Saved By You (19 page)

I smiled at them, nervously.

“Mom, Grandma, this is Haden,” I said, stepping to the side so they could get a clear look at him.

Haden stepped forward, sliding his hands into his pockets and flashing them both an awkward smile. I think it was the first time I’d ever seen him look even remotely out of place. For the first time, he looked as though he wasn’t in control of himself—like these two ladies might intimidate him.

Grandma walked over to him. Haden looked like he was about to stick out his hand to shake hers, but he didn’t get the chance to. She threw her arms around him, and wrapped him in a gigantic hug.

“It’s good to finally meet you, Haden,” she said, her voice sing-songy. My lips pursed together, hoping he didn’t think it was too cheesy.

“You, too,” he said. “Maggie’s told me all about you.”

I cringed. I hadn’t really talked about her
that
much. Maybe he was just being polite—he was doing a good job of it.

Grandma stepped to the side, and looked between Haden and Mom.

“I’ll give you some privacy,” she said, scooting past me.

Mom gave us a huge smile, and she held a hand out to him. Haden rushed to her side and took her hand in his. But, he didn’t stop there. he leaned down and wrapped his other arm around her, giving her a light hug.

“It’s good to meet you, Ms. Simpson,” he said.

Her eyes sparkled at him when he pulled back.

“You too,” she said. Her eyes searched his face for a second, and then she continued. “I owe you a bit of an apology for the way I treated you before,” she said.

He waved a hand.

“No apology necessary,” he said. Then he added, “I get it. You found a strange guy with your daughter in some place you didn’t expect her to be. Any good mother would have reacted the same way.”

She let out a tiny breath at the same time as me. His eyes were locked on her, giving her his full attention. It was the sweetest thing I’d seen in a long time. A second passed before Mom glanced at me.

“Maggie, can you give us a minute?” she said. I stared at her, cocking my head to the side. Her eyes flitted toward the doorway.

“Oh, sure,” I said.

The nerves balled up inside of me, again. She wanted to talk to him
alone
? That couldn’t be a good thing, right?

“I’ll be right outside,” I said. I gave Haden one last, timid smile before leaving. His eyes didn’t hold the same amount of fear that teetered inside me. But then, he hadn’t seen the way she acted yesterday at the party.

What kind of situation had I just put him in?

I walked across the small terrace, through the den, and into the kitchen. Sarah and Uncle Larry were sitting at the breakfast nook across from one another. They were deep in some conversation.

“Sarah,” he said, a serious look on his face. “You’re sure that moving across the country is something you want to do? It’s so far. We’ll barely get to see you.”

She gave her dad a soft smile. Then, an awkward silence fell over them when they heard me entering the kitchen. Sarah flashed a smile at me, but it didn’t touch her eyes.

“Haden get here yet?” she asked.

I sat down next to them, and began running my hands through one of the cloth napkins laid out on the table. I balled it up, then spread it out again, without realizing what I was doing.

“He’s sitting with Mom right now,” I said.

Sarah’s brow scrunched. “So, what are you doing here?” she asked.

“Mom wanted some privacy,” I said.

Sarah’s eyes went wide, but Uncle Larry gave me a knowing nod.

“He’ll be fine,” Uncle Larry said. “He’s got a good head on his shoulders—and I already put in a good word for him.”

“I hope so,” I said, though I felt a little encouraged.

Another awkward silence passed, and then Sarah turned back to her father.

“Yes, I’m sure,” she said, picking up where they left off. “I gave it a lot of thought, and I want to be closer to Huck.”

I winced when she mentioned him, wondering if her parents had figured out her real motivation for moving across the country, yet. But, Uncle Larry didn’t even flinch when she said his name.

“I just want to make sure you’re making this decision for the right reasons,” he said. “Boys come and go, but your college experience is something you’re going to take with you for the rest of your life.”

She nodded, excitedly. “And there are some great colleges back east,” she said. “I was doing some research, and found some great reviews for some of the schools.” She paused for a moment before continuing. “Even if things with Huck don’t work out, it’s not like I’ll be completely wasting my time.”

Uncle Larry considered her for a long moment, but then he nodded.

“Okay,” he said. “You know I’ll support you. I’ll talk to your mom about it.”

Sarah beamed at him, and neither one of us could help but smile back at her. She jumped up and threw her arms around him, squeezing him tight to her.

“Thank you, Daddy,” she said, rocking back and forth. He patted her on the back, and had a smile from ear to ear, too.

After Sarah pulled away, she looked back at me. I gave her a big smile. Her eyes glanced back toward the den—and toward the guesthouse.

“So, how long do you think they’re going to be in there?” she asked.

I shrugged a shoulder. “I have no idea what Mom wanted to talk to him about,” I said. “But, hopefully not long.”

Even as I said it, the outside door in the den cracked open, and we heard foot steps coming toward us. Haden emerged from the den, and he flashed me an awkward smile.

I studied him for a second, trying to figure out if something had happened, but his face told me nothing.

“Ready to go?” he said, a smile on his face.

My eyes narrowed, but I nodded.

Sarah looked between the two of us. “So where are you stealing my cousin off to?” she asked. “If you’re going back down to the river, I might have to tag along. I haven’t been all summer!”

Haden grinned at her, and gave a soft shake of his head.

“It’s not the river,” he said. “And, it’s a surprise.”

She wrinkled her nose at him, and flicked a hand. “Off with you, then,” she announced, feigning her loss of interest.

“Let me grab my stuff,” I said.

Haden followed me back to Sarah’s room where I grabbed a little bag that had my bikini, a towel, and some sun block. Probably not enough sun block—I could never had
enough
sun block. When we turned to leave, I saw a piece of paper sticking out of the back pocket of Haden’s board shorts. I was pretty sure it hadn’t been there before.

“What’s that?” I said.

He gave me a look, and I pointed at the paper.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” he said, quickly. He put his hand over it, almost subconsciously. My eyes narrowed. “Come on,” he said. “It’s getting late and we have a bit of a drive.”

He turned and rushed off without another word, and my curiosity heightened. Was something else being hidden from me?

Stop it, you can’t go around being paranoid all the time.

I shook my head, and tried to push the thoughts aside. I had other things to focus on—and needed to stop looking for excuses to get distracted.

When we climbed into the Beamer, he flashed me a smile, and leaned in for a kiss. It was a sweet and soft kiss. It was the kind of kiss you could get used to, and never live without.

“So are you going to tell me where we’re going?” I asked, when we finally pulled apart.

He grinned, wolfishly. “Ever wonder how Green Falls got its name?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t have any idea,” I said.

The corner of his mouth turned up in a smirk. “Great. You’re about to find out.”

He fired up the Beamer and pulled out of the driveway. Before long, we were cruising along a country road without a person, or building, around for miles. I rolled down the window, and held my hand out. The wind blew sharply against it, and I secretly hoped that Haden would just keep on driving—forever.

We drove for a long time. I didn’t know how long we drove along the country roads, and I didn’t care. I just wanted to be whisked away from everything. The roads snaked through the Texas hill country, and eventually the hills grew steeper, and the trees seemed to get even bigger.

The trees eventually gave way to forest, and it had been at least twenty minutes since we’d seen any signs of life. The air outside was cool against my arm, and I could tell we were slowly making our way uphill. After a while, Haden eased the car off to the side of the road, and turned down a trail that I hadn’t even seen before he made the turn.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

He gave me a wry grin, but didn’t say anything.

My eyes narrowed at him, but I didn’t press any harder. I was thrilled that he was taking me so far out of the way for something. He must have put a lot of thought into it to find such an out of the way place. I couldn’t wait to find out what it was.

But, most of all, I was just happy to be away from Green Falls for the first time in a while. The small city was beginning to feel like a cage, and it was nearly impossible to think about anything other than Mom when I was there.

Mom and Haden.

I gave him a long look while we bumped down the dirt trail. My thoughts flashed back to Kyle, and what I needed to do. But, sitting there with him, I didn’t know if I could go through it. I knew it was for the best—I knew that, if I didn’t break things off with Haden, if I didn’t push him away, he was going to sacrifice all of his dreams for me. That simply wasn’t something I was prepared to let him do. But, I didn’t know if I had a choice.

We drove along the dirt road for about five minutes before we pulled into a small clearing. He parked the car and killed the engine.

“Here we are,” he announced.

I looked around, seeing nothing but trees beyond the clearing. To the left of us, the forest sloped upward, turning into what I could only call a mountain. I’ve never really been around any mountains before, but it was certainly larger than the usual rolling hills common in that part of Texas.

I gave him a quizzical look, and he grinned at me. His eyes flitted down to the bag I’d brought along with us.

“Time for you to get in your bathing suit,” he said.

“There’s nothing out here but trees and…” I looked out into the forest again, watching a couple squirrels darting around “…and critters.”

“What do you have against the critters?” Haden asked, his face wide, aghast.

I punched him in the arm.

“You know what I mean,” I said.

He grinned at me, again. “You’ll just have to trust me, won’t you?” he said.

My mouth quirked to the side as I studied him. “And you want me to just change out here in the middle of nowhere? What if someone sees me?”

He looked around, as though searching.

“I don’t see anyone but us,” he said.

“Well, what if
you
see me?” I teased.

His eyes fell down over me, and the heat swelled through my body along with them.

“Now that you mention it—I wouldn’t mind watching.”

I punched him again, laughing along with him this time.

“Not a chance, buster,” I said.

“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before,” he said. Nervous energy buzzed in my legs as his eyes fell down to them, again.

“It’s different…,” I said, quietly.

He gave me another long look, but then nodded.

“Fine, Ms. Bossy. I’ll let you change in peace.” I smiled at him, but still felt the ball of nervous tension going through me. An image of Haden watching me change in front of him flashed in my mind, and it didn’t sound like the worst idea ever. “I’ll wait outside,” he said. “You can change in here.”

I nodded at him, and he slid out of the car. Once he had closed the door behind him, I started pulling my bathing suit out, and began changing into it. I wondered why I hadn’t just put it on under my clothes in the first place. I guess I just figured there would have been somewhere to change like there’d been at the river. Boy, was I wrong!

“Hey, no peeking,” I yelled at him. Haden snapped his eyes forward, again, and I grinned despite myself.

When I was done, I looked around before getting out of the car. I had no idea what Haden had in mind, or why I would possibly need to wear a bikini for it—but I
did
trust him. Surely, he had something brilliant planned.

When I climbed out of the car, I slid my clothes back on over my bikini, and we began walking off along the side of the dirt road we’d just been driving along.

“It’s peaceful out here,” he said, taking everything in.

I nodded. “It’s very different than Jersey,” I said.

It was startling how quiet everything was compared to the city. No horns, no people pushing past you, or calling you out. No one talking on their phones, or gossiping over lattes. There wasn’t even the sound of cars passing in the distance. There was nothing.

Just us.

We walked on in that silence for a while. Neither of us wanting to break the peace settling into us. The air was cooler still, and I draped my towel along my shoulders. Haden smiled at me as I did.

“Your mom seemed like she was in a pretty good mood earlier,” Haden said, suddenly.

I gave him a sharp look, suddenly feeling that nervous sensation in my chest.

“What did you two talk about?” I asked.

He tilted his head to the side. “A little of this, and a little of that,” he said, noncommittally.

I searched his face, all but begging him to open up to me. I could only imagine what Mom
might
have said—and I had a tendency for fearing the worst.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “It wasn’t anything bad.”

“Then, why won’t you tell me?”

His lips pursed together.

“Because she made me promise I wouldn’t,” he said.

I winced, and gave him a look of horror. What secret was she keeping from me now? Was there something else that she knew and wouldn’t share with me? Why was she bringing Haden in on it, and why wouldn’t he open up to me, either?

He grinned, as though he could read my thoughts.

“You have nothing to worry about,” he said. “She loves you, and that’s all that matters.”