front of me and I pressed a pat to the hot fluffy center of the muffin, watching it ooze into all the tiny holes, coloring the bread dark gold. Grammy put the muffin tin in the sink to soak, took her cup of tea off the counter and pulled out the chair across from me. Her eyes concentrated on the dark liquid in her cup, rippling with the motion of the tea bag she dipped.

“The older boy is a ‘looker’. Seems to never lack for female attention.” Her eyes lifted to mine, a crease wiggling through the wrinkles on her forehead. “Talk around town is he’s a real heartbreaker, but not the most scrupulous ‘playboy’. Rumor has it he’s single handedly responsible for all the teen pregnancies in town.”

“Grams!” I gasped. “Don’t tell me
you
believe that gossip.”

Her head bent slightly, her gaze back to her tea. I could see her arched brow through her gray bangs. “I’m just sayin’.”

The doorbell rang and I scurried out of the kitchen. Behind the thousands of faceted pieces of glass welded with beads of lead, stood
my
‘playboy’. Riley. He gathered me into his arms, fusing my body to his while his lips stole a hungry kiss.

“Blueberries? Yummy.”

I towed him into the living room where Grams stood, anticipating today’s floral delivery. Riley pulled a bouquet of white petals wrapped in brown paper and handed them to her.

“Daisies! My favorite.”

Again I took inventory of the flora decorating the room. “What, not the yellow roses? Or the purple lilies? What about the orange Gerbera daisies? I thought
those
were your favorite.”

“All right missy, you’ve made your point. Now what time can I expect you to have my granddaughter home, Mr. Martin?”

“By midnight.”

“Good because you know . . .”

“Nothing good happens after midnight,” I finished in a huff. We know, we know.

She handed me the small paper bag containing our muffins. Two big grease spots had formed on the side.

Grams cocked her head to Riley. “Taylor made these, just so you know.”

“
Grammy,”
I growled.

Riley took the bag, slinging his arm around my neck. “No, I did
not
know Taylor was so domestic.”

“I’m not,” I murmured. “She’s lying. She said if a guy knows you can cook, you can snag them easier.”

Riley’s lopsided grin turned my bones soft. “I must say now I know you
can’t
cook, I may have to rethink our relationship. Food is very important to me.”

My elbow found his gut and he doubled over with a half cough.

“Thanks a lot, Grams.”

Grammy giggled deep in her throat. She slipped back into the kitchen for a vase. When she returned, she had her purse slung over her shoulder.

“I’m going with the church auxiliary ladies to play bingo in Hampton for the day. I’ll be home before you, so don’t think otherwise. I trust you two can behave?”

“Yes, Grams. We’ll be responsible
adults.
” I kissed her cheek and her eyes sent a signal she hadn’t passed on my comment.

“
Age
doesn’t automatically give you maturity. And don’t think I didn’t catch the double meaning behind “responsible” either. I’m trusting you, Taylor.” She poked her finger into Riley’s chest, “And I’m especially going out on limb with you, Mr. Martin, so don’t let me down.”